Seven dozen works of graphics, several sculptures, the absence of special buildings and a single hall – at first glance, not the most attractive indicators for an exhibition project. But the Tretyakov Gallery exhibition “Magnificent eyewitnesses. Time and people. 1910s – 1930s” is interesting not for its formal characteristics, but for its concept and many mini-plots. All exhibits here are portraits and self-portraits. The same characters appear in their own and others' visions. Izvestia peered into the faces of the heroes of a long-gone era, who, in turn, were so eager to discern the future.
Exhibition lines
The new project is on display in the tenth hall of the building on Krymsky Val until August 25. This place is specially allocated for temporary exhibitions, primarily dedicated to drawing. As you know, images on paper can only be shown for a few months, after which they must “rest” without light. That is why the idea of regularly updated blocks of graphics inside the permanent exhibition is gaining more and more popularity: this path was followed in the Hermitage, and in the Russian Museum, and, in fact, in the Tretyakov Gallery.
The problem is that graphics as such can hardly attract the general public: small sketches, for obvious reasons, lack the colorfulness and scope of oil painting. The key to success turns out to be an unusual curatorial approach – the selection and grouping of works not just by the names of their authors or by the time of creation, but according to some other principles that allow one to form their own internal plot from the drawings.
In this case, everything worked out. The idea of the curator, a specialist in Russian avant-garde Tatyana Goryacheva, is simple and effective at the same time: to show, on the one hand, how the painters of this dynamic time saw themselves, and on the other, how their comrades perceived them.
Mikhail Larionov, who endlessly painted his wife and colleague Natalia Goncharova (each time in a different way), Ivan Klyun, who portrayed himself in his youth – in a cubo-futuristic style – and in his mature years, piercingly realistically; Yuri Annenkov, who created a whole gallery of images of outstanding personalities. All these are the authors and heroes of the new exhibition. The curator presents different combinations: the most common are a figure painted by different artists and two self-portraits of the same person. But the most interesting thing is when the self-presentation of a genius is compared with someone else’s view of him.
Mediocrity versus fanatic
Here is the famous photomontage by El Lissitzky, a conceptual selfie by a constructivist. Emotions are hidden: before us is a human function. Architect of the world of logic and calculation. And next to it is a cartoon by the Kukryniks, in which the great innovator appears completely different, humane, timid and embarrassed.
An equally expressive pair are the portraits of Kazimir Malevich, created by himself and Evgeny Katsman. The futurist, who had just set out on the path of radical experimentation, depicted himself strictly from the front, with a stern gaze directed directly at the viewer. The realist Katzman showed the relative without any messianic pathos and even with some kind of tragedy in his gaze.
This correspondence dialogue becomes especially expressive if you know the history of the relationship between the authors – they were married to sisters and lived together for some time. “He considered me mediocrity, and I considered him a fanatic and worthless,” admitted Katzman. But one cannot accuse him of bias. Perhaps, this kind of Malevich evokes even more sympathy than the narcissistic and pompous leader he appears in both self-portraits and photographs. And certainly Katsman’s drawing is more psychological. Malevich is a myth-maker. He contrasts his brother-in-law's truth with the artistic ideal.
Fly hunting
But his contemporary and competitor Vladimir Tatlin portrayed himself, on the contrary, without embellishment, to say the least – self-critically. From a late drawing he created seven years before his death, an overweight man with a long face looks sadly at us (more precisely, somewhere past, over his shoulder) – and it is almost impossible to recognize in him the great dreamer who designed the Tower of the Third International and never Letatlin taking off.
Alexander Labas saw him differently. The artist of the OST group depicted his friend playing the bandura, and now we have an unusually lyrical image. And the sculptor Sarra Lebedeva sculpted Tatlin sitting with his legs wide apart, and it is unclear whether he is trying to grab more space, or whether he is masking his uncertainty.
The key in this group of works, however, turns out to be a much later bronze by our contemporary Yuri Khorovsky: young Tatlin strides into the future with the wings of Letatlin on his shoulders. His gaze is directed into the distance. And – what a wonderful curatorial find! — in the next room, exactly where the artist is looking, “Letatlin” itself hangs and will hang.
This is already a permanent exhibition, but the exhibition is not conceived as a hermetic statement. Against. Whether the visitor leaves it for the Tatlin Hall, goes to another leader of the avant-garde, Kandinsky, or returns to Filonov, whose images of heads rhyme with the portraits of the “Magnificent Eyewitnesses,” he will see a logical continuation of the same story. Namely, the embodiment of ideas that were born in the minds of individuals who have now become a little closer to us.
Ultimately, all this together adds up to a collective portrait of an entire generation – and an era in which the old world collapsed and a new one was created. That is why today, in the 2020s, the feelings, fears, dreams and transformations of the heroes of the first avant-garde are perhaps clearer to us than ever.
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