Exhibition "Zinaida Serebryakova" in Kaluga
A Kaluga exhibition record that brings together Serebriakova's pre-revolutionary and emigration periods through works from several Russian museum collections.
Preserved from the Collection's earlier website. Event dates and practical details refer to the original publication date.
The Kaluga record is a useful regional counterpart to the large Tretyakov and Russian Museum projects: it shows how Serebriakova's work circulated through museum partnerships for the 130th-anniversary year.
Its list of themes - peasant compositions, self-portraits, ballet, Morocco, landscape, and portraiture - is a good reader map for the catalogue categories on the site.
On 28 October 2014, at 16:00, the exhibition "Zinaida Serebryakova" opened in the exhibition hall of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts.
It was timed to the 130th anniversary of the artist.
For the first time in Kaluga’s history, 30 paintings and graphic works by Z.E.
Serebryakova are on display, drawn from several museum collections — the Russian Museum, the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts, and the Tula Regional Art Museum.
The exhibition’s presentation includes both the artist’s pre-revolutionary and emigration periods.
Particularly valuable exhibits include works that helped establish Serebryakova’s reputation in Russian art, such as "Banya", "Peasants", "House of Cards", "Study of a Girl (Self-Portrait)", and "Ballet Dressing Room (Swan Lake)".
Zinaida Evgenyevna Serebryakova (1884–1967) was an important painter of the twentieth century, a participant in the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) movement, and one of the Russian women artists whose work entered the wider history of painting.
She grew up in an artistic family spanning several generations (her father was sculptor E.A.
Lanceray, her uncle was artist and theater designer A.N.
Benois, and her brother was notable Soviet muralist and graphic artist E.E.
Lanceray), and absorbed the humanistic traditions of Russian culture from childhood.
After brief studies in private schools in Petersburg and Paris, she became involved in Russia’s artistic life of the early 1900s and earned recognition for her classical manner, clear drawing, and intimate treatment of family, rural, and portrait subjects.
Her orientation toward classical themes and motifs remained.
In her peasant scenes, Serebryakova drew on the tradition of A.G.
Venetsianov – the poet of rural life and peasant labor.
She used complex perspectives and angles freely, but never dramatized her images, maintaining calm, contemplative grandeur and monumentality.
Serebryakova’s art is very diverse.
A gifted draughtsman and painter, she worked in various genres.
The exhibition includes her multi-figure compositions, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.
Among the exhibits are a number of self-portraits by the artist, each different in mood, painterly approach, and concept.
Great interest is also aroused by works belonging to two significant series – the "Moroccan" and "Ballet" series.
Painted with close observation and technical skill, they embody the artist’s conception of the harmony of human life and nature.
Serebryakova’s work often turns away from political drama toward classical traditions, rural labor, family life, and lyrical observation.
She left behind a large creative legacy, marked by a poetry of life, lyrical feeling, and attention to folk and family themes.
The exhibition will run from 30 October to 14 December 2014 (open 10:00–18:00, Thursday until 19:00; closed on Mondays).
Contact phone: 56-28-30.