Pavel Filonov. Russian Avant-garde and After
KUMU Art Museum of Estonia - June 10th 2011 - September 18th 2011
Filonov. Spring Formula. 1922-1923.
This exhibition is dedicated to the art of Pavel Filonov (1883-1941), one of the most original masters of Russian Avant-garde of the first half of the XXth century. We view the material in a wider context: works by the representatives of other movements of the Russian Avant-garde as well as of Socialist Realism, which has in the 1930s become the official canon of the Soviet art, are presented alongside Filonov's works. The exhibition is prepared in cooperation with the State Russian Museum, and will include 56 works out of its collection in KUMU: 25 works by Filonov, 23 works representing Russian Avant-garde, and 8 works representing Socialist Realism. A Catalogue in Estonian, Russian and English accompanies the exposition.
Pavel Filonov, an artist and theoretician of art, the creator of Analytic Art system, may be placed in the same line with key figures of the Russian Avant-garde, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich. Filonov's originality in the Russian Avant-garde art consists in the synthesis of the Academic heritage and traditions with a new artistic language (the principle of "madeness"). Filonov's artistic method has not included a denouncing object representation for abstractionism. Rather he has studied the unseen processes inside the objects seen, attempting to demonstrate to the viewer the living structure in the material. In 1925 Filonov has formed the group Masters of Analytic Art, and no other master of the Russian Avant-garde had a school with so numerous a following. The power of his beliefs prevented Filonov from following Socialist Realism, which brought repression both for the artist himself and his loved ones and pupils; his works were denied entry in exhibitions practically until the Perestroika. Both in Russia and in the West Filonov was "rediscovered" in the 1980s. Today Filonov is considered an accepted classic of the XXth century art. His works are included in the permanent exposition in the State Russian Museum, are shown in exhibitions in Russian and all around the world.
Cooperation with the State Russian Museum, which holds both most of Filonov's heritage and one of the finest collections of the Russian Avant-garde, defines the high level of material shown. Filonov's works from the period of 1910s-1940s are shown in KUMU, including his most significant works ("Feast of the Kings", "Spring Formula"), as well as series dedicated to large themes ("Formulas"), which allows a more general understanding of the artist's creative path and the development of subjects followed throughout his whole artistic career. The exhibition context is completed by works of the Russian Avant-garde art's leading representatives, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova; as well as a whole line of other interesting artists such as David Burliuk, Mikhail Matiushin and Filonov's pupils. Contrasting the experimental art works, come the works in the Socialist Realism canon, which has oppressed the innovation; among them works by Isaak Brodsky, Stalin's official painter. This way the exhibition opens through the central figure of Pavel Filonov complicated, fascinating and contradictory processes, which have taken place in Russian art in the first half of the XXth century.
Information on this page was translated from the KUMU Art Museum of Estonia announcement webpage (Russian).
Location and Contact Information:
KUMU - Art Museum of Estonia
Weizenbergi 34 / Valge 1, 10127 Tallinn
Tel: +372 602 6001
http://www.ekm.ee/eng/ekm.php
E-mail: muuseum@ekm.ee |
