Monday 30 January 2012

EXHIBITION: Deineka Aleksandr (1899-1969) Avant-Garde for the Proletariat



This is the first exhibition in Spain to present the work of the Russian artist Aleksandr Deineka (1899–1969) and by extension the historical period from which it was borne. With the aim of presenting both in a twofold context: the end of the avant–garde and the advent of socialist realism. This comprehensive retrospective is to date the largest devoted to Deineka outside Russia: over 80 works on view are completed by a broad yet detailed selection of magazines, posters, books, documents, objects, and works by other Russian avant–garde artists, some 250 works and documents.

Las trabajadoras textiles, 1927  (Galería Estatal Tretyakov, Moscú)

In 1985, a time when the Soviet regime was still in power, the Fundación Juan March organized an exhibition titled The Russian Avant–Garde, 1910–1930. Ludwig Museum and Collection, the first show in Spain to display art works by the Russian avant–garde. In the past 23 years, various exhibitions devoted to the leading figures of this movement–among them, Kazimir Malevich (1993), Aleksandr Rodchenko (2001), and Liubov Popova (2004)–have been staged at the Fundación, including the recent Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow, 1960–1990, held in 2008. This show brought together the work of a number of Soviet artists such as Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Vitalii Komar and Aleksandr Melamid. Straddling both concept art and their own particular style of Soviet pop art, these artists focused on and raised issues regarding Soviet culture during the Stalin era, from his rise to power following Lenin's death in 1924 to his death in 1953.

La defensa de Petrogrado, 1928 (Museo Estatal de las Fuerzas Armadas)


These exhibitions therefore addressed two moments in Russian history: the great experiment that was the Russian avant–garde in the years preceding the Stalin era and the unofficial and decidedly postmodern form of Soviet art that emerged a decade after Stalin's death. In order to complete this historical overview, it became obvious that the interval between both periods, a defining moment in the history of modern Russia, deserved our attention. And so, Soviet revolutionary art and art produced during the Stalin era, in particular, are at the core of the present exhibition.


Deineka's straightforward painterly style coupled with the ambivalence—or ambiguity—of his art and persona serve as a representative example. The artist received his formal training at institutions traditionally influenced by avant–garde art and formed part of the last remaining constructivist groups (such as October and OST). Because of this, and in spite of his commitment to the revolution and the formation of a socialist state, he was accused of adhering to formalism.


The exhibition also presents a selection of magazines, posters, books, documents, objects, and works by other Russian avant–garde artists–with a special focus on their revolutionary output–that mirror the “ambivalent” and “ambiguous” quality of Deineka’s art and career. Presented together, these works expose a unique, coherent (and unexplored) set of relationships between socialist realism and the Russian avant–garde.

Aleksandr Deineka (1899–1969)
Avant-Garde for the Proletariat
October 7, 2011 – January 15, 2012



http://www.march.es/arte/madrid/exposiciones/aleksandr-deineka/

Saturday 28 January 2012

St Petersburg Ball 2012 in London, 4th Feb


Saturday 4th February 2012, 7:30pm - 2:00amstp
Dress: White Tie or Period Costume.   
High quality costumes for hire at:The National Theatre.
The Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.
Tickets £165
 
The 2012 St Petersburg Ball in aid of Friends of Russian Children incorporated in the Children's Burns Trust, helping burn injured children and their families. They promise an evening of excitement and extravaganza under the patronage of HH Princess Olga Romanovand Lord and Lady Nicholas Windsor which will include a Champagne and Vodka Reception, a sumptuous dinner, period dancing to the music of the Coldstream Guards and an exciting programme of entertainment. 
They are also holding Dance Practices where you can learn the dances, meet fellow guests and enjoy yourself.
 
Dance Practice evening: 7-9.30 pm at St. Joseph's Church Hall, Brompton Oratory, Knightsbridge.  (Nearest Tube South Kensington):
  
THURSDAY 26th JANUARY 2012(with food)
 
Contact: The Social Courier at rula01@yahoo.com  Ticket Applications.  Charity Commission registered No: 1082084

Friday 27 January 2012

Useful research link: 'The Face of Russia' from PBS


Who are the Russian people? How have they expressed their character and inner conflicts in their art and culture? And, as Russia’s long-awaited democracy develops, how will the Russian people redefine themselves culturally, spiritually, and politically?


Timeline
Experience Russian culture and history through an interactive timeline from 850 A.D. to present day with hundreds of images, movies and audio tracks.

The Series
Learn about the PBS series and the people behind it with biographies, location maps, program summaries, air dates, and indexes to the interviews and artwork from the series.


Reference
Explore Russia and Russian culture within this section which includes a glossary, bibliography, media index, Web links and lesson plans.


This section contains information for those who would like to learn more about Russia and Russian culture. The Glossary provides definitions of Russian words used in The Face of Russia television programs. The Bibliography and the Web links list additional sources of information, including maps and works of art. For teachers there are Lesson Plans for elementary through high school grades. And finally, for a bit of added interest, visitors can view the Cyrillic alphabet and find out about its origins.



Russian Life magazine is the 41-year-old monthly magazine on Russian culture, history, travel and life. Published in English for Russophiles around the world, Russian Life is full of great color photography and intriguing feature stories—it is “a monthly trip to the heart of Russian reality.” Sample stories online and/or subscribe (which also automatically enters you in a drawing for a free round-trip ticket to Russia on Lufthansa!).


The June/July 1998 issue contains an article on Ferapontova and the frescoes of Dionysus, which are featured in the Interactive Timeline of The Face of Russia website.
Visit our web-site at http://www.rispubs.com.



Forums
Connect with others to discuss topics inspired by the series and the site in the Viewer’s Forum at PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/intro.html

Tuesday 24 January 2012

University of Pittsburg recruiting for PhD in Russian culture

Pitt Slavic invites applications to its program, which provides a full range of courses, with an emphasis on Russian cultural studies. The department has supported recent dissertations on Soviet postmodernist culture, culture of the Belomor Canal, post-Soviet philosophy, the Soviet anekdot, television serials, and Thaw cinema. All PhD recipients in the past twelve years have received academic job offers or prestigious post-doctoral fellowships, including from Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Stanford Humanities Center, and University College London.

In addition to extensive training and mentoring; PhD students participate regularly in international conferences at a relatively early stage; they may help organize the annual Russian Film Symposium (http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu ); or edit the Department's journal, Studies in Slavic Cultures (http://www.pitt.edu/~slavic/sisc/). Alongside their primary study, graduate students also typically obtain MA or PhD certificates in several interdepartmental programs: 
. Cultural Studies (http://pitt.edu/~cultural/)
. Film Studies (http://www.pitt.edu/~filmst/)
. Russian and East European Studies (http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/crees/)
. Women's Studies (http://pitt.edu/~wstudies
By the time they receive their PhD, many students will have obtained teaching experience in culture, cinema, language, and literature courses in both team-taught and stand-alone formats. 

A new PhD in Slavic/Film Studies offers an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental degree that stresses the history, theory, and aesthetics of international cinema, video, television, and new media. While the student will earn a PhD in Film Studies (granted by the Film Studies Program), he or she will also be a full member of Slavic, fulfilling its requirements (many of which will overlap). Interested students should submit applications simultaneously to Slavic and the Film Studies PhD program at http://www.english.pitt.edu/graduate/phd_film.php

Financial aid (non-teaching fellowships and teaching assistantships) is available to qualified applicants. Applications will be accepted until 1 February. Applications must be submitted electronically athttps://app.applyyourself.com/?id=up-as. For more information about academic programs, faculty, students, alumni, application procedures, and deadlines see http://www.slavic.pitt.edu

In case of questions, please write to: Christine Metil, Administrator,slavic@pitt.edu; Prof. Nancy Condee, Director of Graduate Studies,condee@pitt.edu; Prof. David J. Birnbaum, Chair, djbpitt@pitt.edu

Prof. N. Condee, Director
Global Studies Center (NRC Title VI)
University Center for International Studies
University of Pittsburgh
4103 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
+1 412-363-7180
condee@pitt.edu
www.ucis.pitt.edu/global

Monday 23 January 2012

Henry Moore exhibition at the Kremlin


The Henry Moore Foundation is delighted to be taking a specially selected exhibition to the Kremlin Museums, Moscow,  in February 2012. Many important works including Moore's Bird Basket have never been shown in Russia before. 
The exhibition is organised by The Henry Moore Foundation and The Kremlin Museums in collaboration with the British Council.
The Kremlin's Assumption Belltower and Patriarch's Palace will  be host  to a selection of sculptures, drawings and tapestries from the Foundation collection,  supplemented by key loans from both public and private collections. It will be a rare chance to see three of Moore's stunning large-scale tapestries outside Perry Green, his former home.

Detail of Bird Basket (1939)


The exhibition  will span Moore's career, from early carvings in stone, wood and marble, through drawings and tapestries to later iconic sculptures of the 1980s.
There will be a catalogue including  newly commissioned texts from Dawn Ades, Chris Stephens, Jeremy Lewison, and Anita Feldman as well as an interview with Mary Moore, the artist's daughter, who talks about her Russian mother's relationship with her father, and her influence on his life and work
The Kremlin continues to be the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. Located on the banks of the river Moskva, adjacent to Moscow's famous Red Square and overlooking St. Basil's Cathedral, the site is also included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The British Council and The Kremlin Museums are running a series of events and activities venues related to the Moore exhibition, including a full series of lectures, and education activities for schoolchildren. A competition for older children and students,  based on Roche Court's innovative programme 'ARTiculate'  will invite participants to speak in public on their favourite works. The competition will be judged by the Director of the Kremlin Museums, Dr Elena Gagarina. 


http://www.henry-moore.org/pg/exhibitions/moore-at-the-kremlin

Call for Sublime: From "Last Day of Pompeii" to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes


 Tue 31 January 2012 – 7.30pm
Lecture/Talk, Pushkin House, London
Call for Sublime: From "Last Day of Pompeii" to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes
by Ilia Dorontchenkov
TEN CENTURIES OF RUSSIAN ART: IN SEARCH OF IDENTITY LECTURE SERIES
VIEW THE WHOLE LECTURE SERIES
Carl Briollov’s The Last Day of Pompeii (1833) 
This lecture covers almost hundred years of Russian art: from its first masterpiece which rejoined provincial Russian school with European Romantic mainstream and was accepted as an important social event in Russia – Carl Briollov’s The Last Day of Pompeii (1833) to the triumphal Drang nach Westen of Russian Modernism – Serge Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons (1910s). Between these milestones a whole range of important phenomena will be presented – sentimental images of Russian peasants of Alexei Venetsianov and Romantic Utopia of spiritual transfiguration in Alexander Ivanov’s Appearance of Christ to the People (1837-58). Art of the Itinerants will be discussed as the most radical Realist movement in Europe and the phenomena which still shapes Russians’ understanding of art. Vasilii Surikov’s historical machines will be paralleled to Leo Tolstoy’s philosophy of history and Isaac Levitan’s landscapes seen through the lenses of Chekhov’s psychological analysis. Finally, the World of Art movement will be discussed as a major cultural turn in the development of Russian national culture on its way to avant-garde.

Ilia Dorontchenkov, Professor and Chair at the Department of Art History, European University of St. Petersburg and Professor at the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Academy of Fine Arts)

Tickets: £7, conc. £5 (Friends of Pushkin House, students and OAPs)
http://www.pushkinhouse.org/en/events/call-for-sublime-from-last-day-of-pompeii-to-diaghilevs-ballets-russes

Monday 16 January 2012

Useful Links for Researchers of Russian Art


Academia Rossica
http://academia-rossica.org/en/academia-rossica
Archipenko Foundation 
http://www.archipenko.org/
Association of Art Historians
http://www.aah.org.uk/
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
http://www.aseees.org/
Bauhaus Archive
http://www.bauhaus.de/
British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies
http://www.basees.org.uk/
Cold War Daily
http://paper.li/nickblackbourn/1302724386
College Art Association
http://www.collegeart.org/
Courtauld Institute of Art
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/institute/index.shtml
Durham University
http://www.dur.ac.uk/education/undergraduate/open_modules/
Fulbright in Russia
http://www.fulbright.ru/
Naum Gabo
http://www.naum-gabo.com/
Guggenheim Museum
http://www.guggenheim.org/
Harvard Art Museums
http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/
Hermitage Museum
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/
Institute of Modern Russian Culture, USC
http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/IMRC/
International Chamber of Russian Modernism
http://www.incorm.eu/
Kandinsky Library
http://bibliothequekandinsky.centrepompidou.fr/medias/medias.aspx?INSTANCE=INCIPIO
Museum of Modern Art
http://www.moma.org/
Newcastle University
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/combined/honours/subjects/historyart.htm
Pompidou Center
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/
Pushkin House
http://www.pushkinhouse.org/en
Pushkin Museum
http://www.museum.ru/gmii/defengl.htm
Russian Art and Culture
http://russianartandculture.blogspot.com/
Russian Art and Culture on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russian-Art-and-Culture/
RusArtCulture on Twitter
http://twitter.com/RusArtCulture
Russian Avant-Garde Gallery
http://www.russianavantgard.com/index.html
Russia Info-Centre
http://www.russia-ic.com/culture_art/
Russian State Museum
http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/home/
Slavonic and East European Review
http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Journals/seer.html
Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies
http://www.scrss.org.uk/
Tate Modern
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
The J. Paul Getty Museum
http://www.getty.edu/museum/
Transnational Modernisms Research Cluster
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arthistory/research/tmrc.html
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/
University of Bristol
http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/gradschool/current/pgrdirectory/historyofart.html
Yale University Art Gallery
http://artgallery.yale.edu/
Zimmerli Art Museum
http://www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu/

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Walters Art Museum announces Russian enamels bequest- finest pieces from U.S. private collection


The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore has announced the gift of enameled Russian silver bequeathed by Jean Montgomery Riddell. This collection is comprised of more than 260 objects from the 17th through early 20th centuries. Riddell, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 100, was a Washington, D.C. patron of the arts. Her collection was internationally recognized and ranked as the finest of its kind in the United States. Although she was particularly interested in Moscow enamels of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, her bequest also includes important additions to the Walters holdings of works from the firm of Carl Fabergé in St. Petersburg. 


“We are honored that the Walters has been entrusted with this extraordinary collection of Russian enamels,” said Walters Director Gary Vikan. “Jean Riddell believed that with our existing holdings of russian art and our commitment to past exhibitions in the field, the Walters would make a great home for her collection.” 




Firm of Pavel Ovchinnikov, Russian (Moscow), Tankard, 1888–96, silver gilt, filigree and plique-á-jour enamel, Bequest of Mrs. Jean M. Riddell, 2010, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 


Among Jean Riddell’s admirers was Susan Kaplan Jacobson of Leo Kaplan Ltd., whose family firm was for many years a major purveyor of Moscow enamels. In particular, she remembers Mrs. Riddell for her unassuming manner, which belied her wealth, and her varied interests, including flying airplanes. 


Likewise, Paul Schaffer of the venerable New York firm of A La Vieille Russie, which traces its roots to Kiev in 1851, fondly recalls Jean Riddell’s visits. “Her achievement as a collector was truly exceptional. She was focused in her objectives and with her keen mind and rare determination, she assembled the premier collection of Russian enamels in the country.” 


Moscow silversmiths employed a range of enameling techniques seen in the Riddell Collection, but their most distinctive method was filigree—a variation on cloisonné in which twisted wires rather than flat strips of metal are used to separate the colors. The wires project from the surfaces rather than lying flat as in cloisonné. Often the sections within the wires were filled with enamel painted in different colors, another distinctive trait known as “shaded enamel.” 


Riddell used the funds that she had inherited from her grandfather John Wildi, the first producer of evaporated milk, to support the National Ballet Company and the Paul Hill Chorale in Washington, D.C. She had studied with Thomas Benton at the Arts Students League in New York and later met her husband, Richard J. Riddell, at the American Embassy in Budapest where her father, John Montgomery, served as Franklin Roosevelt’s ambassador to Hungary from 1933 to 1941. Jean Riddell became interested in Russian enamels in 1966 when she inherited some examples from her husband. 


To share these new acquisitions with the public in the future, the Walters is developing an exhibition for spring 2015, which will also tour. Currently there are 12 pieces on view on the 4th floor of the Centre Street Building. Highlights include a filigree enamel tankard inspired by a 17th-century Turkish prototype from the Kremlin Armory and a beaker with remarkable plique-à-jour enamel—a design outlined in metal and filled with colored enamels without a backing, creating a stained glass effect.


http://thewalters.org/about/
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=52537&b=russian%20art

Tuesday 10 January 2012

CFP: Association for Slavonic & East European Studies 2012


CFP for ASEEES 2012 convention Individual paper proposals deadline: 12/16 Panel/roundtable proposal deadline: 1/16/2012

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR 2012 CONVENTION


The 2012 ASEEES Annual Convention will be held at the New Orleans Marriott on Nov. 15-18, 2012. The Call for Proposals is currently open.


INDIVIDUAL PAPER PROPOSALS: The deadline for individual paper proposals is December 16, 2011, 5:00 pm US EST. 


Do not submit an individual paper proposal for a paper that is already part of an organized panel, and do not submit a proposal if you are presenting any paper on any other proposed panel. 


A conference participant can present only one paper at the conference, and can appear on the program no more than twice.


PANEL/ROUNDTABLE PROPOSALS: The deadline for panel/roundtable submissions is January 15, 2012 (exact time: January 16, 2012, 12:01 am US PST). 


Forms are available at www.aseees.org and should be mailed to Wendy Walker, Convention Coordinator, 66 Tyler Road, Weston, MA 02493 or submitted online. 

Please note that we cannot accept faxed proposals.


Affiliate groups note: Requests for a meeting room at the convention are also due January 15, 2012 (exact time: January 16, 2012, 12:01 am US PST). 

Affiliate groups may only request one meeting room at the convention.


Monday 9 January 2012

EXHIBITION: Alexey Morozov at State Russian Museum, St Petersburg

ANTOLOGIA
An exhibition of artworks by Alexey Morozov
December 15, 2011 - January 16, 2012
The State Russian Museum. Marble Palace
St. Petersburg, Russia
Exhibition curator: Alexander Borovsky


From December 15, 2011 to January 16, 2012 the State Russian Museum presents “ ANTOLOGIA ” - the first museum exhibition by Alexey Morozov, one of Russia’s most interesting artists of the 21 st century generation. On display in the Marble Palace will be about 60 pieces, including paintings, sculpture and graphics. Some are completely new, while others are already well-known.



“ ANTOLOGIA ” is the artist’s largest exhibition ever held, and which he sees as a reflection on Pax Romana, a long period of relative peace in the first and second centuries BC that allowed Greco-Roman culture to became a foundation of modern Western civilization. "Morozov develops his own poetics (in fact, an attitude to the Classics) with far-reaching goals,’’ said Alexander Borovsky, head of contemporary art at the State Russian Museum. ``His are ambitious goals, and it is interesting that we learn one main thing: the reason for the vitality of the Hellenistic world as art, as an attitude to life, and etc.’’


Morozov believes that European civilization must more often refer to the past, and revisit its positions towards allegory, myth and historical scenes in order to discover a new meaning. The art of Alexey Morozov proves that classical forms have not died, and that traditions and innovations may well coexist.


ALEXEY MOROZOV (born 1974) was born in Uzbekistan, and graduated from the Moscow State Academic Surikov Art Institute (workshop of Lev Kerbel). In 1999 he went to the south of France to study classical sculpture and French terracotta. A year later, Morozov began collaboration with the artist Timur Novikov, the founder of the New Academy of Fine Art movement. In 2003 Morozov had two solo exhibitions in St. Petersburg: in D-137 Gallery – “Craft Deco_classic” and in the New Academy – “Craft Deco_academic”. In Moscow his work has been shown in group exhibitions, and he is represented by Triumph Gallery. Morozov lives and works in Moscow and Bologna. 


For more information please contact Alexey Morozov's international press agent, John Varoli PR: www.johnvarolipr.com

Freelance Art Writers: Contribute to Russian Art and Culture

Russian Art and Culture is a new website and blog focused on Russian art and culture in the UK. The site was created in response to the successful ‘Cultural Exchange: Russia and the West’ conference at the University of Bristol last year. The aim is to create an ongoing forum for discussion of Russian art and culture.

We publish articles, interviews with curators and reviews of recent exhibitions and publications. The website allows academics, curators, researchers and interested members of the public the opportunity to read about the latest developments in Russian art, theory and criticism. It is also a hub for information on interesting related events such as exhibitions and lectures.

Russian Art and Culture is looking for contributors to the site to write articles relevant to Russian art and culture. Please join other leading cultural experts and commentators and write a post. Reviews should be 400-500 words long and articles up to 2000 words. If you would also like to publish news of an event then please do get in touch. The website also publishes notices of call for papers, academic conferences, study days, exhibitions and sales.

The website currently has 4,000 hits a month and readers in 12 countries including the UK, Germany, USA and Russia. If you are interested in contributing an article and sharing your recent research with our readers then please get in touch.
  
Contact the editor at theodora@theodoraclarke.co.uk  

http://www.russianartandculture.blogspot.com/

Saturday 7 January 2012

Art Historians: Public Speaking Workshop (AAH), 9th Feb, London

‘Public Speaking Workshop for Art Historians’
9th February 2012, 10-5pm
Association of Art Historians, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ. 

Clear, effective and professional communication skills are absolutely essential to any aspiring academic. This workshop will focus on how to communicate your research more effectively, whether you are a seasoned presenter who feels there is room for improvement or a complete beginner at public speaking. Participants will learn and practice techniques of voice projection, controlling speed and tone, and methods of connecting with the audience in lecture theatres or seminar rooms. Speakeasy, a public-speaking training organisation, is offering a one-day workshop on the art of public speaking for art historians. Organised by an academic and a professional actor, the Speakeasy Workshop is specifically developed for art historians at the start of their career. Drawing on professional acting skills and techniques, our one-day course addresses the following issues:
  • How to be an effective communicator in the lecture theatre, the seminar room or in the conference hall?
  • How to get your message across, keep your audience engaged and actually enjoy the experience
  • Voice projection, posture, body language and how to calm your nerves?
  • Different modes of communication: how to lead seminars, chair conferences and conduct a Q&A
  • Techniques for presenting, how to deliver complex ideas and personalise your style of delivery
  • Methods of communication: how to use PowerPoint, present a poster and ‘how to think on your academic feet’?
Owing to the interactive nature of the workshop, numbers are limited to 25. Book now to avoid disappointment. 
Course requirements: All attendees are required to bring a printed copy of 150 words on/about their research- this could be part of a chapter or paper. Please also make sure that you wear loose comfortable clothing.
Cost: Fee includes refreshments and a course pack. Lunch is not included, but there are a number of sandwich bars in the area.
AAH Concessionary Members: £40.00; AAH Members: £53.00 ; Non-AAH Members: £65.00. Book online now via http://www.datawareonline.co.uk/aah/Default.aspx?tabid=71&EventId=187.
This event is organised by the Independents Committee of the AAH and is open to all.

Friday 6 January 2012

EXHIBITION: Last week of Kandinsky's 'Painting with White Border' at Guggenheim NYC

October 21, 2011–January 15, 2012
Vasily Kandinsky’s canvas, Painting with White Border (Bild mit weissem Rand, May 1913) was inspired by a trip the artist took to Moscow in fall 1912. Upon his return to Munich, where he had been living intermittently since 1896, Kandinsky searched for a way to visually record the “extremely powerful impressions” of his native Russia that lingered in his memory. Over a period of five months, he explored various motifs and compositions in study after study, moving freely between pencil, pen and ink, watercolor, and oil. After he produced at least 16 studies, Kandinsky finally arrived at the pictorial solution to the painting: the white border. In his seminal 1911 treatise Über das Geistige in der Kunst. Insbesondere in der Malerei (On the Spiritual in Art: And Painting in Particular), Kandinsky wrote that the color white expresses a “harmony of silence . . . pregnant with possibilities.” 
Vasily Kandinsky, Painting with White Border (Bild mit weissem Rand), May 1913 (detail). Oil on canvas, 140.3 x 200.3 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.245 © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris


This focused exhibition, co-organized with the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., brings the Guggenheim’s final version of the painting from May 1913 together with twelve related drawings and watercolors and one major oil sketch, and features the results of an extensive conservation study of the Guggenheim and Phillips paintings. The study unearthed a previously unknown landscape painting beneath the surface of the Phillips’s Sketch I forPainting with White Border (Moscow) (Skizze für Bild mit weissem Rand [Moskau], 1913). A rare glimpse into Kandinsky’s creative process, Kandinsky’s Painting with White Border reveals the gradual and deliberate way the artist sought to translate his ideas into a bold new language of abstraction. 


Kandinsky’s work is a cornerstone of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s collection. The museum’s founder, industrialist Solomon R. Guggenheim, began acquiring Kandinsky’s paintings—including Painting with White Border—as early as 1929, and today the Guggenheim’s holdings of his work are among the most extensive in the world.
This exhibition is supported by a grant from the Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation.
—Tracey Bashkoff, Curator, Collections and Exhibitions
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/kandinskys-painting-with-white-border

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Russian Art Group Claims Attack on Police Van, Moscow


A spokesman for the radical art collective Voina on Monday announced that its members had broken into a St. Petersburg police station on New Year’s Eve and used gasoline bombs to incinerate a police vehicle used to transport prisoners as “a gift to all political prisoners of Russia.” Amateur video posted online showed a figure tossing lighted objects under a large vehicle, which was then engulfed in flames and spewed smoke into the night sky.
The St. Petersburg police responded skeptically to the Voina claims, releasing a statement that described the fire damage to the vehicle as “insignificant” and noting that there were similar rumors of arson after a fire in August that forensics specialists determined had been caused by a short circuit.
Voina, which was founded by a Moscow philosophy student in 2005, won a contemporary art award sponsored by Russia’s Ministry of Culture for a 2010 work that consisted of a 210-foot penis painted on the roadway of a St. Petersburg drawbridge, which rose to point at the offices of the F.S.B., the state security service. Its members went on to a project they called “Palace Revolution,” in which teams of men ran up to parked police cars and flipped them over, in what they described as a protest against police corruption.
The group’s activities dropped off in 2010 after two of its leaders were arrested on serious hooliganism charges; both men were released last spring on bail, with the assistance of $20,000 donated by the British street artist known as Banksy. The charges, which could bring seven-year sentences, still stand. A third member has been in detention on vandalism charges since taking part in a protest on Dec. 6 and is on a hunger strike, Aleksei Plutser-Sarno, the group’s spokesman, said by e-mail.
All day, liberals bickered online over whether the arson attack on the police vehicle constituted “pure art,” as one commentator put it, or, as another maintained, “an act as idiotic as voting for United Russia,” the ruling party.
Andrei V. Yerofeyev, a prominent intellectual who has championed Voina in the past, said he thought that the group had helped awaken a more activist spirit in the Russian populace, and that it should move away from radical political acts like the burning of the police vehicle.
“The goal of art is deeper than activism,” he said. “They have carried out their assignment.”

A version of this article by Ellen Barry appeared in print on January 3, 2012, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Russia: Artists’ Group Claims That It Burned a Police Vehicle.

Footage in the link below shows the performance

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/world/europe/russian-art-group-voina-claims-attack-on-police-van.html?_r=1

Postdoc Researcher: "Choices of Russian Modernisation"


POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/english/institute/vacancies.html

Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies The Aleksanteri
Institute is affiliated with the University of Helsinki and operates as a
national centre of research, study and expertise pertaining to Russia and
Eastern Europe, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. The
institute co-ordinates and promotes co-operation and interaction between the
academic world, public administration, business life and civil society in
Finland and abroad.

The Aleksanteri Institute's research project Constructing Russian Identity
in the Media: Between the History of WW II and the Future of Europeanness
(CRIM) is currently seeking a

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
for a fixed term from 1 February 2012 to 31 December 2012.

CRIM is a part of the new multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence (CoE)
"Choices of Russian Modernisation", coordinated by the Aleksanteri Institute
and funded by the Academy of Finland for the period 2012-2017. CRIM is also
a part of the multidisciplinary research project Memory at War, which
consists of five research teams from five countries, coordinated by the
University of Cambridge.

The project welcomes innovative applications focusing on the multiple
relations between contemporary Russian media and/or public discussions and
"The Great Patriotic War". Media discussions may include new media, in
addition to more traditional print and electronic media, as well as various
media actors and events. Public discussions may include discussions about
memorial sites, monuments, museums, etc. These subjects can be approached,
for example, from studies ranging from social memory, to the political use
of history, national identity, and media practices. Approaches to the topic
could raise questions such as, "How are transnational dimensions of
contemporary media linked to the construction of a "local" Russian national
identity and political culture within "The Great Patriotic War"? or "How do
various nationally important themes, related to Russia's WWII, define the
limits for their public discussion in the media?"

According to the regulations of the University of Helsinki, the appointee
must hold a doctoral degree and have the ability to conduct independent
scientific research as well as possess the teaching skills required for the
position.

According to the Government Decree on Universities, postdoctoral researchers
are required to be competent in the language in which they provide tuition
(i.e., in Finnish or Swedish). However, foreign citizens, foreign-born
Finnish citizens or citizens who have not been educated in Finnish or
Swedish can be exempted from this requirement without a separate
application.

The successful candidate is expected to have excellent skills in written and
oral English, as well as have a good command of the Russian language. In
addition, the candidate should have a proven capability to publish in
scientific journals, have excellent analytical and methodological skills,
and be able to work both independently and as part of a team.

The salary is based on the salary system of Finnish universities (YPJ); in
this case based on level 5 of the demands level chart for teaching and
research personnel. In addition, a salary component based on personal
performance will be paid.

Applications should be written in English and include:
-          a  1-2 page cover letter summarizing the applicant's motivation
to join the team
-          research plan (max. 5 pages)
-          CV  (max. 3 pages) and
-          list of publications (max. 3 pages)

Applications should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to
aleksanteri [at] helsinki.fi.
The application deadline is 13.1.2012 at 15.45 local Helsinki time.

For more information, please contact Markku Kangaspuro (tel. +358 9 19123650
or +358 50 5223393 or by -email markku.kangaspuro [at] helsinki.fi), or
visit the websites http://blogs.helsinki.fi/crim-project/ and
http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/english/projects/constructing.htm.