Here are a few events and exhibitions taking place in the USA for the month of February. Enjoy!
February 3 – Boston
“Take it to the Curator” at the Museum of Russian Icons
Cost: $5 per object. Objects will be viewed on a walk-in, first-come, first-serve basis between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. This program takes place on the first Friday of every other month throughout the year.
Icon specialist Frank Ford will be available to provide visitors with information about the region, date, and subject matter of their icons. Monetary evaluations will not be given.
Mr. Ford converted to Orthodoxy in 1974 and has been an avid collector of Russian icons since then. He has taken courses at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and also has learned much from the well known icon expert Fr. Panteleimon, the Abbot of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, Mass.
When: 11 am- 2 pm
Where: The Museum of Russian Icons
Telephone: 978.598.5000
Feburary 11 – New York
Pavel Lembersky
Join the Dweck Center for another installment of their Russian Literary Series. This month’s guest is Pavel Lembersky.
Lembersky is the author of two collections of prose, River #7 and The City Of Vanishing Spaces. He presents his first novel Aboard the 500th Jolly Echelon, which was published last year to warm critical acclaim. This event is in Russian.
When: 4pm
Where: Central Library, Dweck Center
Telephone: 718.230.2222. Limit two tickets per person, must RSVP.
Feburary 14 – DC
What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with the defeat of Napoleon and a vodka tasting? Join Hillwood as we kick off our special exhibition, The Style that Ruled the Empires: Russia, Napoleon and 1812, with a party that will include wine, roses, hors d’oeuvres, and, of course, vodka. Explore the Empire Style that spread with Napoleon’s army and influenced fashion and the decorative arts across a continent.
When: 6pm – 9 pm
Where: Hillwood House Musuem
Telephone: 202.686.5807
February 23 – New York
From "My Father Evgeni"
Join the Dweck Center for another installment in the Russian film series. This month’s presentation is “My Father Evgeny.”
Filmmaker Andrei Zagdansky and his father Evgeny both lived a life in cinema, working for the Kiev Popular Science Film Studio. In 1992, when Andrei left the Ukraine for America, they communicated by letters, sharing impressions between two continents. Drawing upon that correspondence and beguiling footage from Soviet archives, Andrei creates an intimate portrait of a family living through dramatic changes. This film is in Russian with English subtitles.
When: 7 pm
Where: Central Library, Dweck Center
Telephone: 718.230.2222
February 23 – DC
The trademark style of the Imperial Porcelain Factory
The Glamorous Age of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna
Join Dr. Ekaterina Khmelnitskaya of the State Hermitage Museum at Hillwood House Museum as she discusses the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress Elizabeth, and her reign over one of the most brilliant pages in the artistic history of Russia. The lecture will explore the Empress�s founding of the Imperial Porcelain Works in 1744 and the spectacular pieces of table decoration that enhanced the balls, dinners, masquerades, concerts, and firework displays that made the Russian Court an eternal festival. $20, $10 for members and $7 for college students.
When: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Hillwood House Musuem
Telephone: 202.686.5807
Ongoing exhibitions
Opening February 14 – DC
Special Exhibition: The Style that Ruled the Empires: Russia, Napoleon and 1812
Known in Russia as the Patriotic War, the defeat of Napoleon in 1812 is still a cause of celebration in Russia. Join Hillwood as we explore the national pride that launched the production of exquisite decorative arts commemorating this great military victory.
Where: Hillwood House Musuem
Telephone: 202.686.5807
On until March 10 – New York
Behind the Porous Curtain
One of Anatoly Pronin's works featured in "Behind the Porous Curtain"
Behind the Porous Curtain, curated by Regina Khidekel, showcases 18 works by Anatoly Pronin. These works capture the Soviet period of artistic inspiration of the 1970s, as the post-Stalin thaw opened a pathway through the iron curtain for modern Western art and culture to enter the Soviet Union. Most of Pronin’s photographs were shot behind the theater curtain, capturing the private and almost intimate world of rehearsals with iconic figures such as George Balanchine, Roland Petit, Laurent Terzieff, and Marcel Marceau.
Where: Harriman Atrium, 2th floor IAB, 420 West 118th Street
Cost: Free
On until March 10 – New York
Sound of Silence: Art During Dictatorship
From "Sound of Silence: Art During Dictatorship"
Sound of Silence: Art During Dictatorship brings together nine of the most active young artists from Belarus, and their video, posters, paintings and installations created in solidarity with popular protests against the December 2010 rigged election and state-sanctioned crime that unfolded in its aftermath.
Where: EFA Project Space, 323 W39th Street, betw 8th and 9th Avenues, 2nd Floor
When: 12pm – 6 pm, Wednesday-Saturday
Cost: Free
On until March 25 – New York
Underground: Russian Photography 1970s-1980s
Boris Mikhailov's "Greetings from Gorky", featured in Nailya Alexander Gallery's exhibition
Nailya Alexander Gallery is pleased to announce “Underground: Russian Photography 1970s-1980s,” an exhibition of some forty vintage gelatin silver prints by Boris Smelov (1951, Leningrad -1998, St. Petersburg), Boris Mikhailov (b. 1938, Kharkov), Yuri Rybchinsky (b. 1935, Brdiansk), Alexander Lapin (b. 1945, Moscow), Nikolai Bakharev (b. 1946, Novokuznetsk), Gennady Bodrov (1958, Solntsy -1999, Kursk), Vladimir Kuprianov (1954-2011, Moscow), Igor Moukhin (b. 1961, Moscow), Andrey Chezhin (b. 1960, Leningrad), and Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962, Leningrad).
Where: Fuller Building, 1 East 57th Street, Suite 704
When: 11am – 6pm, Tuesday-Saturday
Cost: Free
http://artinrussia.org/february-events/
Copyright: Art in Russia, The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Taryn Jones graduated in 2008 from the University of Victoria (Canada) with her BA in history and anthropology. During that time, she also studied Russian and art history, and was heavily involved with the university’s Russian Studies course union. In January 2012, she will begin her studies at the University of British Columbia in a double Master’s program in library and archival science. Taryn’s specific artistic interests are the Wanderers, Socialist Realism and photography.
Art in Russia is a student-powered project dedicated to educating English-speakers about achievements in the arts made in Russia and countries of the former USSR. Art in Russia facilitates and encourages students to study art at home and abroad as part of a study abroad program. Art in Russia is hosted and sponsored by The School of Russian and Asian Studies.
