Rudolf Frenz

The State Russian Museum for the first time presents the one-man show of the artist Rudolf Frentz (1888-1956). Nearly 80 works - painting, graphic and decorative and applied art from the Museum collection. The exhibition reflects the early period of the artist's oeuvre, the 1920s. Frentz, famous primarily as a battle and panoramic painting master, for the whole life had been interested in the themes of battles and victories of the Russian and Soviet armies in the wars of the 20^th century. He created panoramas and dioramas Storm of the Winter Palace, Defense of Petrograd, Battle of Stalingrad. In small paintings of genre character Frentz showed himself as a temperamental artist, whose bright and peculiar style is easily recognized. Using and interpreting traditions of the folk art - lubok, signboard, painted toys, remaining a realist while depicting life, the artist concentrates on the reproduction of the decorative whole. Being a head of the Propaganda and Posters Workshop (1918-25), Frentz created sketches of posters, trays, caskets and plates that called up topically and plastically with easel paintings. Four trays, a casket and a poster, which were attributed by the archives of the Decorative Institute, were received in the State Russian Museum after the Parisian exhibition of the decorative art and modern art industry in 1925. The majority of Frentz's works in the Russian Museum comes from O. Smetanich's collection, which was received in the Museum after the death of the collector in 1935. The works by Frentz of the 1920s are the bright spot in his biography, they reveal his optimism and clear disposition, frankness of the life perception.