September Silent Auction 

This month as our silent auction piece we are pleased to present a superb drawing, "Lady with Violin", by the master Ivan Nikiforovich Stasevich, Estimated at $3,000- $3,500.

Ivan Nikiforovich Stasevich, "Lady with Violin" 13'' x 11'', 1957, Pencil on Paper  Estimated value $3,500- $4,500, Current Bid $750 S. Hilbig

Drawings have a very special place in Russian Impressionist art and are a fundamental part of the education and training process for students. A direct pass-through from the rigid academic training of a hundred and fifty years ago, all Russian art students were required by the great Russian Art Academy's to draw, draw, draw. The academy's six years of intensive academic training was built on a foundation of great drawing and a demand that every artist not just be proficient but a grand master at drawing. Good drawing was considered the gateway to great art. In some academies, first year students were permitted to do nothing but draw.  An observer to the small (but very impressive) museum at the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute Of Fine Arts, Sculpture And Architecture in St. Petersburg (the "Repin Institute"), can see academic drawings (with the grades attached) from student works dating back to 1769.

Ivan Nikiforovich Stasevich- (1929 - 1998)  

Geli Mikhailovich Korzhev

Remembering a Great Master 

July 7, 1925 - August 27, 2012 

Geli Mikhailovich Korzhev is recognized by contemporary Russian art historians as one of the most influential painters of the second half of the 20th century; his work has influenced the style and subjects of two generations of post-WW II Russian artists.

Korzhev, who was born near Moscow in 1925, just three years after Russia was convulsed by a civil war that ended centuries of aristocratic rule and launched the Communist era.   

Korzhev is a member of the first generation of Russians who were citizens of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His personal philosophy and his artistic career were both indelibly stamped by the social context and standards that defined life in the Soviet Union. He was a teenager when the Germans invaded in 1941. When he graduated from Moscow's prestigious Surikov Art Institute in 1950, the Soviet Union was still under the repressive control of Joseph Stalin. Subsequently, he observed his country's tumultuous transformation from a police state into a fledgling democracy and most recently into a capitalistic oligarchy.

As a student, Korzhev was significantly influenced by the 19th-century Russian artists and contemporary Moscow realist artists Sergei Gerasimov, Piotr Konchalovski and Arkadi Plastov. Korzhev is a strong proponent of a rigorous and structured program of artistic training designed to emphasize the elements of composition and proportion. He believed that realism represents the most effective stylistic medium through which to communicate his ideas.

Anxiety, 1965-1968

Russia's complex history informs virtually every brush stroke on Korzhev's huge canvases. He never officially joined the Communist Party and rarely executed government commissions, but he does "share the ideas of communism," he has said. He joined the official Union of Soviet Artists and chaired its Moscow branch, earning the respect of bureaucrats with his heroic portrayals of soldiers and war survivors. At the same time, intellectuals and critics of the Soviet system admired the nuanced humanism in his work, the subtle way he suggested the emotional suffering, physical pain and stoic acceptance of tragedy that ennobled the lives of ordinary people. He injected a gritty psychological authenticity into Soviet painting in the late 20th century, when artists were expected to deliver cheerful praises to the success of the communist system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raising the Banner, 1957

Old Wounds, 1967

Farewell, from the series 'Scorched by the War Fire', 1967

The Second World War became a defining event in the history of the Soviet Union and its people. Researchers estimate that approximately 30 million casualties were inflicted upon the Russian military and civilian population. The catastrophic hardships of four years of war marked an entire generation of Soviet citizens who persevered in the face of horrific conditions to transform their country from a rural, agriculturally dominated society to an international political and economic entity. This indomitable spirit characterizes the personality of Korzhev's protagonists in many of his portrait and figurative paintings. 

"Morning Study" 1958

There is a tender side to Korzhev's work as well, evident in his nudes and intimate images of women, notably "Morning Study," a lovely 1958 painting of a lightly clad woman gazing out a window. 

Girls-Portrait, 1948

Nude- Still Life,  1964

"Russians have always viewed Don Quixote seriously ... as a symbolic hero. Although a nobleman by position, he always related to the common people."   -  G. Korzhev

Don Quixote and Sancho

Don Quixote and Mill 1997

Leading Russian authors including Pushkin, Dostoevski and Turgenev positioned Don Quixote as a noble, highly motivated and well-intentioned individual who was tragically flawed, and not as a comical madman. Korzhev created a series of fifteen paintings featuring the Don Quixote theme that, as he states, was inspired by the image of his father who bore a resemblance to Cervantes' legendary character. The artist seeks to transform the moral strength of the Don Quixote character into a symbol representing the honorable and inspirational leaders of contemporary Russia; the lack of which Korzhev views as a serious loss to his country.

Homer 1958-60 left part of Triptych "Communists"

When Stalin died in 1953, the legacy of his rule was called into question. At the twentieth Party Congress of 1956 Krushchev delivered his famous speech denouncing Stalin. The new leader perceived the need to break with the violence of Stalin's rule and to pursue a more liberal politics. After 1953 Kruschev's 'Thaw' gave artists more freedom to pursue their own personal styles. In contrast to the previous idealization and romanticism, artists began to paint more objective visions of Soviet life, prompting the rise of what has become known as the "Severe Style" and 

Geli Korzhev was one of the founders of that movement. This mode of painting tended towards a chiseled, minimalist execution, as opposed to the detailed realism which had dominated the 1940s and 50s. His later work "Don Quixote's Doubt" (1994) as well as his earliest "Homer" (1958-1960) are perfect examples of the "Severe Style".  

"Korzhev supported social realism rather than "socialist realism." The social concerns in his art are palpable ..."  - V. Turchin 

Mother, 1976

Lovers, 1959

"Hostages of War", 2001-2004

In the Shadow of the Cross, 1995

Deprived of Paradise, 1998

 Korzhev suffered the death of both of his parents in 1986. The loss created a hiatus in his work for over a year that ultimately evolved into a series of paintings that deals with the broad subject of spiritual love. Korzhev's art symbolically addresses his optimistic view of the human condition and his confidence in Man's ability to overcome pain, grief and the hard labor of everyday life. The artist's characters reflect a nobility of spirit that allows them to triumph over the circumstances of their lives.

"When I paint from nature I don't switch on my fantasy and don't try to make a piece of art.  I'm not interested in landscapes themselves, but I love the individual subjects."  -  G. Korzhev 

"Gypsum and Books"

"Krynki and Hips for Jam"

Hammer and sickle 1988

Korzhev's still life paintings reflect the spartan, simplified and durable elements of life that are also captured in his figurative paintings. Unpretentious objects − soup pots, oil lamps, samovars − have individual textures, while they convey a sense of social timelessness and indestructibility suggesting that they might exist forever. The objects themselves are those found in the everyday life of the common Man, not those of an elitist level of society. For half a century, Korzhev's paintings have paid tribute to the aspirations and contributions of the common man.

A visit with Korzhev at his Moscow studio, 2010.

Geli Korzhev Installation at The Museum of Russian Art (TMORA)

Guardians of Russian Art Museums 

Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University July 25, 2012-January 6, 2013 

In the United States, many museum guards are simply employed to protect the artwork and are clearly identified by some sort of uniform.

In Russia, the traditions of a gallery guard are a bit different. Often times the guards are not paid and are free to dress as they wish. The women choose to work in the galleries and guard the collections simply because they enjoy being surrounded by Russia's great art. The women are able to request to watch over certain rooms, rotating based on where they are needed most.  

Photographer Andy Freeberg found a great interest in these women and created a project featuring these women, entitled Guardians of Russian Art Museums.

The 16 "Guardian" photographs came about when Freeberg traveled to Russia in 2008 intending to document the country's evolution since his last visit in the 1980s. But once there, Freeberg focused his lens on the retirement-aged women guarding Russia's national treasures in the art museums. Freeberg discovered that despite sitting for hours and earning little pay and even volunteering, the women loved their jobs; they were deeply proud of Russia's culture and felt honored to protect and share its treasures. He was struck by how the guards unconsciously resembled and complemented the objects in their care. The photographs emphasize how the women become part of the visitor's overall museum experience.  When viewing the paintings and sculptures, the presence of these women becomes an inherent part of viewing the artwork itself.

"They are the guardians of the country's masterpieces, but also of much more. This series of photographs reflects the singular role that these women play in both the Russian art world and society as a whole." -from the introduction by Clifford J. Levy, Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times

It's interesting to imagine what each woman's personality must be like based on which artwork she chooses. 

Kugach's Before the Dance, State Tretyakov Gallery

Veronese's Adoration of the Shepherds, Hermitage Museum

 "After a while, part of the fun became finding the [portraits] where the women and the artwork resemble each other," he said. Freeberg acknowledged that the lyrical-looking guard of Veronese's "Adoration of the Shepherds," at the State Hermitage Museum looks very much like the subject of Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring." She could also pass for an Italian shepherdess, perhaps, and in that way she is a kind of live extension of the painting.

Matisse Still Life, Hermitage Museum

Another whimsical protector can be found in front of the "Matisse Still Life" at the Hermitage. Her bold, swirly sweater and printed stockings seem to match Matisse and add an air of festivity not often associated with Russian museum life. 

Statues of Antonius Pius, Youth and Caryatid, Hermitage Museum

Rublev and Daniil's The Deesis Tier, State Tretyakov Gallery

Konchalovsky's Family Portrait, State Tretyakov Gallery

Michelangelo's Moses and the Dying Slave, Pushkin Museum

Repin's Portrait of Baroness von Hildenbandt, State Tretyakov Galley

Portrait of Y.M.Yevreinov, Artist, State Tretyakov Gallery

 Her identity remains anonymous, but her face is not. The mature woman who guards the portrait of Y.M. Yevreinov at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is emblematic, but her expression is singular. The viewer is riveted by her bare and gentle wistfulness, an expression borne of experience and memory that overshadows the painting she protects.

"It's a look a lot of the women have," said Andy Freeberg, the 54-year-old photographer whose portrait series, "The Guardians of Russian Art Museums," has become an Internet sensation.  "If they don't know you, they are not going to smile," he added. "My sense is that smiling is something intimate." Over time, the women did clearly become comfortable with Freeberg, yet their expressions still bear a certain gravitas and hard-earned dignity. 

2nd Century Mummy Masks, Pushkin Museum

Petrov-Vodkin's Bathing of a Red Horse, State Tretyakov Gallery

Nesterov's Blessed St Sergius of Radonezh, Russian State Museum

Malevich's Self Portrait, Russian State Museum

"Running", Alexander Denieka, Russian State Museum

Guardians: Photographs by Andy Freeberg, an Exhibition in Three Parts 

July 25, 2012- January 6, 2013, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Marc Chagall's Russian Roots  

The Origins of the Master's Creative Language  

Once banned as "bourgeois", the work of painter Marc Chagall is enjoying a revival in the ex-Soviet Union with a new exhibition delving into the influence folk art and his Russian Jewish roots had on his work.

   

Marc Chagall's fantastical canvases, with their floating fiddlers, two-faced cats and explosions of color-are instantly recognizable, and uniquely beloved. But where did these visions come from?

   

The State Tretyakov Gallery endeavors to answer this question with a new exhibition in honor of the artist's 125th birthday. It displays dozens of rare early graphics and paintings from his youth in Belarus, as well as mature collages, illustrations and ceramics from the 1960s and '70s, allowing viewers to trace the motifs that Chagall would continue developing until his death at age 97.

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." - Marc Chagall

Chagall was born Moishe Shagal in 1887 near Vitebsk, Belarus. Under the Russian Empire, Vitebsk was part of the "Pale of Settlement," the area to which Catherine II confined the Jews of her empire in the 18th century. He grew up in a shtetl, or small Jewish settlement; his father hauled barrels for a herring merchant, and his mother sold groceries.

  

When the 1917 Russian Revolution abolished anti-Semitic laws, Chagall was appointed Fine Arts Commissioner in Vitebsk, but a conflict with his fellow painter and colleague Kazimir Malevich led to his resignation in 1920. 

Chagall left Vitebsk and within two years immigrated to France.

Arriving in Paris, his mystical visions of shtetl life contrasted starkly with the city's then-dominant Cubism, leaving him excluded from artists' circles but attracting interest from poets such as Guillaume Apollinaire. After fleeing to the United States in 1941, he returned to France after the war, remaining there for the rest of his life.

Nude Over Vitebsk

Chagall's work was far from static. He became increasingly enamored with color, as reflected in vibrant paintings and collages from the 1960s and '70s. (The works, which were studies for murals at New York's Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Opera, are being shown for the first time in Russia.) He also incorporated images from other life experiences, from youthful Parisian nights to his late-in-life rural retreat in Provence.

  

But he would never abandon the themes of his childhood village, which was decimated during World War II. In one bold red collage from 1966, for example, there appears the familiar figure of a man playing a fiddle, looking straight from Chagall's sketches of turn-of-the-century Vitebsk.

  

"Regardless of when his works were created, in youth or in old age, he drew on the same sources," Chagall's granddaughter Meret Meyer said at the exhibition opening. 

Russian Village

One of the main components of this latest Russian tribute to the artist is a display of his family collection of portraits, never-before exhibited in Russia. The series, entitled My Life,was painted in 1922 provides an illustrative background to his family life, including all its key members, as well as a substantial references to his hometown of Vitebsk. 

  

Other notable works in the exhibition include Chagall's Bible illustrations, with their richly colored renditions of Old Testament characters, and black-and-white designs for Gogol's "Dead Souls." The latter inspired the book's first French translation in 1925. Other rare treats are the 69-piece wedding service Chagall created for his daughter Ida's marriage in 1951, which Chagall's granddaughter recalled eating borshch from, and two marble fountain sculptures from 1964.

The Exodus

"In this exhibition you can hear a certain musicality, which comes directly from the artist's soul."

  

A noted realistic, who drew both realistic and fantastical references from real life events and locations, notable Jewish references in his displayed works include repeated symbolism of menorahs and the Torah (Jewish bible). When posed the question as to whether his art was based on fantasy or reality, Chagall is recorded as having answered: "It is not true, that my art is fantastic. I'm a realist and I love normal life on earth!"

Angel over Vitebsk, 1977

Exhibition curator Ekaterina Selezneva claims the showing, which runs until September 30, "must help people to understand the mystery of Chagall", whose Russian roots are often overlooked due to his home nation's former rejection of his work. 

  

"Visitors often ask, why Chagall's animals are blue, yellow or pink, why the bride is flying over the rooftops and the man has two faces. They will now understand where Chagall drew (his images) from," said curator Ekaterina Selezneva.  

The Blue House

"It's impossible to present a complete, exhaustive exhibition of Chagall all at once," she said.

Seleznyova said the focus on Chagall's roots stemmed from responses to the 2005 show.

 

"Of course there were many positive reviews and thanks, but there were also very many questions," she said.

"Some of them were simple - 'Why is there a green goat in the painting, or a person with a yellow face?' But there were also more complicated questions about his persistent motifs." Some of the answers can be found in rarely seen graphic works from the artist's youth in Vitebsk. Drawings, watercolors and gouache paintings from the early 1900s depict everyday scenes of shtetl life. People attend weddings, play street music, put out fires and gather for meals, highlighting the warmth and community that could flourish amidst the poverty of the shtetl. The most intimate works, on loan from Chagall's descendants, depict moments from the artist's family life, such as his grandmother sweeping or taking a nap.

Rain

"The exhibition gives the strong impression that we're seeing, in essence, his diary," Seleznyova said.

To help viewers explore Chagall's formative influences, there are real-life artifacts from Eastern European shtetls, on loan from St. Petersburg's Ethnographic Museum and the Museum of Jewish History in Moscow. Next to a painting of a family gathered around a baby carriage, for example, visitors see a real carriage from the same time. Other period objects on display include suitcases, Torahs, menorahs and hair clippers.

"The Falling Angel", 1922

Getting under the skin of artist Marc Chagall

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