Russian art in Paris

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2005 by Miriam Kramer

Paris is holding its own major exhibition of Russian art. Entitled L'art russe dans la seconde moitie du XIXe siecle: en quete d'identite (The Quest for Identity: Russian Art in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century), it is on view at the Musee d'Orsay from September 20 to January 8, 2006.

Early twentieth-century Russian art has been the subject of many exhibitions in France and elsewhere, including shows devoted to the effects of the Russian avant-garde on European culture. The current exhibition encompasses the second half of the nineteenth century to the overthrow of the czarist regime in 1917. It seeks a definition of the Russian identity and its expression in the arts. The show includes paintings, sculpture, decorative and graphic arts, architecture, and photography--but not works by Peter Carl Faberge.

One of the seminal events in Russian artistic life in the late nineteenth century was the refusal in 1863 of a group of young artists to subscribe to the style and form fostered by the Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg. They rejected the subjects the academy imposed for its annual exhibitions, preferring to paint contemporary Russian scenes. Arguably the best-known exponent of the new style was Il'ya Repin, whose Bargemen on the Volga of 1870-1873 (State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg) made him internationally famous.

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Marie-Pierre Sale and Edouard Papet are the general curators of most of the exhibition. Dominique de Font-Reaulx is the curator of the photography and architecture sections. The accompanying catalogue, in French, with introductions by the curators, can be ordered by telephoning 33-1-40-20-84-80 or by e-mail (libraire.louvre@rmn.fr).