"I was born in a family of an engineer in Tbilisi. We lived in a three-room apartment built by my grandfather in our big Georgian family. One room was occupied by my mum, my dad, my little sister and me, another one was occupied by my uncle, and the third - by my aunt and my grandmother.
My father used to wake up very early, at 6 a.m. And morning started with cacophony. He turned on the radio, the music player, the razor and sang himself. My mum covered her head with a pillow, saying: "Let me sleep".
I also woke up because of the noise and, probably, I have caltivated this habit since I was a child. So waking up early in the mornings is what I inherited from my father.
So I saved the feeling of that kind of everyday sunny child's happiness coming from this lively morning noise - my dad's singing and mum's constant kind grumble, my sister "playing" the piano. And from father's permanent optimism. He always "pestered" us in the mornings: "Why don't you smile? Look, what a beautiful morning, the sun is shining. Hurry to live, it is such a nice day."
To wake up and smile first, as daddy did, then a new day will smile to you".
Z.K. Tsereteli
Leningrad-Omsk-Hakodate: the story of one collection.
The 110th anniversary of a great scientist-geobotany, public man and completist Eugene Lavrenko (1900-1987) will be celebrated in 2009. The memory of this person is remaining live not only at Neva sides where he had been working at Botanical Institute named after V.L. Komarov AN USSR since 1934 but also in siberian Omsk region. In 1984 E.M.Lavrenko handed over his art collection to the museum of Fine Art n.a.M.A.Vrubel these were more than 3500 objects of artwork, graphics, rare books of XVIII-XX centuries.
The material of this article is devoted only to one part of this richest collection.
On the 18th of July 2009 in Japan city Hakodate (Hokkaido isle) a very interesting exhibition under the title "The World created by Divinities" was organized where collections of ainu culture had been represented by the local municipal museum, Russian ethnographic museum (St.Petersburg) and by the museum of Fine Art n.a. M.A.Vrubel (Omsk).
The Omsk series of watercolour "The history and everyday life of ainus", created by Japan artist Byozan Hirasawa (1822-1876) is exhibited for the first time outside Russia at motherland of the craftsman whose life was associated with ainus for more than quarter of a century.
The art of Byozan Hirasawa was discovered not long ago by Japan scientists at the end of the XXth century. This event in a cultural world got itself to be talked about as unique, opening new pages in the history and traditional culture of ancient and mystery ainu people who settled the land of modern Japan.
G.A. Sevostyanova
Nikolay Makovsky Unknown pages of the biography and works
The interest to the works of Nikolay Egorovich Makovsky (1841-1886) appeared due to the exhibition of "the Makovsky Artists" which took place recently in the Russian Museum. Before that it did not attract the profound attention of the researches for a long time. To the large extend this happened due to the existing tradition to undervalue the artist being somewhat in a shade of his famous brothers - Konstantin and Vladimir Makovsky. In the only essay written in 1962 by V. Knyazeva, who made the first step in systematization of his creative heritage, there is no mention of the works of early and late periods as this research was based on the study of the limited number of works being known to that time and taken from the State Tretyakov Gallery (STG) and the State Russian Museum (SRM) collections.
The search of the last years resulted in extension of information about the range of N. Makovsky's works.
N.V. Bolshakova
The review of V.-I.T. Bogdan's book
The historical class of the Imperial Academy of Arts of the second half of the XIX century is a subject which until now almost did not attract the attention of Russian art critics. The book of V.-I.T. Bogdan has filled up a serious gap in Art Studies. This fundamental research represents the result of serious and hard work of a scientist who was working for many years in the Research museum of the Russian Academy of Arts (RM RAA). For the first time ever the book compiles and generalizes the extensive material which gives a rare opportunity to get an idea about the development of the historical class, being the leading in the Academy of Arts in second half of the XIX century.
В. Толмацкий
Историк искусства
Happy Serf of Unhappy Countess
These two odd portraits attract attention of almost every visitor of the Picture Gallery of Rybinsk Museum Reserve. In fact, if taken separately there is nothing odd in them. The male one is a bright example of a so-called "merchant's portrait" historically linked with the traditions of folk art, and the female portrait is not so expressive, but nevertheless meets all the standards of a noble one. However their combination seems to be quite unexpected to visitors when it becomes clear that these works are created by the same author.
There is a lot of information about the artist Ivan V. Bazhenov (? - 1861), and mainly about his education. He was "an outside student" of Imperial Academy of Arts and was even granted two silver medals in 1834 and 1835. However the final result of Bazhenov's studies was obtaining a modest title of "a free artist" in 1836. The final result of the artist's work turned out to be even more modest - no I. V. Bazhenov's works, except the above mentioned ones, could be found in either big musems' catalogues or on the Internet. They may have been destroyed in the cataclysms of the past centuries, or are still peacefully kept in private or museum collections without outhorship or not standing out against other works.
The female portrait indeed attracts attention mainly as a picture of an outsatnding person - Countess Anna A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya (1785-1848). The only daughter of one of the most famous figures of Catherine's times - brave and lucky adventurer A.G. Orlov. She was the hairess of a huge fortune and father's favourite child and he arranged grand parties for her in their Moscow estate Neskuchnoye. However, yound countess was disappoined by her fiance and decided never to get married.
O.A. Krivdina
Chinese cloisonne enamels
Enamel in Russia has been always highly valued, both cloisonne enamel, and painted, applied both on gold and on copper. It is considered that Russians learnt enamel art from the Byzantium masters. As early as in the end of the XVII century eastern cloisonne enamel was performed at the Russian court, due to the development of cultural, commercial and diplomatic relations with the Middle East, and later with China. The earliest evidence of Chinese enamel art relates Peter the Great epoch. A big round flat cloisonne enameled flask made by Chinese masters in the beginning of the XVII century is reposited in Kunstkammer in St. Petersburg, where many pieces of art from the tsar's collection were moved after 1725. In 1735 its painting was made by A. Grekov, Academy artist: the painting, as well as many other things, served the purpose to list collection items of that period, to illustrate the catalogue of Academy of sciences collection. Both the painting and the flask survived to this day and prove that Chinese cloisonne enamels were appreciated in Russia already in the beginning of the XVIII century. They were collected both in the XVIII and XIX centuries, and as a result, Russia nowadays enjoys one of the richest and considerable collection of Chinese cloisonne enamels. Today enamel art attracts an increased interest.
M.L. Menshikova
available №3 (2010)
