National Gallery of Armenia

 The graphic artworks exhibition of Russian and Soviet artists of the 18th-20th centuries opens on November 25, at 15:00 at the National Gallery of Armenia.

The exhibition embraces 230 works from more than 500 graphics preserved at the NGA: among them are watercolour prints and drawings by Russian graphic and Soviet artists of the 18th-20th centuries. The graphic collection, together with other art departments of the Museum, was established during the 1920s and 1930s. The Museum storage was the primary source of the collection, though the main part of the exhibits were acquired from exhibitions and private collections upon the own initiative of the Gallery which sought to augment its collections.
The rich materials displayed in the exhibition give the opportunity to highlight the main stages of development of graphic art and artists’ creativity for more than two hundred years. It is worth mentioning those prominent masters’ graphic papers of the first half of the 19th century. Among them were K. Brullov. A. Ivanov, Al. Orlowski, F. Bruni, V. Shternberg and others. Most of them depicted a new genre of graphics - a small-sized intimate portrait, which was widely spread in everyday Russian culture throughout all strata of society.
The artists’ images of Armenian themes are also significant. They are possibly the most remarkable part of the collection. The works representing Armenia through the eyes of Russian and Soviet artists are vivid evidence of the genuine interest of the best representatives of the Russian culture toward our country.
It is important to mention the names of G. Gagarin, N. Udaltsova, A. Kravchenko, G. Vereysky, V. Belyaev, P. Kuznetsov, E. Lanceray, I. Gurvich and P. Shillingovsky and others who chose Armenia as the motif of their creative compositions. These works are marked by multiple significance of images, as well as a unique vision presenting people, culture and nature and reveal new, sometimes invisible boundaries of existence. The art of the 19th century is widely presented at the exhibition. The watercolour prints and drawings by M. Zichy, P. Chistyakov, L. Lagorio, H. Siemiradzki and N. Makovsky are being exhibited together with the representations of realistic movement of the second half of the 19th century. V. Vereshchagin, I. Shishkin, V. Makovsky, V. Surikov, I. Repin and others who had contribution to the development of democratic trends of the era, as well as enrichment of language, subject-matter and expressive means of graphic art. The Museum collection embraces the renowned artists' numerous masterpieces of late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition presents the variety of these masters' vision of complexity of a transitional world. Besides their artistic preferences, all of them had a common vision of spiritual renewal. The works depicted by M. Vrubel, V. Borisov-Musatov, V. Serov, M. Nesterov, as well as the artists from the union of “Mir Iskusstva” (World of Art) Al. Benois, K. Somov, A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, M. Dobuzhinsky, E. Lanceray, L. Bakst, B. Kustodiev, Z. Serebriakova and A. Golovin enlighten masters' greatest interest in graphic art from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It was considered to be a period of high development when graphic art, with its machine - and not applied - methods, became the main type of fine arts.
One of the significant revelations of the exhibition are the collections of avant-garde artists' work. Among them are watercolour prints and drawings by W. Kandinsky, M. Le Dantu, O. Rozanova, P. Kondratiev, P. Filonov and R. Falk. Similarly, the small number of Soviet artists' works is compensated by their artistic quality. The caricatures of Kukryniksy group, M. Cheremnyh, B. Yefremov, Yu. Ganf and works by P. Konchalovsky, N. Kupreyanov, N. Kuzmin, A. Plastov, G. Ryazhsky and others present alterations applied in art, as well as a newly established social orientation to realism which became a unique reflection of the era, demonstrating the evolution of the society. The exhibition is extended with works by distinguished Soviet graphic artists N. Tyrsa, N. Shifrin, V. Lebedev, K. Rudakov, V. Konashevich, T. Mavrina, B. Prorokov and others. These artists are remarkable in their personal worldviews and the opportunities of plastic evocations.
At the Gallery, a special place is allotted for jubilee artists of 2016. Their works are placed on the central wall announcing the beginning of the exhibition.