Exhibition of the State Pushkin Museum, dedicated to the evolution of the genre landscape since the end of XVIII and the beginning of this century

State Museum of A. S. Pushkin,
29 August – 17 November 2013
St. Prechistenka, 12/2

this week at the State Museum of A. S. Pushkin opens an exhibition "Albums have become rare nowadays...", dedicated to the evolution of the landscape genre from the late eighteenth to the beginning of the current stoletiya@

the exhibition entitled the line from the poem Maksimilian Voloshin, presents about 200 items — handwritten albums of different eras and selected pages from them. The exposition consists of albums from the collection of the State Museum of A. S. Pushkin — more than 40 albums, including those that belonged to famous names, with pictures and autographs of famous artists and historical figures. Albums from the collections of Russian state archive of literature and art (RGALI), the State literary Museum, the State Museum of V. V. Mayakovsky. A very interesting part of the exhibition are the albums and their individual pages from private collections, primarily from the collection of renowned art-галереи "the Ark". "Ark" is exhibiting a lot of interesting finds in the albums and notebooks of representatives last century — turbulent and controversial XX veka@

the Tradition of hand-written albums came to Russia from Western Europe. Initially, their preparation were mostly men. Since the end of XVIII century albums have become an important element of home, family culture and an indispensable companion for young barisani@

the Heyday of the album genre in Russia was in the beginning of XIX century. In Vogue small albums in Morocco bed or leather bindings, with gilt-edged pages, elegantly decorated. The era of sentimentalism influenced the content of the "memorable books" that were filled with poetic messages and symbolic images that are characteristic of elegiac poetry. Between landscape pages often enclosed pressed flowers and leaves — they, like Pushkin's "the flower, dried, Bethany", were associated to the owner with expensive vospominaniyami@

Albums cannot be separated from the lifestyle of the nobility and aristocracy of the nineteenth century. They are not only born of noble culture, but, in fact, are and its mirror — an invaluable source of information about past era. Landscape pages not only preserved the images of manor houses and their interiors, portraits of owners, household members, close friends, and talked about their life, about the nature of the owners, the level and style of their obsheniya@

One of the most interesting exhibits is the album of the Bakunin family-Полторацких. Its first owners were Pavel Petrovich Bakunin —-known diplomat and his wife Ekaterina Aleksandrovna, nee sablukova. Text in the album is almost there, but the pictures — abound: views of cities, landscapes, portraits, including works by famous European artists, which had a chance to communicate Bakunin in 1790-х, on the way from Russia to England. Later in the same album drew Bakunin daughter Catherine, and fell in love with Pushkin the Lyceum student. The last owner of the relics, who left there mark, was her granddaughter Faith Koh@

Another will showcase a remarkable album from the collection of the Pushkin Museum once belonged to the President of the Academy of arts, Director of the Imperial public library Alexei Venison, most of which have been and Krylov, Griboyedov, and Briullov, Glinka. On some pages of this unique album pasted autographs — in particular, Alexander I and the chief of gendarmes, count Benkendorf. But the most valuable thing in the album, of course, the pictures: and the owner, and guests of the house Olenin. In total, it includes 67 drawings — watercolors, landscapes, allegorical and genre scenes, portraits (including "Woman in an Oriental costume" Prince Grigory Gagarin, Italian sketches Alexander Briullov and other).

as we approach the twentieth century secular fun doing memorable albums transformed into a particular, consciously chosen form of artistic expression created by professional artists. Often the album has been one of the tools of a rapidly changing visual impressions — companion of travel and creative journeys. Happened, the reference to the genre of the album was motivated by the special conditions of life, such as getting into some special, closed living conditions (barracks, trenches, even prison). Given the characteristics of the turbulent Russian history of the XX century, the genre of "mobile draw" in the travel albums can be considered quite appropriate way to reflect the existence of our compatriots in the past weke@

a Special theme — albums artists-живописцев. As a rule, their authors wanted to publish their own creative cuisine. However, working with archives of very different artists showed a trend: going in a creative or different trip, a rare artist without an album. After all, it was possible not only to make travel sketches, and words to write his impressions about what he saw (e.g., shape or color) — for further work in the Studio. The habit of doing sketches (so here, in a purely professional way to respond to the surrounding reality) transformed the work of artists albums in a continuous "diary" — narration about the everyday life, and now, through the decades to give viewers the feeling of three important aspects of time: its length, its author living and uniqueness apochi@

in addition, since the beginning of the twentieth century, pioneering discoveries of avant-garde poets and artists led to the emergence of completely new forms of art, combining radical artistic language and traditional paper media. Modern art visualize time and space; relevance does not require artists puritanical allegiance to the new media. As it turns out, to talk about the present with equal success can and pedi-мейд, and "the genre of the album".

Source: press-релиз GMP