Exhibition "Masterpieces of Russian Art from American Collections"

From 4 to 23 November 2021, the exhibition "Masterpieces of Russian Art from American Collections" will be held in the halls of the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts, organized by the ABA Gallery in New York.

The exposition will include works of art by the greatest masters of Russian painting: Abram Arkhipov, Philip Malyavin, Konstantin Korovin, Nicholas Roerich, Mikhail Larionov, Alexander Yakovlev, Boris Grigoriev, David Burliuk, Ivan Puni, Robert Falk, Alexandra Exter and others.

The ABA Gallery is one of the most competent foreign organizations engaged in the popularization and promotion of Russian art and culture in the West, over 35 years the gallery has organized dozens of exhibitions in Western and Russian museums and hundreds of thousands of people were able to see and appreciate the beauty and originality of Russian art. The founders of the gallery strive not only to collect, but also to study the artistic heritage of the Russian diaspora, as well as the work of individual representatives of a whole layer of culture lost by Russia in the post-revolutionary years. The gallery’s regular exhibitions in Moscow fill this gap, contributing to the return of works by Russian artists that were taken out of the country at various times.

The new project involves about 70 works covering two centuries of Russian art, from Ivan Aivazovsky to Oleg Tselkov and Edward Beckerman. The landscape school of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries is represented by such famous names as Nikolai Dubovskaya, Vladimir Fedorovich, Alexander Makovsky and Konstantin Gorbatov. The main core of this section is made up of works by Konstantin Korovin of different years, among which the early masterpiece "Gurzuf" of 1912, works from the famous series "Paris Boulevards" and a wonderful portrait of an elegant woman should be especially noted.

This series is successfully complemented by two paintings by Sergei Vinogradov, who went down in history not only as a landscape painter, but also as a consultant to the famous collectors of French modernism paintings, Ivan and Mikhail Morozov. However, the most significant work and the central exhibit of the exhibition is a spectacular large-scale painting by one of the younger Wanderers and founders of the Union of Russian Artists Association Abram Arkhipov "Peasant Women on the Shore" from the famous "Tradeswoman" series. The works from this series are distinguished by their large format, which is exceptional for the work of this master. The size of the canvas "Peasant women on the shore" (100.5 x 189 cm) evokes in memory Abram Efros’s enthusiastic reaction to a picture similar in format and composition from the same series that was presented at the exhibition "Union of Russian Artists" in 1913:“The unusually large scale of Arkhipov’s skillful canvases. After all, a meter by two, he did not have such dimensions before! "

Among the younger generation, the central place is occupied by an extensive block of works by David Burliuk, which covers his work, including works of the Japanese, Russian and American periods. The exhibition will include more than ten paintings by the artist, from early cubo-futurist compositions to American portraits of the 1920s and an expressive still life painted in 1948. Particularly noteworthy is the portrait of Vasily Kamensky in 1917, which for a long time was considered lost.

This selection will be complemented by works by other representatives of the Russian avant-garde: "Portrait of a Mother" by Vladimir Burliuk in 1909, works of unique quality by Robert Falk, Ivan Puni, Alexandra Exter, Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Vladimir Baranov-Rossine, as well as the canvas "Judgment of Paris" )1912) Boris Anisfeld is the earliest surviving work depicting mythological and biblical scenes created by the artist throughout the 1910s (Gardens of Eden, Shulamith, Rebekah at the Well, etc.). All the works of this cycle are characterized by the use of certain techniques of "moderate" cubism by A. Derain and O. Friez.

The still lifes of Boris Grigoriev, Alexander Yakovlev’s sanguine "Sumo Wrestler", which for a long time were kept in the family of the artist’s sister in Paris, a rare work for the Russian viewer by Maria Marevna, and two American landscapes - "American Idyll" by Sergei Sudeikin and " Monagan, Maine ”by Nicholas Roerich. However, the most interesting is Roerich’s earlier work “Pechora. Internal entrance with an old belfry ", which belongs to the" Architectural series ", created during the artist’s travels across Russia in 1903-1904. Roerich painted from life, so he brought mostly small-format studies on plywood from his travels. However, "Pechory" is a full-size finished canvas. After an exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1904, Emperor Nicholas II ordered the purchase of the painting at the Russian Museum.However, Roerich, who dreamed of international fame, decided to first send the work on a world tour. The painting was taken to Paris and London, and then included in a large project at the World Exhibition in St. Louis, USA in 1904. She never returned from America - because of the fraud of the organizer of the exhibition, Edward Grunwaldt, who secretly sold out the exhibits of the Russian participants and appropriated money for himself. It is known that the artist has repeatedly tried to return the canvas to Russia.secretly sold out the exhibits of the Russian participants and appropriated money for himself. It is known that the artist has repeatedly tried to return the canvas to Russia.secretly sold out the exhibits of the Russian participants and appropriated money for himself. It is known that the artist has repeatedly tried to return the canvas to Russia.

“Now, when exhibition exchanges between countries have been forcedly frozen, it seems to us especially important to remind both collectors and viewers of the incredible potential of Russian art, and of the new prospects that are opening up for private galleries. I am glad that in November 2021 Muscovites and guests of the capital will have the opportunity to see masterpieces of Russian art that have not been shown in Russia for about 100 years, ”said Anatoly Bekkerman, owner of the ABA gallery in New York, on the eve of the exhibition.