Anna Leporskaya. Painting, Graphic Art, Porcelain

In the summer of 2017, the collection of the Russian Museum received a donation of an extensive collection of works by various artists, which was called the Leporskaya Archive in historiography. The archive included over 600 works by Anna Alexandrovna Leporskaya herself: 512 drawings, watercolors, gouaches, 10 canvases and more than 100 porcelain items. The Department of Manuscripts of the Russian Museum received documents related to the life and work of a number of avant-garde masters and, above all, concerning the State Museum of Artistic Culture (GINHUK).

Leporskaya entered the history of Russian art as a master of artistic porcelain. Fate tied her with such artists as Kazimir Malevich, with whom she studied in the 1920s (Malevich worked with porcelain during this period), Vera Ermolaeva and Nikolai Suetin, a student of Malevich, chief artist of the Leningrad Porcelain Manufactory for two decades. Suetin became Anna Leporskaya’s husband. He invited her to collective work at the Leningrad Porcelain Manufactory. In 1924 she entered the Department of Painting Culture of the State Institute of Artistic Culture as a graduate student. The department was headed by Malevich. Under his supervision she explored impressionism, and with Vera Ermolaeva in the group of the painterly-plastic realism she investigated the artistic style of Cezanne and Van Gogh. The exhibition includes landscapes of 1920-1930-s, performed according to the aesthetics of the painterly-plastic realism.

The painting debut of Leporskaya happened in 1978 on her personal exhibition in Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists. In publications of late 1970-1990-s, including the Encyclopedia of Russian Avant-garde Leporskaya’s oeuvre is presented mainly by post-supremacist artworks underlining the tie with the late Malevich work. Her artworks from the Archive allow to comprehend her creativity more fully.

Porcelain work has become the main creative activity of Leporskaya since 1948 when she was invited to work at the Leningrad Porcelain Manufactory. Her art pieces of 1950-1960-s represent the transformation of natural forms into the utilitarian objects (vases, tea sets, wine vessels). The sketches for these works let trace the way how the artist goes from the first drafts to the laconic silhouettes with soft fluid lines. In 1959 she created coffee and tea service “The Drop” which was the first in her series of the “White line” objects. From 1960 on she started to paint the porcelain pieces herself, which soon became unique exhibits. The exhibition in Russian museum will present such examples and the preparatory work for them.
The family photos of Leporskaya from various periods, as well as selected letters and documents, will also be on show.

The exhibition is organized with the support of Severstal, Power Machines, Nordgold, Lenta, Sveza.