The Avant-Garde.The great experiment of Russian art

The Russian Museum is home to a truly unique collection of Avant-Garde art, unrivalled in its scope, quality, and diversity. The collection stands out for its exceptionally high artistic standard, comprehensive representation of the major art movements, and balanced coverage of individual artists. The exhibition showcases over 300 works, including paintings, prints, and porcelain pieces.

The exhibition project is based on a systematic presentation – arranged by movements, trends, and formal and philosophical concerns. The journey moves from “ism” to “ism” (Impressionism – Primitivism – Cézannism – Cubism – Futurism – Abstraction – Constructivism), building upon, expanding, and refining the model developed in museum practices of the 1920s, particularly in the activities of the Department of Contemporary Art at the Russian Museum under the leadership of Nikolai Punin. As in those days, works by the same artist are displayed in different rooms, depending on the specific tasks the artist pursued during particular periods of their career.

The main narrative is complemented by “focus” rooms. One room gathers portraits and self-portraits of cultural figures – the “characters” of the era who shaped the phenomenon of the Russian Avant-Garde. Others are dedicated to Kazimir Malevich’s post-Suprematist works and Pavel Filonov’s analytical art, allowing for a full exploration of their oeuvres while underscoring their indisputably high status. These rooms also highlight the unique nature of the Museum’s collection: significant personal holdings of these artists can be found nowhere else in the world.

The panorama of trends, represented primarily through painting (and partly sculpture), finds a punctuated reflection and further development in the section devoted to easel drawing. Special attention is also given to Futurist books and Avant-Garde porcelain.

A memorial-like gallery is included in the route, dedicated to a pivotal event in the avant-garde movement – the staging of the opera Victory Over the Sun (1913). This space is organized in a unique way: an empty room, a real piano as a metaphor, projections of Malevich’s set and costume designs accompanied by a recording of the performance (music by Mikhail Matiushin, texts by Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh).

A number of works for the exhibition were generously loaned by museums across Russia:
ANO Zotov Centre – Constructive Space
Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts
Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts
Fyodor Kovalenko Regional Art Museum, Krasnodar
Kostroma State History, Architecture and Art Museum and Reserve
Mikhail Vrubel Regional Museum of Fine Arts, Omsk
National Gallery of the Komi Republic
Nizhny Novgorod Museum of Art
Pavel Dogadin State Art Gallery, Astrakhan
Perm State Art Gallery
Rostov Kremlin State Museum and Reserve
Samara Regional Art Museum
State Museum of the History of St Petersburg
State Tretyakov Gallery
Vasnetsov Brothers Art Museum, Kirov
as well as by the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic Society.

General sponsor: VTB Bank