Exhibition "A Place in the Sun. Benkov / Feshin"

June 5, 2019 at the Museum of Russian Impressionism opens the exhibition “A Place in the Sun. Benkov / Feshin. " After more than 90 years, the works of Pavel Benkov and Nikolai Feshin - talented artists and friends whose emigration has forever shared the life “before” and “after” - will be presented together again. After the revolution, the Civil War, experienced shocks, illnesses, hunger, each of them was looking for his place in the sun, where he could freely create. And each in his own way decided the question “To leave or stay?”: Nikolai Feshin emigrated to the United States, and Pavel Benkov, who remained at home, settled in Uzbekistan.

At the exhibition “A Place in the Sun. Benkov / Feshin”East will meet with West. Spring acacia of Samarkand will be next to the noisy waves of the California coast. Oriental bazaars and minarets of old Bukhara - next to juicy still lifes and genre scenes in New York apartments. The traditional way of Uzbeks against the background of houses with drinking water and urban canal canals - next to the contrasting, colorful life of the Indians of North America.

The State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Museum of Oriental Art, the Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts (NIMRAKH) and 10 private collectors take part in the project.

The exposition will be divided into three time blocks: the pre-revolutionary period, the American period of Nikolai Feshin and the Uzbek period of Pavel Benkov. The paintings of the American and Uzbek blocks will be supplemented by unique shots of documentary chronicle of the 20-30s of the XX century, which will allow you to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the era. And two difficult and dramatic fates of talented artists, full of tragic twists and creative lifts, will be reflected in a giant timeline on a separate wall in the exhibition space.

Three paintings of different periods will become bright accents of the exposition: “Katya” by Nikolai Feshin (1912, oil on canvas, Pushkin Museum Pushkin), “Khivinka Girl” by Pavel Benkov (1931, oil on canvas, State Tretyakov Gallery) and “Portrait of a Taos Girl”Nikolai Feshin (1930, canvas, few, private collection, Moscow). Each canvas will be equipped with a “tactile interactive”: the installation will combine a plaster copy of the painting, a flask with aroma-association and a physical object related to the theme of the work. The unusual museum interactive format is a logical continuation of the inclusive program. Flasks with aromas and tactile mock-ups for the blind and visually impaired visitors are equipped with several paintings in the museum’s permanent exhibition. Inclusive panels at the exhibition “Place in the Sun. Benkov / Feshin ”will cause interest among visitors of all ages.

The theme of travels in different countries will become the main one in the educational programs of the museum during the exhibition. On traditional excursions, museum guides will tell you about a series of incredible events in the life of the main characters of the exhibition Benkov and Feshin, about how the art of everyone has changed under the influence of new places. A quest game has been developed for children, during which the kids will be introduced to the characters of artists’ paintings, and to the national traditions of the USA, Russia and Uzbekistan at the beginning of the 20th century. And the main surprise of the program will be the Puheoheo Indian game.

The catalog “Place in the sun. Benkov / Feshin "with an overview of the works of artists, scientific articles by art historians and historians. And the audio guide to the exposition for the museum’s mobile application will be voiced by the actor of the Sovremennik theater Shamil Khamatov. After the opening of the exhibition, a video guide in Russian sign language will also appear in the application.

Updates await the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Russian Impressionism. As part of the Brodsky and Kostandi special project, paintings by Kiriak Kostandi’s “Geese” (1911, oil on canvas) and Isaac Brodsky’s “Portrait of L. D. Burliuk” from 1906 will come from the Scientific Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, canvas, oil). Cloths will be exhibited from June 5 to September 24, 2019. The purpose of the program is to expand the idea of impressionism in Russian art and to tell about the Russian museums and their collections to the Moscow public. The project was launched by the Museum of Russian Impressionism in 2018.