History and Culture: Exhibition dedicated to the Russian avant-garde opens in St. Petersburg

On December 8, 2022, the large-scale exhibition The Russian Avant-garde. Art for the New World opens in the Manege of the Small Hermitage (St. Petersburg). The exhibition tells about the emergence of the avant-garde in the history of Russian art of the early XX century, its role in design up until present day.

The exposition features over 500 exhibits, including picturesque and graphic works, porcelain, as well as printed publications and costume reconstructions created according to the projects of avant-garde artists.

The pre-revolutionary period is represented by classical genres of products of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, for example, figures of the peoples of Russia based on the models of Pavel Kamensky, vases with landscapes in the technique of undreglaze decorations as samples reflecting the officially accepted aesthetics. They are contrasted with the tradition-breaking paintings of remarkable avant-garde artists: the paintings Landscape and Sketch for ‘Composition V’ by the founder of abstractionism Wassily Kandinsky, as well as one of the main symbols of avant-garde, the most famous and emblematic work – Black Square by Kazimir Malevich.

The Revolution of 1917 changed the whole social order. Avant-garde artists were given the opportunity to create a new artistic culture, revolutionary aesthetics in various field of creativity, the chance to combine art with life and production. The paintings of avant-garde leaders W. W. Kandinsky, K. S. Malevich, K. S. Petrov-Vodkin, N. I. Altman are displayed together with their projects for porcelain.

The main section of the exhibition is dedicated to the development of design in porcelain of the former imperial enterprise, which received state status after the revolution. Exquisite and fragile material – porcelain – “white gold of the tsars”, which spoke the language of the new era, became a vivid embodiment of the ideas of avant-garde artists.

Suprematist porcelain is also presented in a separate block.

The variety of creative individualities of the avant-garde masters was also embodied in the book graphics presented at the exhibition by rare publications from the Hermitage Research Library. In the hall, one has an opportunity to see reconstructions of costumes created according to the projects of artists Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, as well as samples of textiles with avant-garde drawings.

The exposition includes four paintings by K. S. Malevich from the collections of the State Russian Museum, and porcelain by contemporary artists of the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

The exhibition will run until March 26, 2023.