2023-06-06 09:27:00
Russian avant-garde is a well-established term in the history of arts, which usually denotes large-scale revolutionary processes that began in 1914 in the Russian Empire in the fields of painting, sculpture, poetry, music, theater, design, and the result of these processes. Among the brightest names of representatives of the Russian avant-garde are Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Natalya Goncharova, Mikhail Matyushin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko. In the West, they are more familiar with the pictorial heritage of the Cubists, Futurists, Abstractionists, Suprematists, Constructivists, who were born on the territory of the Russian Empire.
The Russian avant-garde has occupied and continues to occupy an important place in the collection of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne (Museum Ludwig) – one of the most famous contemporary art museums in Europe. Therefore, it is symbolic that it was in this cultural institution that they decided to hold an exhibition offering a new look at the belonging of certain names to this artistic style. The current exhibition is called “Ukrainian modernism 1920-1930”.
Russian avant-garde – no longer Russian?
“Kiew” is also written under Malevich’s painting, we will change it to “Kyjiv”. He was also Ukrainian. In his biography, there was an important period of work as a professor at the Kiev Art School. He published his texts, in particular, in Ukrainian magazines. All this was silent, so he was always considered a representative of the Russian avant-garde,” curator Yulia Berdiyarova tells DW on the eve of the opening of the exhibition for visitors. Yulia left Ukraine in June 2022 and now works at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.
Kyjiw or Kiew? A few years ago, the discussion about the German spelling of the capital of Ukraine was conducted only in narrow circles of linguists of the then not so numerous Ukrainian community in Germany. Now this question is being raised at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. “We are trying to understand how the term “Russian avant-garde” became part of the system of cultural appropriation in the territory of the former empire and why it became so widespread. How could this topic have been ignored for so long?” – asks the 29-year-old curator, art critic, who previously worked at the Odessa Art Museum and at the Mystetsky Arsenal museum complex in Kiev.
The exhibition in Cologne is not the first attempt to rethink cultural heritage. Since February 22, 2022 – the date of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine – discussions similar to those in Cologne have recently taken place in Switzerland, where exhibitions of paintings from the Kiev Art Gallery, taken out for the sake of salvation, were organized in two of the country’s largest museums – in Basel and Geneva. during the course of hostilities. Thus, the Art Museum of Basel (Kunstmuseum Basel) presented the exhibition “Born in Ukraine” (“Born in Ukraine”), within which almost fifty unique paintings of the 18th-20th centuries by world-famous artists were demonstrated: Ilya Repin, Dmitry Levitsky, Ivan Aivazovsky, Zinaida Serebryakova, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Vladimir Borovikovsky, David Burliuk – famous artists of different nationalities who were born in the Russian Empire on the territory of modern Ukraine.
How the Ludwig Museum rediscovered the “Russian avant-garde”
But back to Cologne. The exhibition currently taking place at the Ludwig Museum came here from Madrid. After Cologne, the exposition will be shown in Brussels, Vienna and London. Many works in the exhibition were evacuated from Ukrainian museums during the war. The Ludwig Museum also exhibits for the first time some works by Ukrainian modernists from its own funds.
The exhibition in Cologne presents works by Alexander Bogomazov, Kazimir Malevich, Anatoly Petritsky, Alexander Archipenko, Vladimir and David Burliukov, Alexandra Ekster, Vasily Yermilov, artists of the Kultur-League, which united figures of Jewish culture and arose in 1918 in Kiev. The focus is on Kyiv and Kharkov.
The names and works of some artists presented at the exhibition in Cologne were few known even in Ukraine a few years ago: the Soviet authorities repressed the authors, and their paintings were kept in a special secret fund, which miraculously managed to be preserved. In 2015, exhibitions “Special Fund. 1937-1939” were held in Kyiv and Odessa, where Ukrainians for the first time could see many works that are now available to the international public.
“It’s interesting, but at the same time, it’s very sad that we see this exhibition in exile, and only because Ukraine was in the center of our attention because of the war. Finally, we return to this country and its culture. And even we , the employees of the Ludwig Museum, where there are many works of the “Russian avant-garde”, did not know how many artists worked in Kiev, had their ateliers there and enriched Ukrainian cities in such a way,” says Rita Kersting, deputy director of the museum.
Konstantin Akinsha, curator of the exhibition of Ukrainian modernism at the Ludwig Museum, is from Kyiv. Even before the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, he actively promoted the idea of holding exhibitions dedicated to Ukrainian modernism in various Western countries. In a conversation with DW, he says that he “went through all the circles of hell”, negotiating with museums: some of them were denied him because of threats to stop cooperation from museums in Moscow. “I am very grateful to Mr. Putin for being my PR agent,” Akinsha says, referring to the interest in Ukraine in the West due to the war. “A very high price, but everything has changed. Now people in the West have opened their eyes.” .
The exhibition at the Ludwig Museum is a vivid illustration of a paradigm shift that, according to Akinshi, has already taken place: “At least as far as modernism is concerned.” When asked whether the “Russian avant-garde”, a large collection of which, in particular, is stored in the Ludwig Museum, will now become Ukrainian, the deputy director of the museum, Rita Kersting, answers: “This designation is erroneous from the very beginning, because it is, of course, Soviet. In addition, in this case, we are silent about the period of Ukrainian independence (in 1917-1920. – Ord.) In general, we do not want to ascribe nationality to art. I think this is not in the interest of the artists. Still, it is important to look at the problem from the point of view of Ukraine. That is why we are doing this exhibition. We do not know what happened in Kharkov and Kyiv, because we constantly looked at Moscow.”
The Ludwig Museum dedicated the exhibition not only to the artists of Ukrainian modernism, but also invited a contemporary artist from Ukraine, Daria Koltsova, to join it. Her installation of glass and light, made for an exhibition in Cologne, traces elements of modernist paintings. Together with other Ukrainian art historians, curator Yulia Berdiyarova is now creating a register of Ukrainian artists whose works are kept in museum collections around the world. The goal is to showcase the diversity of the Ukrainian cultural landscape and show how Russian propaganda has over the years denied Ukraine a place in world art history.
Russian art critic Andrey Erofeev: “Here we tear Malevich”
“National affiliation is still not the main advantage of an artist. There is Pablo Picasso. Is this a Spanish or French artist?” – asks Andrey Erofeev, a well-known Russian art critic, curator and expert on the latest trends in art, in an interview with DW. To DW’s question about whether “Ukrainian artist” will be written under Repin’s paintings soon, Andrey Yerofeev answers: “Yes, it will probably be written. This is a symbolic “sharing” of cultural heritage. But there will also be a specific struggle for collections. gold” did not return to Ukraine. At the same time, Russian troops have now robbed a large number of museums in the occupied territories, taken out thousands of exhibits … The main problem is that at one time everything was done to Russify the culture of the Russian Empire in order to to make Russian culture its core. Hence, it turns out that other republics, territories or regions have lost the opportunity to build their national history of art.”
“It is necessary, of course, that there be an autonomous Ukrainian avant-garde, autonomous Ukrainian art of the late 19th century – early 20th century. These things should be different from the central Russian line of the artistic process,” Yerofeev is sure. “Now there is such a piece struggle. Here we are tearing Malevich. Where is Malevich? But besides Malevich, there was Yermilov, a wonderful Ukrainian avant-garde artist. We need to make big exhibitions, publications about him. Not to tear the existing artist, who is already so great that it doesn’t matter if he is Russian, Polish or Ukrainian, he – just a figure in the world history of art, which must be present in every major museum of contemporary art, not because he is Russian or Ukrainian, but because this figure, without which it is impossible to talk about minimalism, geometric art.”
A much more important task now, the Russian art critic believes, is the search for marauders who robbed Ukrainian museums, the reconstruction of these museums, architectural monuments, and historical centers. “This part of the Ukrainian heritage requires attention and international assistance,” concludes Andriy Yerofeev.
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