Diaghilev: the early years
The Russian Museum showcases Sergei Diaghilev’s achievements prior to the legendary Ballets Russes. By Larisa Doctorow
The St. Petersburg Times
For The St. Petersburg Times
‘Diaghilev. The Beginning’ focuses on the early projects of the impresario. |
As part of the Diaghilev. P.S. festival that opened in the city on Oct. 12, the Russian Museum has unveiled an impressive exhibition titled “Diaghilev. The Beginning.,” which highlights the period of Diaghilev’s life that preceded his activities as world-renowned impresario and creator of the Ballets Russes. Sergei Diaghilev was an ambitious young man when he came to St. Petersburg in 1890 from provincial Perm to seek his fortune. Thanks to his extraordinary talent and energy, as well as a mission to leave a significant impact on the artistic development of his country, he soon found himself at the center of artistic life in the imperial capital. The five-part exhibition in the Russian Museum takes visitors through this exciting period, which began with the launch of the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) journal. The magazine was more than a glossy publication; it was an important step toward Diaghilev’s future great projects. Art exhibitions were organized under the banner of the journal in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where work by contemporary Russian artists was shown to the public for the first time. Altogether, there were six such exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The magazine also published reviews of the achievements of contemporary foreign and Russian artists. As time has proven, the circle of creative talent that Diaghilev brought together in the magazine showed remarkable editorial perspicacity. Leading literary figures included Gippius, Merezhkovsky and Remisov, while the painters included Korovin, Bakst and Serov. The idea for a magazine like Mir Iskusstva, devoted to the popularization of the new trend sweeping the art world, had already circulated among the artistic elite of the capital before Diaghilev’s arrival. Alexander Benois, for one, was known to have talked about it. But it needed the creative genius of Diaghilev for the concept to be realized and succeed. The new exhibition at the Russian Museum focuses on Diaghilev, his friends and contributors to the magazine, and presents work by the painters and graphic artists that the magazine promoted. But not everything is celebratory or serious. A place of honor is reserved for the art of caricature, one target of which was Diaghilev and his publishing work. After Mir Iskusstva, Diaghilev undertook an exhibition of contemporary Russian and Finnish artists. This art comprises the focus of the next section of the exhibition. Diaghilev realized that the Russian public was not familiar with the art of their Finnish neighbors, and decided to fill that gap. The result was a vast and very successful exhibition that has left traces in the permanent collection of the Russian Museum to this day. It took place in 1898 in the exhibition halls of Baron Stieglitz’s School of Art. The show attracted 12,000 visitors, a huge number at the time, and stirred up controversy — always the lifeblood of artistic events. The eminent Russian critic Vladimir Stasov said the exhibition was one-sided. His criticism was not unjustified, since Diaghilev had intentionally avoided any work by realist painters such as Repin or any work by the Peredvizhniki (Itinerants) like Kramskoi, who were the “gold standard” of the day. Instead, he intentionally concentrated his efforts on presenting the Impressionists and Symbolists. “Diaghilev. The Beginning.” presents 40 works from the original 200 canvases seen by visitors to the 1898 show, including now famous works by Vrubel (whose depiction of naked young women in “Morning” particularly outraged Stasov), Serov, Levitan and Korovin. Luckily for Diaghilev, art enthusiasts who came to see his show disagreed with Stasov. The exhibition traveled to European cities and eventually all the canvases were sold. Many pieces went to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, some went to other Russian museums, and still others were taken up by private collectors. In 1905, Diaghilev undertook one of his most ambitious projects — an exhibition of Russian portraits from the dawn of Russian portraiture to the beginning of the 20th century. He spent months traveling around Russia and visiting provincial estates in order to persuade their owners to part with family treasures for several months. Diaghilev’s gift of persuasion enabled him to assemble the greatest showcase ever in this genre, consisting of some 3,000 portraits altogether. The Russian Museum is now showing 114 of these pieces. However, even this small sampling of the original collection demonstrates the richness of Diaghilev’s exhibition. It was visited by 45,000 people and brought in 60,000 rubles — an enormous sum at the time — which was then donated to widows and orphans of the 1905 war. The curators of the Russian Museum have recreated the atmosphere of the 1905 event in the Tauride Palace, which was at the time the most prestigious exhibition venue in the city. Its rooms were decorated for the occasion in the style of the historical periods of the paintings they contained. Now, above the canvases in the Russian Museum hang large photos from the original exhibition. Diaghilev himself described his project as a “journey through the reigns” of Russian history. The sheer quantity of works was striking. The portraits, sculptures, oil paintings and watercolors together created an impressive social picture of Russian society, and contemporaries were pleased by what they saw. Encouraged by the success of this exhibition, in 1906 Diaghilev ventured on his first international demarche. Seven hundred and fifty sculptures, paintings, watercolors, icons and examples of graphic and folkloric art were brought to Paris for an exhibition titled “Two Centuries of Russian Sculpture and Painting.” The 12 halls of the Grand Palace in the center of Paris were given over to this epic showcase of Russian art. Precious icons that had never before left Russia’s palaces were shown abroad for the first time. Portraits from the 1905 exhibition in St. Petersburg were complemented by landscapes, genre works and graphic art. There were few works of the traditional academic variety: several Repins, no Itinerants, but plenty of 20th-century contemporary artists. One exception was the portraits by Dmitry Levitsky, the 18th-century painter famous for his dreamily beautiful images and perfect technique. The French did not know what to make of his works and compared him to their icon of good taste and technique, Batiste Greuze. The organizers of the 1906 exhibition in Paris, Leon Bakst and Alexander Benois, were decorated with the Order of the Legion d’Honneur. This event in Paris showed Russians both to the French as well as to Russians themselves. The Tretyakov Gallery loaned out a substantial number of important works, including those by Somov, Levitan and Nesterov. The final sensation at “Diaghilev. The Beginning,” is the curtain that Leon Bakst, a member of the Diaghilev circle, created for the Kommissarzhevsky Theater in St. Petersburg. “Elysium” was created exactly 104 years ago, and is being displayed by the museum for the first time. The curtain depicts exotic, transparent beauty: The sea, a fountain and a sphinx rising above vivid red patches of exotic flowers. Bakst was later to design the scenery for many of Diaghilev’s productions in the world of dance and opera. The exhibition “Diaghilev. The Beginning” runs through March 10, 2010 at the Russian Museum. www.rusmuseum.ru
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