American Artists From the Russian
Empire
Introduction
to the Project
In a sense, I or I would
say people of my generation, people like me, I’m not alone, well,
we were in a sense more Americans, more American than Americans themselves.
We’re individualists from the very threshold. That’s why
this country meant so much for us.
Joseph Brodsky, 1988
Exhibition
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Institutions
Brooklyn Museum
Fred Jones Jr. Museum, University of Oklahoma
Jewish Museum of New York
The Smithsonian Museum of American Art
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The National Gallery of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
San Diego Museum of Art
State Russian Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art
Spanierman Gallery LLC
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
Hollis Taggart Galleries
Tobey C. Moss Gallery
Abby M. Taylor Fine Art
ABA Gallery
Anthony and Judy Evnin
Kate Rothko and Ilya Prizel
Professor Boris Stavrovsky
Mary Arapoff
Alex and Irene Valger
|
Sponsors
Morgan Stanley
Konstantin Grigorishin/Energy Standard Group
Severstal
Trust for Mutual Understanding
Anthony and Judy Evnin
Russky Mir Foundation
Gail and Mike Yanney/The Burlington Capital Group
C.F. Roe Slade Foundation
Lukoil
An Indemnity has
been granted by the
Federal Council
on the Arts and Humanities |
Overview
From its very beginnings, America provided
a haven for those seeking to escape persecution and to improve their
economic situation. The United States has experienced wave after wave
of immigrants from hundreds of different cultures. American culture
was forged in this crucible of cultural interaction. Each new generation
of immigrants took part in the ongoing melding of retained cultural
values and the polyglot nature of American culture. The waves of Russian
immigration were no different -- created by economic necessity, or revolution,
or wartime displacement, or finally as a response to domestic repression.
The appearance of Russian artists in
America dates back to as early as 1812 when Pavel Svinin, diplomat and
artist, traveled throughout the United States capturing America in his
watercolors. More were to follow, such as Vasily Vereshchagin, who followed
Remington to the West and wound up sketching American cowboys. Nikolai
Fechin and Leonid Gaspard, now regarded as quintessential chroniclers
of the American West, began their careers in Russia. The museum devoted
to Nikolai Roerich in New York is testimony to this great artist’s
sojourn in the U.S. as he made his journey from Russia to India. Others
such as Boris Grigoriev, Konstantin Somov and Nina Schick stayed for
a few years, while Boris Anisfeld continued to paint and teach for decades
after arriving.
For this first group of artists, America was either a temporary or second
phase in their artistic careers. They had established themselves as
artists in Russia before embracing American culture – and often
being embraced by it. Although many of the works completed before the
artists’ departure for the U.S. are in the collections of the
major museums including the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and
the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russian audiences know very little
about the footprints left by these artists in America.
There is another group of artists that
left Russia in early childhood and began their professional careers
in America. Louis Lozowick, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Louise Nevelson,
Raphael and Moses Soyers, Ben Shahn, Ben-Zion and others were among
this group. Many of these artists personally felt the strain of immigration.
Struggling to emerge from poverty and become artists, many were helped
by being together. Together they went through their artistic education
and adapted to American culture, however, never forgetting about Russia.
Judging by their memoirs, letters and interviews, the artists who arrived
from Russia met each other frequently, spoke in Russian, read Russian
literature and discussed events in the homeland. Memories of childhood
and adolescence were at the basis of works of many artists. Some of
them tried to establish contact with the Russian intelligentsia and
organized exhibitions (Louis Lozowick), some of them developed a Russian-English
dictionary about art (Ilya Bolotowsky), and others tried to inform America
about Russian culture through publishing (David Burliuk).
However, while the Russian theme remained
important in their lives, it did not prevent the majority of them from
becoming American artists in the nature of their work. In America, the
artists participated in various art unions and exhibited their works
in numerous shows. They were written about in books and reference materials
as “American artists” with the commentary “born in
Russia” (sometimes with the name of the city in Russia, Ukraine,
Armenia or another region of the former Russian empire) and absolutely
correctly reflected the reality of many painters, sculptors, graphic
artists and theatrical designers who came to America from Russia.
The list of all the artists is extremely
long and diverse; however, the project is not only the inventory of
Russian artists in America and their work, but also a foray into fascinating
issues of the process of cultural influence and exchange – a process
of mutual symbiosis that forever shared the art of these artists in
their newly adopted homeland, and contributed to the creation of an
American cultural identity.
The Exhibit
Introduction
The exhibition will showcase 70 -100 works (paintings and sculptures)
from different museums, galleries and private collections in America.
Through various genre sections and chronological comparisons, American
Artists from Russia will examine the impact of American culture and
art movements on Russian artists living in the U.S., with an emphasis
on how one’s artistic and everyday environment affects one’s
art.
Whenever possible, the exhibit will
provide an opportunity to juxtapose “before and after” art
styles, techniques, and even genres to provide a better visual understanding
of cross-cultural fertilization. Original art from the American careers
of artists will be supplemented with color photo images of works by
the same artists before they left Russia. At the same time it will also
highlight the influence and contribution of Russian artists in shaping
American culture and the process of cultural influence and exchange.
The exhibit proposal includes a small
introductory section about the artists of the 19th century who traveled
to America whose impressions of this country were reflected in their
work and in collections of the USA. Among these early examples are the
watercolors of Pavel Svinin who came to America in 1812-13 and traveled
around the country as one of the first Russian diplomats. In 1813, Svinin
published a book in St. Petersburg about America that included engravings
of his drawings. The original watercolors are now held by the Metropolitan
Museum and the State Russian Museum.
At the end of the 19th century, well-known
Russian artists, including Ivan Aivazovsky and Vasily Vereshchagin,
made a number of trips to America. Exhibitions of their works were usually
extremely successful, and each artist often found the time to paint
or sketch something on their trips concerning the New World.
Central Part of the Exhibition
The focus of the exhibition is, however, on those artists who became
“American” artists—those who settled and worked in
the US. The core of the exhibit will showcase limited artistic genres
to provide an in-depth view of environmental and cultural influences
of art. A variety of photos and video materials will be included to
reflect the atmosphere of the 1910’s and 1920’s up to the
1950’s in Russia and in America.
The pogroms that forced many Jewish
families to flee Russia, the destruction and chaos of the post Revolutionary
period, the horrors of war all reflected in photographs and film clips
will create a “tuning fork” of reasons explaining why emigration
from Russia was so intense. The atmosphere of the country during the
first three decades of the 20th century will be presented through photographs
and short film clips capturing the scale of construction in America,
the energy of the country at that time as well as the poverty and unemployment
of the Great Depression. This will aid the understanding of works by
Russian artists who worked during that time frame.
Several of the artists were deeply involved in the WPA and Federal Arts
Project, while others became involved in the burgeoning film industry
or the development of other artistic genres—set and costume design
for the theater, ballet and opera, illustration, etc.
Overall, the exhibit will present the
volume and diversity of the styles, genre and media used that made the
Russian immigrants some of the most active and influential in America.
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