From Tsars to Commissars: Russian and Soviet Painting from the Russian Museum

Per Hedström Head of Exhibitions 2 October 2014 – 11 January 2015

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume 21 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Photo Credits Every effort has been made by the publisher to is published with generous support from © Palazzo d’Arco, Mantua, inv. 4494/Photo: credit organizations and individuals with regard the Friends of the Nationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum Image Archives, from Domenico to the supply of photographs. Please notify the Fetti 1588/89–1623, Eduard Safarik (ed.), Milan, publisher regarding corrections. Nationalmuseum collaborates with 1996, p. 280, fig. 82 (Figs. 2 and 9A, pp. 13 and Svenska Dagbladet and Grand Hôtel Stockholm. 19) Graphic Design We would also like to thank FCB Fältman & © Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow BIGG Malmén. (Fig. 3, p. 13) © bpk/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden/ Layout Cover Illustrations Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut (Figs. 4, 5B, 6B and Agneta Bervokk Domenico Fetti (1588/89–1623), David with the 7B, pp. 14–17) Head of Goliath, c. 1617/20. Oil on canvas, © Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Translation and Language Editing 161 x 99.5 cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund. Content Program (Figs. 8 and 10B, pp. 18 and Gabriella Berggren, Martin Naylor and Kristin Nationalmuseum, NM 7280. 20) Belkin. © CATS-SMK (Fig. 10A, p. 20) Publisher © Dag Fosse/KODE (p. 25) Publishing Berndt Arell, Director General © Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design/ Ingrid Lindell (Publications Manager) and The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Janna Herder (Editor). Editor Design, Oslo (p. 28) Janna Herder © SMK Photo (p. 31) Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published © From the article ”La Tour and Lundberg’s annually and contains articles on the history and Editorial Committee portraits of la princesse de Rohan”, by Neil Jeffares, theory of art relating to the collections of the Mikael Ahlund, Magdalena Gram, Janna Herder, http://www.pastellists.com/Essays/LaTour_ Nationalmuseum. Helena Kåberg, Magnus Olausson and Lidia Rohan.pdf, 2015-09-21, (p. 40) Westerberg Olofsson. © The National Gallery, London. Bought, Cour- Nationalmuseum tauld Fund, 1924 (p. 42) Box 16176 Photographs © Stockholms Auktionsverk (p. 47) SE–103 24 Stockholm, Sweden Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/ © Bukowskis, Stockholm (p. 94) www.nationalmuseum.se Linn Ahlgren, Olle Andersson, Erik Cornelius, © Thron Ullberg 2008 (p. 108) © Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners Anna Danielsson, Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson © 2014, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg of the reproduced works and Sofia Persson. (pp. 133–134) © Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau (pp. 138–139) Picture Editor © Museen der Stadt Bamberg (pp. 140 and 142) Rikard Nordström © Archive of Thomas Fusenig (p. 141) © Nordiska museet, Stockholm/Karolina Kristensson (pp. 148–149)

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014 4 exhibition/from tsars to commissars

From Tsars to Commissars: Russian and Soviet Painting from the Russian Museum

Per Hedström Head of Exhibitions 2 October 2014 – 11 January 2015

Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900), The Ninth Wave, 1850. Oil on canvas, 221 x 332 cm. The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg.

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Boris Grigoriev (1886–1939), Portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold, 1916. Alexander Samokhvalov (1894–1971), Girl in a T-shirt, 1932. Oil, tempera Oil on canvas, 247 x 168 cm. The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg. on canvas, 102 x 64 cm. The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg.

The exhibition The Peredvizhniki: by the Russian Museum in St Petersburg, consequences of social changes and major Pioneers of Russian Painting, which opened which has one of the world’s largest collec- wars. Many of the exhibited works share a in autumn 2011, was one of the National- tions of Russian art, and featured many of narrative quality and a strong emotional museum’s most visited exhibitions in re- its key works. expressiveness, as the monumentally epic cent years. In 2014, the Russian exhibition From Tsars to Commissars showed art ori- tone was characteristic of both 19th-century From Tsars to Commissars: Russian and Soviet ginating in a society that experienced enor- realism and Stalinist propaganda art. Painting from the Russian Museum widened mous transitions in the 150 years or so cove- The exhibition was largely chronolo- the perspective. The Swedish public now red by the exhibition; from the Tsardom of gical in structure, with 19th-century art in had the opportunity to see what came be- the 19th century, via the revolutionary years the first room, the second room covering fore and after the Peredvizhniki – Russian in the 1910s and 1920s, to the Stalin era the period around 1900, and Russian avant- and Soviet painting from the early 1800s to and the Soviet superpower during the Cold garde painting and Soviet art in the final late 1960s, a rich and multifaceted art sce- War. Visitors encountered Russian serfs, room. Konstantin Makovsky’s magnificent ne that is still unknown to many Western images embodying Orthodox Christian no- rendering, Shrovetide in St Petersburg, teeming Europeans. The exhibition was produced tions and traditions, and portrayals of the with figures, from the late 1860s served as

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014 134 exhibition/from tsars to commissars a perfect introduction to the exhibition, illustrating both the Russian cultural tradi- tion (where Shrove is an important celebra- tion) and Russian 19th century realism and pictorial narrative. The first room included several major works of Russian 19th-century art, such as Ivan Aivazovsky’s The Ninth Wave, Vasily Perov’s Pugachev’s Justice and a couple of fine genre paintings by Alexey Venetsianov. It was, of course, especially gratifying that Aivazovsky’s monumental painting could be included in the exhibition, since it is one of the most popular and sought-after works in the Russian Museum’s collection. The second room offered several truly excellent paintings from around 1910. One highlight was Nathan Altman’s portrait of the poet Anna Achmatova, a pa- inting that clearly reveals the influence of early French modernism – and especially Cézanne – on the Russian painters. Nata- lia Goncharova’s tersely simplified winter landscape was another magnificent work in the second room, along with the absolu- te masterpiece, Boris Grigoriev’s dramatic portrait of the theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Meyerhold belonged to the Russian arts scene, whose members were persecuted in connection with the dogma- tic Stalinist arts programme, and was im- prisoned and murdered for not embracing the official art doctrine of socialist realism. Interior from the exhibition From Tsars to Commissars: Russian and Soviet Painting from the Russian Museum. The internationally best known part of Russian 20th-century art history is, of cour- se, the so-called Russian avant-garde – the artists who began making purely non-figu- art and the art of the mentally ill. Filonov should be easily accessible to the great rative art in the 1910s. The reason for this was prohibited by the Soviet government masses. It should be realistically depictive world renown is mainly that these artists from exhibiting. and have a clear message. were suddenly at the front-line of the inter- Russian artists have been forced to work Modernist styles were perceived as national avant-garde. The groundbreaking for long periods under repressive regimes, bourgeois and were banned, along with art approach of Kazimir Malevich and Wassily with strict stipulations on the form and con- with religious or erotic subjects. Socialist re- Kandinsky eschewed realism and the nar- tent of their art. Under the tsar, censorship alism also entailed that art should have an rative tradition. The exhibition featured was harsh, and during Stalin’s time as Soviet optimistic, positive mood. There were ar- one work each of Malevich, Kandinsky leader, artists were expected to serve the tists, however, who nevertheless managed and Marc Chagall, but also included works regime. The approved Stalinist style was to create interesting works, despite accom- by modernists who are less well-known to called socialist realism. Paintings showed modating the demands of the Soviet regi- the international public. One example is Soviet progress and the resilience and de- me. One of the most prominent of these Pavel Filonov, who developed a distinctly termination of the Soviet people. Socialist was Alexander Deyneka, who portrayed personal imagery inspired by Russian folk realism was based on Lenin’s idea that art modern industrial settings and the disas-

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Interior from the exhibition From Tsars to Commissars: Russian and Soviet Painting from the Russian Museum.

ters of the Second World War. Among the often portrayed street life in the modern Exhibition curators: Per Hedström and most powerful images in the exhibition Soviet cities. These particular paintings by Carl-Johan Olsson Exhibition design: Joakim E.Werning was his painting of the charred remains of Pimenov can be seen to exemplify the art Lighting design: Gunnar Björs a village burned to the ground by German that emerged in the Soviet Union during Exhibition technology and installation: The soldiers. the so-called Khrushchev Thaw – the years Technical Department at Nationalmuseum, The presentation also offered several following Stalin’s demise, when the regime under the supervision of Lennart Karlsson typical examples of socialist realism in its somewhat softened its grip and gave freer Exhibition coordinator: Anne Dahlström Education officer: Lena Eriksson most flagrant propaganda version. Arkady rein to art, literature and film. Plastov’s Kolkhoz Festival shows a throng of The exhibition was designed by the Exhibition catalogue people celebrating in one of the Soviet Nationalmuseum’s designer Joakim E. Från tsarer till folkkommissarier: Ryskt och sovjetiskt agricultural collectives that were introdu- Werning, and the works were hung in måleri från Ryska Museet (Swedish edition); ced during the Stalin era. Plentiful food, consultation with head of exhibitions Per From Tsars to Commissars: Russian and Soviet painting from the Russian Museum (English edition) drink and revelling people fill the picture. Hedström, curator Carl-Johan Olsson and Nationalmusei utställningskatalog nr 672 Above the crowd is a placard with Stalin’s the research manager at the Russian Muse- (Nationalmuseum exhibition catalogue no. 672) portrait, flanked by a banner proclaiming um, Evgenia Petrova. The richly-illustrated ISBN (Swedish edition): 978-91-7100-854-1 that life has improved. In fact, the painting exhibition catalogue was produced by the ISBN (English edition): 978-91-7100-855-8 illustrates a dream of the ideal life that was Russian Museum’s publishing company, far from the starvation that prevailed in Palace Editions. This exhibition would not many of the enforced collective farms in have been possible without exceedingly the late-1930s. generous financial support from Anne- The exhibition ended with three small Marie and Herbert Lembcke and their Ad paintings by Yuri Pimenov, a painter who Infinitum Foundation.

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