Leningrad from the back entrance
from 3 March 2022 to 28 August 2022
Works of painting and graphics, lithographs by the masters of the Leningrad landscape school of the 1930-1940s from the collection of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.
Rumyantsev's mansion, exhibition halls (entrance from 44 Angliiskaya Embankment)
The exhibition brought together about 120 paintings, graphic works and lithographs from the collection of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, depicting views of Leningrad in the pre-war and post-war decades. These are the works of twenty-two Leningrad artists, including Alexander Vedernikov, Vladimir Grinberg, Nikolai Emelyanov, Boris Ermolaev, Nikolai Lapshin, Vyacheslav Pakulin, Alexei Pakhomov, Alexei Pochtenny, the brothers Anatoly and Viktor Proshkin, Alexander Rusakov, Nikolai Tyrsa, Yakov Shur and others.
The exposition gives an idea of the Leningrad landscape school of the 1930-1940s. The initial period of creativity of most of the artists whose works are shown at the exhibition was associated with the "Circle of Artists" association (1923-1932). The main direction of the urban landscape of the “Krugovtsy” is the image of non-ceremonial Leningrad. The works of the masters of this association are distinguished by a high degree of generalization and work with a large stroke.
After the formation of a single Union of Soviet Artists in 1932 and the proclamation of the principles of socialist realism, most members of the association continued to work in the same style, unlike many avant-garde artists who had to change their creative manners, adapting to new conditions. The creative search for a new expressive language in the landscape genre has not ended, but, on the contrary, has been widely developed. Given the difficult time in which the artists worked - and this is the time of terror and repression - one can regard their work as an attempt to escape from reality, from the main tasks of our time, since even among artists there was an opinion that the landscape is a genre frivolous and unfounded. Nevertheless, an appeal to the exhibition catalogs of the 1930s–1940s gives grounds to conclude that this genre has always prevailed in expositions not only of regional, but also of all-Union significance.
A characteristic feature of the works of Leningrad landscape painters was not the fixation of visual observations, but the ability to create maximum impressions with a minimum of means, to generalize and simplify the landscape, creating a form with large color spots and color interactions.
In addition to paintings, the exhibition presents works made in watercolor and gouache techniques, as well as in the technique of lithography and engraving. They also traced analogues of painting techniques. Often there are repetitions of plots and compositions in different keys and different natural states: sunset and sunrise, different seasons, rainy or clear day.
The works presented at the exhibition provide an opportunity to visit familiar and little-known corners of Leningrad in the 1930s–1940s, such as the Kryukov Canal, the Griboyedov Canal in the Kolomna area, the Old Village or the new, newly built quarters on Stachek Avenue in the Kirovsky District, to feel the amazing merging of the city and nature, observing its state at different times of the year, at different times of the day.
Entrance to the exhibition with a ticket to visit the Rumyantsev mansion
The exhibition brought together about 120 paintings, graphic works and lithographs from the collection of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, depicting views of Leningrad in the pre-war and post-war decades. These are the works of twenty-two Leningrad artists, including Alexander Vedernikov, Vladimir Grinberg, Nikolai Emelyanov, Boris Ermolaev, Nikolai Lapshin, Vyacheslav Pakulin, Alexei Pakhomov, Alexei Pochtenny, the brothers Anatoly and Viktor Proshkin, Alexander Rusakov, Nikolai Tyrsa, Yakov Shur and others.
The exposition gives an idea of the Leningrad landscape school of the 1930-1940s. The initial period of creativity of most of the artists whose works are shown at the exhibition was associated with the "Circle of Artists" association (1923-1932). The main direction of the urban landscape of the “Krugovtsy” is the image of non-ceremonial Leningrad. The works of the masters of this association are distinguished by a high degree of generalization and work with a large stroke.
After the formation of a single Union of Soviet Artists in 1932 and the proclamation of the principles of socialist realism, most members of the association continued to work in the same style, unlike many avant-garde artists who had to change their creative manners, adapting to new conditions. The creative search for a new expressive language in the landscape genre has not ended, but, on the contrary, has been widely developed. Given the difficult time in which the artists worked - and this is the time of terror and repression - one can regard their work as an attempt to escape from reality, from the main tasks of our time, since even among artists there was an opinion that the landscape is a genre frivolous and unfounded. Nevertheless, an appeal to the exhibition catalogs of the 1930s–1940s gives grounds to conclude that this genre has always prevailed in expositions not only of regional, but also of all-Union significance.
A characteristic feature of the works of Leningrad landscape painters was not the fixation of visual observations, but the ability to create maximum impressions with a minimum of means, to generalize and simplify the landscape, creating a form with large color spots and color interactions.
In addition to paintings, the exhibition presents works made in watercolor and gouache techniques, as well as in the technique of lithography and engraving. They also traced analogues of painting techniques. Often there are repetitions of plots and compositions in different keys and different natural states: sunset and sunrise, different seasons, rainy or clear day.
The works presented at the exhibition provide an opportunity to visit familiar and little-known corners of Leningrad in the 1930s–1940s, such as the Kryukov Canal, the Griboyedov Canal in the Kolomna area, the Old Village or the new, newly built quarters on Stachek Avenue in the Kirovsky District, to feel the amazing merging of the city and nature, observing its state at different times of the year, at different times of the day.
Entrance to the exhibition with a ticket to visit the Rumyantsev mansion
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