Between earth and sky Automatic translate

Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin presents the exhibition "Between Earth and Sky", which will display works from his collection and the collection of Galina Manevich. In the halls of the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th-20th centuries, one can see etchings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Francisco Goya, works by Vasily Chekrygin and Eduard Steinberg. The exhibition consists of four sections, united by the theme of human reflection on the eternal contradictions of our world. In different eras, artists comprehended the problem of the finiteness of being and the desire to gain eternity, embodied in their work the themes of fall and redemption, despair and hope. The project is dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birth of Eduard Steinberg.

The exhibition opens with a series of 18 etchings by Francisco Goya (1746-1828) "Disparates" ("Nonsense"), created in the late period of the artist’s life. In the works, one can feel the loss of faith in the reasonableness of being and the tragic confusion, but at the same time one feels the opposition to dark and irrational forces. The bizarre and mysterious visions of Goya not only reveal the inner world of a genius, but allow the viewer to experience his spiritual experience - the experience of overcoming despair through creativity.

The second section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Russian artist Vasily Chekrygin (1897–1922). He, like Goya, only almost a hundred years later, had to endure a civil war and devastation. In his search, Chekrygin managed to rise from deep despair to the bright idea of ​​​​universal resurrection, which he was inspired by the teachings of the utopian philosopher Nikolai Fedorov. The artistic language of Chekrygin is distinguished by laconicism and the use of a minimum of expressive means. The exposition presents drawings in charcoal, which was the artist’s favorite material, including compositions from the program cycle "Resurrection of the Dead".

The next section of the exhibition presents the works of Eduard Steinberg (1937–2012), who, almost half a century later, seemed to repeat the path of Vasily Chekrygin in his work – from mourning for the dead to contemplation imbued with love and memory. Steinberg created his own unique style, in which he combined the plasticity of the avant-garde and the philosophy of symbolism. The artist often used gouache, creating contrasting, geometrically laconic compositions. An important role in the exposition is occupied by the "Village Cycle" - portraits of the inhabitants of the village of Pogorelki, where the artist lived. Steinberg’s deep reflections on the earth and religion are accompanied by personal feelings about the departure of each person.

The exhibition ends with a section with late etchings by the great Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669). Francisco Goya, Vasily Chekrygin, and Eduard Steinberg turned to his work in different periods of his life. The spheres of earth and sky in his works seem to close together, forming a “universal space”, where opposites unite again, and light carries the promise of salvation.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an educational program.

Curators: Anna Chudetskaya, Leading Researcher, Department of Private Collections; Oleg Antonov, head of the graphics department.

REFERENCE

The history of the collection of graphics of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin

Since 1873, the Engraving Room of the Rumyantsev Museum, the first public art museum in Moscow, has become the center where the first receipts of drawings were accumulated. Its funds were replenished at the expense of donations from individuals, and from 1918 to 1924 - at the expense of the receipt of nationalized private collections. When the Rumyantsev Museum was closed in 1924, its graphic collections were transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts, which opened to the public in 1912 and then became the owner of a small but valuable collection of drawings.

In the interwar decades, the Museum of Fine Arts (from 1932 - the Museum of Fine Arts) continued to collect drawings of old European masters and artists of the first half of the 19th century. The most important episodes during this period were the receipt of drawings from the former collection of D. I. Shchukin (1927), from the Hermitage (1930) and from the State Historical Museum (1935). In addition, in the 1930s, the museum purposefully collected drawings by Russian and Soviet artists.

After the closure of the State Museum of New Western Art in 1948, its entire graphic collection was transferred to the Pushkin Museum. More than 600 drawings by Western masters of the late 19th - first half of the 20th century replenished the collection of the Pushkin Museum, significantly changing the profile of the graphic department of the Pushkin Museum and giving it a broader, more versatile character. In subsequent decades, the most important source of replenishment of the collection of drawings in the Pushkin Museum were gifts from collectors. The artists themselves, as well as their heirs and people from their inner circle donated their works to the museum. So after the death of Eduard Steinberg, his widow Galina Manevich transferred a series of works by the artist to the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin. And in 2016, the workshop of Eduard Steinberg in Tarusa became part of the museum.