#moscow

Unknown Artist. Room with a Stepped Floor before the Window. 
Second quarter of XIX century. State Tretyakov Museum, Moscow.

Pyotr Konchalovsky. Various Flowers (Still-life with flowers and watering can).
1939. Museum of Russian Impressionism, Moscow.

“You cannot paint a flower ‘just like that’, in slapdash strokes - it needs as much study as anything else. Flowers are great teachers for artists, since discerning and comprehending the structure of a rose requires no less effort than deciphering that of a human face. Painting flowers for me is what practicing scales is for a musician: after a couple of hours’ work your brain goes into overdrive and instead of flowers, sounds crop up… It is a massive exercise for a painter.” Konchalovsky spoke of flower still-lifes with expertise and vigour; it was therefore, perhaps, no surprise, that towards the end of his life he was accused of ignoring the everyday life around him, and of only caring for his art. “At the moment I am much taken with painting ‘against the sun’, – he told his friend, the art critic Viktor Nikolsky in the early 1930s, – “I am interested in catching its hurling silver at the leaves, the trees, at everything – a rather cold kind of silver in so many hues… and such gliding light over the foliage.” Konchalovsky settled far from Moscow, in a place called Bugry near the town of Maloyaroslavets, where he tended his garden, made honey, bred pigs and smoked gammon. Following such a traditional way of life, he did not welcome the comforts of civilisation: there was no electricity in the house, only oil lamps, and the radio was always switched off to shut out news of the outside world.

Mikhail Shemyakin. Girl in a Sailor Suit (Sonechka).
1910. Museum of Russian Impressionism, Moscow.

Sonechka… The name of Mikhail Shemyakin’s young model is the only thing that researchers have been able to discover about the girl. We’re left to guess who she was, and to enjoy the beautiful technique of her portrait – “Girl in a Sailor Suit".

 Look for a moment at the background - it’s almost impossible to understand just where she may be sitting. The background was executed in wide strokes, while the image of the young girl herself was clearly created with slower, softer and more tender brushstrokes, with both rapture and delight. The composition is unusual, built around a diagonal, and the light forward tilt of the head was a favorite touch of the artist. The bold and generous reflections of light on the girl’s face, and the collar and cuffs of her sailor suit are called “overtones” and emphasize the heroine’s vivacity. “His paintings are filled with grace, rhythm and subtlety, he seeks to grasp man’s nature and inner life with just a few strokes, and is perfectly precise in approaching but never crossing the fine line between artistic creation and a piece of craft” – such was the high opinion of one art critic about Shemyakin. The artist favored portraiture over all other genres, rather like his teacher Valentin Serov. He excelled in it, and received well deserved recognition from Igor Grabar, the renowned Russian painter, art historian and critic: “A new powerful master of portraiture, a highly professional artist has emerged on the Russian artistic scene. Shemyakin’s portraits have always been skillfully drawn, well composed and are outstanding with their strong sense of character!” Shemyakin portrayed many famous people of his time, such as Vladimir Filatov, the Russian-Ukrainian ophthalmologist and surgeon, and the Russian botanist and physiologist Kliment Timiryazev. But musicians were far and away his favourite subject, earning him the “high nickname” from Igor Grabar – “Painter for the Musicians”. Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was also educated in the arts, called Shemyakin a “realist-impressionist-cubist”. Shemyakin inherited his recognizable “wide manner” of painting from his teachers Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, and it would later be recognized as one of the main features of Russian fine art of the late 19th century.

Silvestr Shchedrin. Moonlit Night in Naples. 
1828. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Aleksandr Ivanov. Foliage. 
1830s. State Tretyakov Museum, Moscow.

Isaak Brodskiy. Vladimir Lenin at the Rally of Putilov Plant Workers in May 1917.
1929. State Historical Museum, Moscow.

In February 1917 strikes at the factory contributed to setting in motion the chain of events which led to the February Revolution. In 10 March 1919 at protest rally in the factory striking workers condemned the Bolshevik government in a resolution claiming “…the Bolshevik government is not the authority of the proletariat and peasants, but the authority of the dictatorship of the Central Committee of the Communist Party…”. When Lenin came to Petrograd to give a speech on 13 March the workers demanded his resignation and when Zinoviev tried to address the workers he was greeted with shouts: “Down with the Jew!”. Strikers barricaded themselves in the factory which was stormed by the Cheka to suppress the strike and about 200 workers were executed.

After the October Revolution it was renamed Red Putilovite Plant (zavod Krasny Putilovets), famous for its manufacture of the first Soviet tractors, Fordzon-Putilovets, based on the Fordson tractor. The Putilov Plant was famous because of its revolutionary traditions. In the wake of Sergey Kirov’s 1934 assassination, the plant was renamed Kirov Factory No. 100. 

You may find  more information about the factory here.

Aleksandr Benois. Chinese pavilion. Jealous husband.
1906. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Benua, confined within the limits of his retrospective view of history, believed that the ages and style do not come one after the other, but are unique and closed within them. Rococo with its enthusiasm for things Chinese, Oriental ornamentalism, was similar to the style of Art Nouveau, of the time of Benua. The image of Rococo, the most refined and exquisite style of the 18th century, beloved by the artists of The World of Art, is embodied, according to Benua, in the shapes of outlandish Chinese pavilion, which resembles a light burning in darkness. This fragile island of light is lost between two abysses: a dark starry sky and its reflection in water. The instability of the vision is emphasized by the comic fussing of the characters, dolly ladies and gentlemen, resembling a Chinese shadow show. The style of Rococo, like a bright flash, glared up on the horizon of European culture and has long been extinguished, with a mere flicker remaining.

Mykola Samokysh. Courage Of General Raevsky.
1912. Museum-Panorama the Battle of Borodino, Moscow. 

July 23, 1812 the battle of Saltanovka, which has become one of the most legendary pages of the life of General Raevsky. This feat glorified General in the nation. Then arose a legend which was reflected in the famous painting — Rajewski goes on the attack, and next to him are his sons, 17-year-old Alexander and 11-year-old Nicholas.The General himself said it was just a legend. The sons were, indeed, in his case, but in attack they did not go. But in people’s memory Raevsky was a man who sacrifices for the homeland the most expensive.

Moscow

Russia

2016

It says “vegans are hooligans” lol! #graffiti #vegan #strangewords #moscow #chertanovo
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt9Etf7AAv0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=i5vtgo07v72l

grupaok:

Salon Henri Matisse in the house of collector Sergei Shchukin, Moscow, 1913

Women try on hats in a variety of colors in Moscow, March 1966.
Photograph by Dean Conger, National Geographic

A costumed dancer prepares for an international ballet competition in Moscow, January 1978.Photograph by Gordon Gahan, National Geographic

Commuters travel on a four-lane escalator in Moscow’s subway system, March 1966.Photograph by Dean Conger, National Geographic

semioticapocalypse:

Robert Lebeck

[::SemAp Twitter||SemAp::]

Izvestiya Hall | Moscow, Russia | 4.7.17

Photo 1: ruevents [IG]

Photo 2: zhenyakessler [IG]

Photo 3: lion19_ [IG]

Photo 4: semyonushkin [IG]

Photo 5: semyonushkin [IG]

Moscow 1989. Photographed by Harry Gruyaert.