The cultural event of the year - that's what you can call the currently ongoing exhibition of the Russian avant-garde in the premises of the Castle Riding School in Hluboká nad Vltavou. The exhibition was prepared after more than a year's delay by Alš's South Bohemian Gallery from the collections of the Museum of Art in Yekaterinburg as a unique cultural-historical whole, mapping the avant-garde artistic tendencies in Russia in the years 1910-1920. The exhibition is represented by 36 works, and it should be emphasized that such an extensive collection of paintings from one from the most important periods in Russian painting, never in the Czech Republic or Slovakia she has not been seen so far.
The visitor to the exhibition has the opportunity to see up close the works of painters of now legendary groups such as Pikový dólnik and Oslov hvost, whose work at the beginning of the 20th century resonated primarily with artistic trends such as Fauvism, Cubism, Cubofuturism, Neoprimitivism, Rayonism, Suprematism and Constructivism. The pioneers of this new wave of Russian art drew on the riches of folk culture, such as icon painting, mosaic and glass painting, but combined these traditional artistic means with new compositional principles. The most prominent figure of Russian avant-garde art is Kazimir Malevich, who was the first to define the new artistic direction Suprematism and influenced a whole generation of Russian artists. He wanted to depict "nothing" and thus pure "non-objectivity" in his work. His paintings are without objects, depicting otherworldly forms without gravity, focused only on the spiritual moment, on the victory of spirit and intellect over matter. He considered Suprematism to be the supremacy of pure perception in fine art, where intuition and mental power stand above everything else.
Alexander Rodchenko, another of the group of artists presented in the exhibition, was also guided by the laws of geometric construction in his work. In his "black paintings" from 1919, Rodchenko foresaw a monochromatic development in painting, but his sculptures without pedestals and hanging sculptures made of wood and metal are of pioneering importance for modern art. He understood art as an area for experimenting with new spatial experiences and is represented at the exhibition by Non-Object Composition, influenced by Malevich's ideas of Suprematism.
Wassily Kandinsky, another of the trio of Russian greats, built his artistic reputation in Germany. He worked in Munich, which was the second most important art center in Europe after Paris, then in Berlin, and for some time he also taught at the famous Bauhaus art school in Weimar. His name was mainly associated with the group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), whose name was actually derived from one of his paintings. Kandinsky began to devote himself to abstract work only in middle age, from around 1913. Nevertheless, he became one of the actors of the greatest revolution in painting since the Renaissance. Kandinsky believed that painting and music are very close, so he often gave his paintings names from musical terminology such as: Composition, Impression, Improvisation. Finally, the painting entitled Improvisation no. 217 can also be seen at this exhibition. Kandinsky was convinced that color and form emerge like music from the depths of the soul and that each painting has its own rhythm.
Important representatives of fauvist tendencies and cubism, of course, also include other artists whose work we will meet at the exhibition, such as Mikhail Larionov, Pyotr Konchalovskij, Aristarch Lentulov, Ilya Mashkov, Alexander Kuprin, Alexander Osmerkin or Robert Falk. And we must not forget the women who have made a permanent mark in this unrepeatable history of modern art, such as Natália Gončarová, Olga Rozanova, Ljubov Popová or Nadežda Udalcová.
The entire exhibition ends with a documentary film by the Russian filmmaker Dzigu Vertov, Man with a Cinema Camera, which does not even seem to belong to the exhibition, because it was made only in 1929, but when the visitor watches it carefully until the end, he will find out that it is probably the most famous film of this convinced communist and at the same time a great enthusiast of the Russian avant-garde, perfectly describes the atmosphere of the time in which the above works were created. The exhibition in Hluboka nad Vltavou, which will last until August 1, 2021, is a real treat for lovers of fine art, but it can also be a very good idea for a pleasant day spent with the family in the grounds of a beautiful castle with an adjacent park.
Vladimír Dubeň