St. Petersburg.- The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg presents a solo show of works by Boris Grigoriev until August 15th. Boris Grigoryev was one of the most well-known Russian artists of the first half of the 20th century, and the exhibition includes more than 150 paintings and graphic works from the Russian Museum’s collection as well as from private collections in Russia and abroad. This is the first major retrospective of Grigoriev’s work to be held in Russia. Grigoriev emigrated in 1919 and later worked in Western Europe, Latin America and the United States of America.
Boris Grigoriev gained international fame for his paintings and graphic portraits of famous men in early twentieth century Russian culture (among them Maxim Gorky, Shalyapin, Meyerhold and Rachmaninov) marked by the shrewdness and depth of delineation. The special part of the exhibition presents the works from the Raseya series that were created in the revolutionary years and revealed the artist’s complicated reflections on the fate of the Russian World. The unique drawings, created in the 1910’s-20’s give an opportunity to appreciate completeness and perfection of the form in the expressive and versatile images. The exhibition is supplemented by a multimedia film devoted to the basic works by Boris Grigoryev.
Boris Grigoriev was born in Rybinsk on 11 July 1886 and studied at the Stroganov Art School from 1903 to 1907. he went on to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg under Aleksandr Kiselyov, Dmitry Kardovsky and Abram Arkhipov from 1907 to 1912. He began exhibiting his work in 1909 as a member of Union of Impressionists group, and became a member of the World of Art movement in 1913. At that time he also was interesting in literature, writing the novel “Young Rays”. Grigoriev lived for a time in Paris, where he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
In Paris he was strongly influenced by Paul Cézanne. After his return to Saint Petersburg in 1913 he became part of the Bohemian scene and was close to many artists and writers of the time, such as Sergey Sudeykin, Velimir Khlebnikov and the poet Anna Akhmatova, often painting their portraits. Grigoriev was also interested in the Russian countryside, its peasants and village life. From 1916 to 1918 he created a series of paintings and graphic works depicting the poverty and strength of the Russian peasantry and village life. From 1919, Grigoriev travelled and lived abroad in many countries including Finland, Germany, France, USA, Central and South America where he painted and also composed poetry. Grigoriev died in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1939.
The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg is a unique depository of artistic treasures, a leading restoration center, an authoritative institute of academic research, a major educational center and the nucleus of a network of national museums of art. The Russian Museum collection contains about 400,000 exhibits. The main complex of museum buildings (the Mikhailovsky Palace and Benois Wing) houses the permanent exhibition of the Russian Museum, tracing the entire history of Russian art from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. The museum collection embraces all forms, genres, schools and movements of art. The Russian Museum holds many exhibitions both in Russia and abroad. The Museum holds more than 50 temporary exhibitions and organizes more than 10 in other cities and abroad annually. Catalogues, albums and booklets made by museum researchers accompany many exhibitions. Over the past twenty years, the museum complex has grown to include the Stroganov Palace, St Michael’s (Engineers) Castle and the Marble Palace. The complex also includes the Mikhailovsky Gardens, Engineering Gardens, Summer Garden (including the Summer Palace) and the House of Peter the Great. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.rusmuseum.ru
