Exhibition "Small" art "

The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center presents the exhibition "Small" Art. It will show more than 130 works by Isaac Levitan, Vasily Polenov, Valentin Serov, Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Somov, Kazimir Malevich, Antonina Sofronova, Lev Bakst and other artists.

This exhibition is a collection of works that usually remain in storerooms (in folders, on shelves) after the main, "convincing" items have been selected for display. Most often, small things do not get to openings, especially if it is only a sketch or an idea for a composition.

But sometimes a small format forms the most significant part of an artist’s legacy, preserving what is most important to understand about his talent.

The exhibition "Small" Art "consists of several sections, telling about different semantic incarnations of works of small size. The first part deals with the most understandable, small sketch helper function. Using the works of Levitan, Polenov, Repin and other artists as an example, we will trace the movement from an idea in a small composition to famous canvases.

With the shift in the academic routine, the modernist art acquires a new meaning of unfinished drawing, the ease of the absence of a plot. This is the second part of the exhibition. Small paper sizes (it has a new specific weight at this time) with great clarity convey valuable evidence: the manner and consistency of the artist’s work. A quick drawing preserves the movement of the hand (sharp and very accurate in Bakst), and in the watercolors of Konstantin Somov, even without an explanation from his diary, one can see how meticulously the artist worked even on a small sheet.

“Our contemporary form in art is a research institute,” - this is how Kazimir Malevich defined the direction of the work of his entourage. In Petrograd in 1924, the Suprematists worked on the discovery of universal formulas for the world order, and each composition became their embodiment. The next part of the exhibition is about the pathos of the avant-garde, its desire to change large and small forms of objects. The exhibition will feature unique graphics by Kazimir Malevich, Mikhail Larionov, Nikolai Suetin, Ilya Chashnik and other authors of the avant-garde movements of the 1910-1920s.

"Chamber" - the last topic in the context of the conversation about "small" art - arose largely in connection with the camp miniatures by Mikhail Sokolov. Once imprisoned, the artist tried to preserve the opportunity to work using materials available in the face of persecution. This is how a cycle of tiny works, close to the format of a matchbox, appeared.

The ability to accommodate huge human experiences in a small sheet is characteristic of artists who found themselves on the periphery of the artistic space in the 1930s: Alexander Shevchenko, Pavel Basmanov, Antonina Sofronova and many others.

A program for people with different types of disabilities will be developed especially for the exhibition. For visually impaired and blind visitors, tactile models will be presented and an audio guide with tiflo-commentary will be recorded for an independent visit to the exhibition. Hearing impaired visitors will be able to take advantage of a video tour of the RSL; there will also be regular guided tours for adults and children with an interpreter. In addition, within the framework of the exhibition, the museum will prepare excursions for visitors with intellectual disabilities.

Works for the exhibition were provided by the State Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin State Tretyakov Gallery, State Museum-Reserve "Peterhof", Museum-Reserve "Abramtsevo", State Museum of Architecture. Shchusev, the Tsarskoe Selo Museum-Reserve and other museums, as well as private collections.