Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

An exhibition titled "Upon request. The Russian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1930. Part 3" has opened at the Heydar Aliyev Center.

Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Trend reported.

Addressing the event, executive director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov shared his ideas on the exhibition.

Alakbarov stressed that the exhibition is held for the first time in Azerbaijan, and thanked First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, and Vice-President of the Foundation Leyla Aliyeva for their support for the organization of the exhibition.

"There are many significant cultural events in Azerbaijan. It is gratifying to note that the Heydar Aliyev Center is a traditional venue for such events as concerts, exhibitions, conferences, round tables, which are highly appreciated by the participants and guests of the city," he said.

In his speech, Alakbarov stressed that the exhibition this month is not accidental. February 23 marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Kazimir Malevich. Many events are held in honor of this significant date and the Heydar Aliyev Center is not an exception.

He expressed his gratitude to the President of the Jewish communities of Russia, the founder and director of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Alexander Boroda, the exhibition curator, art historian, author of a series of monographs and publications on Russian avant-garde, Andrei Sarabyanov for assistance in holding the exposition.

Alexander Boroda noted that the exhibition presents the little-known works of recognized classics and not so well-known masters of the Russian avant-garde of 1900-1930.

"The Jewish Museum and the Center for Tolerance has long and fruitfully cooperated with the Heydar Aliyev Center. We fully share both the aesthetic tastes of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Heydar Aliyev Center, as well as the ideological foundations and principles of tolerance, mutual respect and interaction that unite the Azerbaijani and Jewish peoples," he said.

Alexander Boroda expressed his gratitude to the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, for great attention to issues of culture, humanitarian cooperation and education.

Andrei Sarabyanov said he was happy that the works of the Russian avant-garde are presented in Baku.

"There was a time when the works of the Russian avant-garde were in the storerooms of museums and no one saw them, but now these paintings are triumphantly parading around the world. It is not by chance that Baku accepts works of the Russian avant-garde. Back in 1921, the famous poet, one of the greatest figures of the Russian avant-garde Velimir Khlebnikov, lived here for half a year, and he left us beautiful poems about Baku. Therefore, the current exhibition - is a kind of continuation of the traditions. Many works in the exhibition are unique, and the fate of artists is tragic, they died in Stalin's camps, prisons or during the Second World War. There are even such works that are left in a single copy from these artists," Sarabyanov said.

"The exposition provides an opportunity to create an overall picture of the history of the Russian avant-garde development," he added.

Andrei Sarabyanov expressed his appreciation to the Heydar Aliyev Center, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art for the joint project.

The event participants then viewed the artworks.

The display features unique avant-garde paintings from 17 regional museums scattered all over Russia. The works include canvases by some recognized classical artists like Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexandra Exter, Marc Chagall, as wel as Victor Bart, Alexei Grischenko, Alexei Morgunov, Sergei Romanovich, Pavel Mansurov and other figures known for their contribution to avant-garde art.

The exhibition brings together artifacts presented at the Upon request, Part 1 and Upon request, Part 2 exhibitions held in Moscow in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The time period spans from the very emergence of the Russian avant-garde art as of the mid-1900s all the way to its decline in the early 1930s.

The project’s objective is to promote works by well-known, lesser-known and unknown artists nowadays kept at various Russian regional museum collections, as well as to demonstrate the major techniques having prevailed in the Russian art throughout the first three decades of the 20th century.

Supervised by Andrei Sarabyanov, an art historian and the author of a great number of works on the Russian avant-garde art, the exhibition is a joint effort of the Russian Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, and the Modern Art Museum of Moscow.

The exhibition will run until May 5.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz