The exhibition Silver Age. Russian Art Works from Museum Collections of the Baltic Region. 1890-1930, has been opened in the Museum of Foreign Art, Riga Stock Exchange. It exhibits about two hundred works of outstanding Russian artists, graphic artists and sculptors from museums of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
With the support of Rietumu Bank, a large art book devoted to this exhibition will be published. It is to be completed soon. The exposition includes 30 works of Russian artists from museums of Estonia, 18 – from Lithuania and more than 130 – from the Latvian National Museum of Art, which holds the largest collection of Russian art in the Baltic States.
Among the presented works are the creations of Alexandre Benois, Mikhail Vrubel, Filipp Malyavin, Nicholas Roerich, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Somov, Pavel Kuznetsov, Natalya Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov and other internationally recognised artists. The current exposition includes not only paintings and graphic arts, but also sculptures, pieces of art from porcelain, including ones which have been practically unknown to the general public.
The Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Latvia, Alexander Veshnyakov, who gave a speech at the opening ceremony, thanked the managers and employees of the Baltic museums for their devotion to preserving the treasures of Russian culture. “I would like to thank you for carefully keeping the masterpieces created about a hundred years ago by Russian artists. This was the time of wars and revolutions, when the fate of many people hung in the balance. This time also determined new tendencies in Russian art and inspired many artists who went down in history,” said the Ambassador.
The exhibits belong to the period of 1890 to 1930, which is often referred to as the Silver Age of Russian culture. This was the time of vigorous and bright development of all areas and trends of culture in Russia, creation and establishment of new artistic tendencies, active operation of various artistic unions. Thus, in late 19
th and early 20
th century impressionism, post
-impressionism and symbolism were simultaneously presented in Russian art. Later, these were joined by neo-primitivism, Moscow Cezannism, non
-figurative art, futurism, as well as other booming trends, which nowadays are referred to as the Russian avant-garde.
“The publication of an art book of this remarkable exhibition is another step in our long-term cooperation with the art galleries of Latvia and specifically the Museum of Foreign Art, Riga Stock Exchange. We are very pleased to see that, due to the work of the wonderful staff of this museum, top class events are being arranged in Riga, thus confirming the Latvian capital city as the apparent regional centre of artistic life,” states Sergey Grodnikov, Head of the Department of Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing of Rietumu Bank.
The exhibition is held within the framework of the project Russian Art Works from Collections of the Baltic Countries, which has united museums of art from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, including the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Art Museum of Estonia, the Tartu Art Museum, the Lithuanian Art Museum, M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum (Kaunas), the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum, as well as the Latvian Museum of Writing, Theatre and Music.
Within the framework of the project, a number of expositions with an individual concept are planned. The exhibition in Riga will be held until 20 January 2013, and then will move to Vilnius.
Eleonora Gailisha Mass Media and Public Relations
Phone: +371-67020506
Fax: +371-67020563
E-mail:
egailisha@rietumu.lv
