NB Art Newsletter ISSUE #4 February 2011

St. Petersburg seems to be the ultimate motive of any Russian trip. If is not your business destination you would come here for a day or INSIDE THIS ISSUE two and head to St.P. with relief and excitement. As for the Muscovites themselves there has been a hidden rivalry between the two cities. St. • NB Charity activities in 2010 Petersburg was envying Moscow for its business and speed of live and • MIKHAIL NATAREVICH – actions. Moscow St. Pete for its culture and architecture and fine taste. photos from the Preview of the It is amazing to what extend the Russian history still influences the mentality exhibition, September 24, 2010. of the St.Pete's residents. You do not need a guide in the museums and palaces. Any "babushka" will tell you the whole story of the place and share • THE RIGA SYMPHONY – all the details about the Tsar's family. photos from the Opening, These are mostly the women of the city which impressed us most during our November 26, 2010. trips to the art studios. Wives, widows, daughters of the painters. Impeccably • Mark your calendar: dressed, cultured, self-assured, caring about their painters-genius. Their LENINGRAD LEGACY: Avant- stories and the unlimited quality of the art raised our interest towards the garde, Formalism or Realism? Leningrad School. In September we had a very successful showing of the paintings by Mikhail Natarevich . February 5 – March 9 NB Gallery Friday, February 4, 2011 , we open our second exhibition this year devoted to the Leningrad school, with the main emphasis on the avant-garde and • Studying Russian Art. Isabelle formalist aspects of it. Sofiyskiy’s art experience in March 18, 2011 we stage the exhibit of the paintings by Vladimir Gorb and Moscow Lev Bogomolets - two greatest masters of the impressionist school. Both • Mark your calendar: exhibits show paintings which have never been shown before in Moscow and Impressionism in Leningrad. will be the highlight of the Moscow culture life this Winter. Looking forward to V. Gorb and L. Bogomolets. see you all at our exhibits, Natalia Bykova March 18. NB Gallery

NB Charity activities in 2010 DON’T MISS You can not live in the society and • being surrounded by beauty as we ZINAIDA SEREBRYAKOVA are, not see the difference which (1884-1967). PAINTINGS. To the your help might make. Since 1993 125th anniversary NB Gallery has been actively Till Sunday, February 13 participating in various charity “Dom Naschokina” Gallery programs. 12, Vorotnikovsky Lane • ARC Charity Auction in October 2010 “Please accept our warmest thanks for your kind support at the ARC 2010 Fundraising Ball. Thanks to you and your generous donation of the wonderful Bronfin painting we managed to raise in excess of $300,000 on the night, which is 57% per cent increase from last year. This excellent result will enable us to continue to provide grants for Russian charities and to improve the lives of Russian children.” Shona McGrahan and Preslava Fentham-Fletcher. ARC Directors • MPC Social Services Gala Auction in November 2010 • ANDREY RUBLEV. To the 650th “On behalf of MPC Social Services thank you very much for your generous anniversary donation of 'Wakening' by Pavel Chernov for our MPC 2010 Gala on Saturday, 13 November. The painting was a fabulous addition to our silent Till Sunday, February 27 auction and sold for a whopping $1800! This alone will, for example, pay for State , over 3000 hot meals for pensioners at our soup kitchen! We are thrilled!” Engeneering Building, Elizabeth A Owen, MPH, Development Director, MPC Social Services 12, Lavrushensky Lane, Hall 38 • American Women’s Organization Crafts Fair in November 2010 All proceeds benefit the Nastenka Foundation, supporting Moscow's pediatric cancer hospital.

MIKHAIL NATAREVICH’s exhibition Champagne Preview at NB on September 24 th , 2010

It was a very interesting exhibition and gave me a chance to learn more about a painter that I had not previously known. Hope I'll have a chance to drop by again some time and see them once more. Tony Halpin THE RIGA SYMPHONY. Opening at NB Gallery on November 26 th , 2010

MARK YOUR CALENDAR. FEBRUARY 2011 LENINGRAD LEGACY: Avant-garde, Formalism or Realism? February 5 – March 9 Russian Art experts traditionally see the Russian Avant-garde and the as two opposing poles: Moscow as the center of the artistic innovations and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with its formal Academy of Arts as the center of the classical tradition. With our exhibition we want to prove otherwise. Leningrad produced beautiful painters with the interesting interrelation of both artistic trends. This exhibition features paintings and graphics by the best representatives of the Leningrad Art School of the 20th century: Vladimir Malagis, Sergey Osipov, Yuri Podlyasky, Nikolay Baskakov, Eric Rebane, Boris Kharchenko, Oleg Lomakin, Efim Rubin, Alexander Pushnin, Igor Razdrogin… Vladimir Malagis (1902-1974) was a student of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and in his early still lives K.Petrov-Vodkin’s influence was evident. In 1926 he with his classmates founded the art society “Circle of Artists” one of the bright, peculiar and, at the same time, utterly typical phenomena of the epoch. In the broadcasting declaration the young graduates from VKhuTeMas (Higher Artistic-Technical Studios) defined the goal of their creative efforts: "creation of the style of the epoch", "Collectivism" and "community of views" seemed to be sure guarantees for the future success. There was another, no less important, argument for the foundation of this society: "impossibility of participation in other artistic societies in Leningrad". "We are former leftists…" – it was obvious that “Circle of Artists” consisted of young artists, who were influenced by "leftists" and avant-garde school. Three major exhibitions of the “Circle of Artists” were organized in the in 1927, 1928 and 1929. The exhibition of the “Circle of Artists” in Kiev, 1930, was the last one. Sergey Osipov (1915-1985) started his art studies in Leningrad in late 1930s. He belonged to the “twilight” generation of artists. They did not even pretend to create any new art society or declare their own art principles but in S. Osipov’s landscapes and portraits through peasant motifs we see monumental forms of Cezanne and geometrical constructions of Malevich very different from narrative Soviet realism. S. Osipov was extremely fortunate to have studied under the professorship of Alexander Osmerkin. A. Osmerkin (1892-1953) was not only one of the most interesting Russian artists but he had the responsibility of teaching art to brilliantly talented young art students during his career as an art professor. A. Osmerkin encouraged S. Osipov to find individuality in his creativity and endeavor to discover his own particular style of art expression. S. Osipov’s country scenes combine a special bond with nature in an unorthodox manner and express a bright individual interpretation by the artist. In 1949, parallel to the time in which Stalin struggled against “cosmopolitanism”, A. Osmerkin was evicted from the Academy because of the seemingly strong “western and avant-garde “influence within his art works and methods of teaching. The new epoch preferred the art of the "big style". One of the most outstanding graduates of the Academy of Arts who could work in this style was Boris Kharchenko (1927-1988) . In his creative works, B. Kharchenko was greatly influenced by Rembrandt and by the Russian School of Realism of the 19th century. Instead of simple, light, optimistic compositions traditional of the time period, B. Kravchenko produced dark canvases full of complex nuances. At the same time, his vigorous brushwork gives the painting life and movement. B. Kharchenko was a master of portraits. His portraits are not simply illustrations of the epoch but brilliant examples of the Russian school of psychological portrait painting. The artist intentionally kept his painting technique concealed and in doing so was one of the few artists able to bring out the depth of the image. The other graduate of the Academy of Arts – Yuri Podlyasky (1923-1987) – is considered to be the most renowned master of Soviet Impressionism. Yuri Podlyasky graduated from the Academy in 1949. His diploma work "Threshing” was purchased for the collection of the Academy of Arts and received excellent reviews in a leading art magazine of that time "Iskusstvo". Yu. Podlyasky’s art is associated with the revival of interest in Russian country life. His landscapes were as a hymn to expansive and fertile nature and his name constantly came to the forefront when referring to masters of epic landscapes. Another artist who tried to combine achievements of French painting with the barest necessity to create Soviet painting was Eric Rebane (1922-1999) . Painted in plein-air, his works are basically Realistic with a concentration on specific details but also are painted with explicit Impressionistic features. So different in their manner the artists from Leningrad school were rarely talented and sincere in their art search and this sincere faith in their mission helped them to create works, which became an epoch in the history of Russian art.

STUDYING RUSSIAN ART

Hello, my name is Isabelle Sofiyskiy and I am 13 years old. I am a student in the Awty International School, Houston, Texas. When I visited Moscow, Russia, I saw many amazing things such as the Pushkin Museum, the Icon Museum, and the NB Gallery. In the Icon Museum I saw many outstanding icons. They were made many years ago but, they are still very important to Russian culture. In the Pushkin Museum I saw many beautiful paintings, some were tragic and others were full of joy. When I visited the NB Gallery, I was very fascinated with the portrait of Lenin and the painting of Boris Godunov and his daughter. After visiting all these places I got really interested in art and I refer to what I have seen for inspiration in my drawings.

Isabelle Sofiyskiy

MARK YOUR CALENDAR. MARCH 2011 Impressionism in Leningrad: Vladimir Gorb and Lev Bogomolets – first show in Moscow We were sitting in the studio of Lev Bogomolets on Pesochnaya Naberezhnaya in the house of the painters. This house was built after the war (1961) specially for the Leningrad painters. It had two wings: one with the apartments for the painters and the other one with the big studios with huge windows. These huge windows used to fill the whole place with so much needed light in the Soviet times and filled them with cold and wind after the perestroika when heating became a problem. Lev Bogomolets (1911-2009) as one of the most prominent painters of Leningrad had both – the apartment and the studio in this building. But he never used his

spacious three room apartment preferring to live in his studio full time. He treasured his time and did not want to lose even five minutes going to and from the apartment to the studio. Lev painted all his life and had many other interests. In 2001 we were sitting with Lev Bogomolets watching the movie just made about him. It started with Lev cycling along the embankment which he did most of his life. He built real yachts with his own hands and sailed alone. He slept 5 hours a night and filled each minute with constructing and painting. Vladimir Gorb (1903-1988) had his studio on Vassilievskiy Ostrov. He was born in 1903 in Odessa, studied there and moved to Leningrad to study at VkhuTeIn (now the Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin ) in 1926. His life was connected to the city and to the Repin Institute ever since. Vladimir Gorb produced the most touching impressionistic landscapes. Even at the times when impressionism was not favored by the ruling elite he conveyed to his students the beauty of the sun and light and reflections not being afraid to be evicted from teaching. The paintings by Lev Bogomolets and Vladmir Gorb are in the State Russian Museum and many other prominent collections. The NB Gallery's collection is not vast and has some of the earliest studies by both painters. It will be an enjoyable show to which we look very much forward. The exhibit will open March 18 and we will be happy to see you all!

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