Experiment/3KcnepMMeHT, 7 (2001), 265~73. THE "CONTEMPORARY ART" EXHIBITION (ST. PETERSBURG, 1903): FOUR REVIEWS1 "Contemporary Art''2 In St. Petersburg, on Bolshaia Morskaia, in fact right across from the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, an interesting art enterprise has been organ­ ized w1der the title "Contemporary Art". A small group of artists - Alexandre Benois, Igor Grabar, Lev Bakst, Aleksandr Golovin, Konstantin Korovin, Evge­ nii Lanceray, Vladimir von Mekk, Konstantin Somov, and Prince Sergei Shcher~ batov, witil tile assistance of engineer S. F. Sovin -have set themselves the task of expanding the sphere of so-called applied art in Russia and of raising the level of our art industry. In its aspiration to bring art closer to life, this group, made up primarily of young artists, has decided not to limit itself to working without any clear system, but to pool its resources with tl10se of otl1er artists working in the field of applied art. "Contemporary Art" constitutes a center where every artist who has sometiling of his own to say and the desire to say it, can work in this arena witil complete independence and freedom. The principle goal of applied art is to develop tile artistic taste of society us­ ing objects of domestic use, and "Contemporary Art" is pursuing this goal on a v~ry large scale. Not confining itself to tile production of various artistic func­ tional objects, it has gone furtiler and begw1 with tl1eir actual nsage - ·mth rooms that are lived in. TI1e entire space of "Contemporary Art" comprises a se­ ries of rooms, each of which is entirely decorated and f.mushed by a single artist. Everything, from t..he walls, the color of the wall-paper or paint, tile ceilings, floors, stoves and lighting to the furniture and decorations - is harmoniously combined togetiler, everything is created according to t..he artist's inspiration. For the present, as a ftrst experinlent, a few of tilese rooms have been created: a din­ ing room, boudoir, sitting room, a dark anteroom, and a vestibule. In each one of these rooms one senses the expression of an artist who has chosen each cor­ ner, each chair, each window. Tban..~s to tl1e development of tile "new style" in ' 1. The Contemporary Art enterprise was established in St. Petersburg in 1903 by Prince Sergei Shchcrbatov and V1adimir fon Mekk, as a combination showroom, gallery, and promotional center for new ideas in the applied and decorative arts. Its inaugural effort combined a one-man exhibi­ tion of paintings by Konstantin Somov, a display of jewelry by Rene Lalique, and an "ideal home exhibition" comprising a series of rooms, each decorated by an individual artist. Unlike its Moscow . counterpart, the Exhibition of Architecture and Applied Art in the New Style (see the preceding section in this volume), Contemporary Art was plagued by charges of impracticality and dilettan­ tism, the teren;ok designed by Aleksandr Golovin attracting particular hostility. 'Ihe enterprise soon ran into financial difficulties and closed after litde more than a year of activity. The exhibition is fully illustrated in Mir isku.rstva, Nos. 5-6 (1903). 2. "Sovremcnnoe isk-usstvo,'' Nit){l, No. 7 (1903), pp. 135-38. 266 Experimem/JKcnepnMeHT the \Vest, where it has acquired a disti.."lctive, persistent pattern of its own, it is rather difficult in this field to get the public to appreciate a new word, since the public too has already established its own cliched vJew of the new style, the "style moderne". The word that was prodai.<ned several years ago and welcomed by the art world as a IICJJ/ word, as a qm:st fot new lines and combinations, a word conditional on new technical ~.nd structural conditions (the introduction of iron into building), attracted medi{Krities devoid of talent, wbo vulgarized it v;.rith their imitations. The word of the genuine artist, carried away by its own distinc· tive impulse and suffering, by virtue of its impetuous inspiration, from not being fully applicable to reality, was improved on and augmented by mediocre artist.s and ;u:chitects, and became the very s;u"ne kind of cliche as the previous forms rlw,t had grown bming and outlived their tin1e. The artists of "Contempotary Art," evidently sensing dlis, war1ted to have their O\Vn artistic say and to bring it before the tribunal of t.\e public that under­ stands and appreciates art. ... In sccurh"'1g the patticipation of Laligue in the exhibition, "Contemporary A1:t" bas m::1dc significant progress in attracting tt~at sector of the public which loves everything refined and truly artistic. Also attracting undoubted interest are tl1c arranged and furnished rooms. The org,mizers of "Conternporary i':.1t" intend ro offer the public sim.ila:r rooms arranged in their entirety and fully decorated. To L~is end special workshops will be organized that will produce an entire interior at a more or less affordable price. For the tirne being, as a f.trst at­ tempt, it will also be valuable if well-to-do people who purchase an expensive decor from simple ~tisans, are attracted to the beautiful simplicity and stylish­ ness of the rooms at "Contemporary Art" and will arrange their homes and decor.tte their rooms, if only by following this model. It's the first push that mat­ te~rs: the contribution of these artists will really be substantial if, after visiting these .rooms, the public begins to feel disgust for t.J,.eir home-grown "Empires" ~md realizes their blatant ugliness, for this is the next step towards chant-ing the objects in their daily life by follm,ving new models. At "Contemporaty 1'\.rt" one can purchase and order each item separately, even a single chair.... In ail fairness it should be said that a significant part of everything [in the ex­ hibition] was executed by simple craftsmen. Here lies the nucleus of the whole enterprise:s viability: it is feasible. It only remains for society, for whose devel­ opment all of this has been conceived, to respond to it \Vi.th appropriate sympa­ thy. Sergei Diaghilev, "Contemporary Art"3 Under. !his broad title there has emerged on Bolshaia Morskaia an interesting and serious artistic undextaking, whose principle participants happen to be ex- · 3. "Sovremcnnoe iskusstvo," Mir ixkusstm, No. 3 (1903), pp. 22-24. .