The exhibition presents works from different years: from earliest to latest, created before his death - more than 150 works of painting, drawing, watercolors and gouaches from the collections of museums in Russia, Russian foreign and private collections

RM, 21 April - mid-August 2011

Yesterday in the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum opened an exhibition of one of the major Russian artists of the first half of the twentieth century Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev ( 1886-1939). The exhibition presents works from different years: from earliest to latest, created before his death. The exhibition includes more than 150 paintings, drawings, watercolors and gouaches from the collections of museums in Russia, Russian foreign and private collections. Such a wide and varied career of the master shown in Russia for the first time.

• Boris Grigoriev
  Portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold. 1916
  The State Russian Museum
  Source: press release of SRM

Much of the exhibition assigned topic of Russia, which worried Grigorieva life. First drawings, depicting a Russian village, appeared in summer 1916. After a year at an exhibition of World of Art "(Grigor'ev was a member of this association), the artist was presented to the cycle of" race ": the gallery of styles and landscapes of the Russian countryside, full of semantic ambiguity and psychological loading images. Rough and harsh peasant life and folklore were familiar Grigoryev on numerous journeys along the Volga, Sheksna, Svir and all drawings and oil paintings in this series were performed in the vicinity of Petrograd, and in Olonets province. Alexander Blok, the artist called it then, thinking "deep and devastating." Initially, the cycle consisted of 9 paintings and 60 drawings. The most significant are presented in this exhibition: "The old thrush," "Bowery," "Sunflowers", "peasant land" (all 1917), "Olonetsky grandfather", "Village" (both 1918), and so was the publication of the continuation of the album "Race" in 1918. It included not only painting and drawing, but also text VP Shchegoleva, N. Radlov and most Boris Grigoriev.

• Mother and ditya.1915
  Oil on canvas. 106 x 106,5
  The State Russian Museum
  Source: press release of SRM

In 1919 the artist emigrated from Russia. But the "Russian theme" in the works Grigorieva was like a living organism that is constantly evolving, overseas Grigoriev reissued "Raseyu" in Russian and French. Created in 1921 in Paris, the painting "Faces of Russia", which Western scholars of the artist called "the greatest Russian work of art since the Revolution, and he himself Boris Grigoriev believed the painting of his most outstanding work. And in 1923 the artist published a book-album of the same name («Visages de Russie, 1923). The album, except landscape and rural "types", Grigoriev placed as portraits and sketches made by him under the influence of Parisian performances Moscow Art Theatre, including "The Lower Depths" by M. Gorky, "The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky. These portraits - Basil Kachalova in the role of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (he is represented in the exhibition), Ivan Moskvin as Snegireva, O. Knipper-Chekhov's role Nastasia, Stanislavsky as Satina - made in between performances, behind the scenes.

In the early twentieth century, Grigoriev was one of the most brilliant and well-known portrait painters in Russia. Insightful look not so much the artist grasped the appearance of their models as character, habits, manners. The exhibition includes portraits of Meyerhold, , Gorky, Roerich , which have become truly image-metaphors.

Boris Grigoriev Portrait of Korovin. 1916 Oil on canvas. 63 x 72 The State Russian Museum Source: Press Release Timing

Especially prized contemporaries paintings by Boris Grigoriev, N. Punin called the "paradox of the plane." The exhibition presents the work done for the magazine Burtseva - "The girl with braids", "Passers" (both - 1911) and others, illustrations of the poem by Pushkin AV "Dangerous Neighbor" (1918), a portrait of the poet Khlebnikov (1913), portrait of Evreinova (1913), drawings, dedicated to Parisian life - "Russian in Paris" (1913), Garson (1913), "Paris styles" (1913), as well as processed Parisian sketches 1913 - 1914 ("Chantal. Paris," at the bar, two - 1918) was a series of works «Intimité». He was a devoted and self-titled album (1918).

diversely talented, Grigoriev wrote poems, created a novel and a book of memoirs, he wrote articles about art and artists. Grigoriev was a frequent visitor to literary evenings, which acted as a poet. Deep immersion in the literary milieu, tendency to verbal creativity - the reason that Gregory became one of the best interpreters of both the Russian classics and contemporary authors (Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Sasha Cherny). Not by chance, and all of its major graphic and pictorial cycles Boris Grigoriev also designed as a book.

Introduction to theater, music began at an early age Grigoriev: all members of the family played a musical instrument in the house staged home shows. Is it any wonder that the artist drew and work on theatrical scenery and costume. In particular, Grigoriev has issued a performance-grotesque Gibshmana K. and P. Potemkin «Black and white». The exhibition presents sketches of scenery and costumes for the opera by Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snow Maiden" (setting was not implemented).

artist shared the fate of many of their compatriots who have been in exile after the October Revolution of 1917 year. He lived in Berlin, Paris, visited the United States, traveled to Latin America, worked in Chile. Grigoryev was known for his work eagerly bought by collectors and museums. Because his paintings and drawings were scattered across different continents and countries. Not all of them managed to get to the exhibition of the Russian Museum.

Multimedia support the exhibition recalls the work of Grigoriev's "Characters comedy of Gogol" Inspector General "(1933-1935), sold in 2007 New York auction Sotheby's (since its whereabouts unknown), as well as large-scale project "Faces of the World", devoted to the artist League of Nations. It Grigoriev collected about thirty characters, which, in his opinion, a reflection of the twentieth century. Now the "Faces of the world are located in the Prague National Gallery.

Abroad Grigoriev had the glory of" the great Russian artist. About himself, he wrote: "Now I'm the first artist in the world. I do not apologize for these phrases. You have to know yourself, who you are, otherwise you will not know what to do. " However, in Soviet Russia itself the study of the artist-exile for a long time was not welcomed. Today the attitude toward Grigoriev fundamentally changed: the artist's paintings have become permanent participants in museum exhibits, the exhibition was organized in 1989 in Pskov in 2006 in KGallery (St. Petersburg), published catalogs and books, his works deal with many researchers.

And yet, at home art lovers are familiar with the work of the master is still not enough. The current exhibition provides an opportunity to see new facets of art by Boris Grigoriev, one of the brightest representatives of Russian culture of the first half of XX century. Many of the works presented in the exhibition, showed the Russian audience for the first time.

Source : Press Release Timing

Pictures from the vernissage of the exhibition, held yesterday, 21 April, look at the forum AI .