New York – On October 9, 2014, Gallery Shchukin will host an opening reception for “In Other Worlds: The Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910-1930.” Featuring works by some of the most prominent artists of the Avant-Garde period in Russia and drawn from the collection of Marina and Nikolay Shchukin, the exhibition will run from October 10th through the end of the year.
Organized by Matthew Drutt, “In Other Worlds” looks at art in a time of social and political upheaval in turn-of-the-century Russia. In a mirror of Russia’s simultaneous fascination with and rejection of the West, artists explored, adopted and then discarded Western stylistic trends, including Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism, often melding them with traditional Russian folklore to create a style that was uniquely Russian and inextricably linked to the period before the Second World War.
The opening reception for “In Other Worlds” will take place from 6:00pm-10:00pm on Thursday, October 9th, at Gallery Shchukin’s Chelsea space at 524 W. 19th St., New York, NY 10011.
Highlights of the exhibition include one of two known versions of a lithograph by Marc Chagall; paintings and drawings by Mikhail Larionov from the early part of his career, including a rare set of proofs for his 1929 pouchoir portfolio, Voyage en Turquie; a pair of early paintings by Natalia Goncharova which were formerly in the collection of a Russian provincial museum; a classic Cubo-futurist painting by Liubov Popova, one of the great painters of the Avant-Garde; two major paintings by Olga Rozanova, one from her early Expressionist period and the other a rare masterpiece from her Cubo-futurist phase; an exemplary Cubo-futurist painting by Alexandra Exter from her celebrated City series; a rare group of abstract collages by poet Aleksei Kruchenykh; and several works on paper by the Latvian Constructivist Gustav Klucis.
“We are proud to present these works, some of which are on display for the first time in the West,” said Marina Shchukin, co-owner of Gallery Shchukin. “While some of these works are new to Western eyes, the artists themselves are well-known in America as masters of the Avant-Garde movement in Russia—a period which has immense cultural and political significance, coming as Russia reeled between world wars and a regime change that finds its echoes in the art on display here. In that regard, ‘In Other Worlds’ is a visual metaphor for one of the most significant periods in Russian—and world—history.” In addition to the work on display by names well-known in the Western world, “In Other Worlds” also features a number of important works by artists less recognized outside of Russia who were nevertheless no less important in their own time, including Samuil Adlivankin, Robert Falk, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Kliment Redko, and Alexander Shevchenko.
A unique feature of “In Other Worlds” will mirror the rapid pace of change of the Russian Avant-Garde: the exhibition will be reinstalled periodically with different works and reshuffled narratives, undermining the notion of traditional exhibition installation and emphasizing the fluid and myriad correspondences between different artists, styles, and epochs.
“In Other Worlds” runs from October 10th through the end of the year at Gallery Shchukin and is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am to 7pm.