Dedication to Elena Guro. 100th anniversary of her death.
from 6 June 2013 to 31 August 2013
Exhibition of works of contemporary artists.
The exhibition is dedicated to Elena Genrikhovna Guro (1877–1913) – a talented Russian artist and poet of the beginning of the XXth century, member of a futurist poet group “Gileia” and one of the creators of St Petersburg artist union “Soiuz molodezhi” (Youth union). Elena Guro together with her husband, artist Mikhail Matiushin, is considered to be the founder of the organic style in Russian avant-garde.
Elena Guro was born noble in St Petersburg. In 1900s she attended private studios of Jan Ciągliński and Elena Zvanceva; was a student of Mikhail Dobuzhinsky and Lev Bakst.
Her interest in impressionism, modernism and primitivism influenced the stylistics of her visual language. The value of art of Elena Guro is determined by her extraordinary personal world outlook. As a main them of her work she has chosen nature, which she attentively and compassionately observed. In her poetry and paintings she constantly turned to the images of sprouts, grass, animals, trees, rocks and clouds. On May 6 (April 23), 1913, Elena Guro died of leukemia at the age of 36. She was buried at Uusikirkko village (today: Poliany).
The exhibition at the Museum of St. Petersburg Avant-garde shows 10 works by contemporary artists, who correlate their art with the traditions of the organic direction of Russian avant-garde. Natural motifs, typical for works of Elena Guro, are interpreted in a new way in the abstract works of Gregory Molchanov, Nikolay Kiselyov, Vladimir Zagorov and Gennady Zubkov. The exhibition also presents the author's book “Poems of Elena Guro” of St. Petersburg graphic artist Iuliia Zaretskaya, who creatively analyzed the stylistics of the first futuristic editions.
The exhibition is accompanied by a demonstration of a video of the first performance of the opera “Madame Elsa” created by Estonian composer Vsevolod Pozdeyev in 2013 based on the works and diaries of Elena Guro.
Admission to the exhibition: with a combined ticket of the Museum of St Petersburg Avant-garde.
