The most comprehensive exhibition of the Russian Avant-Garde movement in Turkey is hosted by the Sakıp Sabancı Museum of the Sabancı University with the contributions of Sabancı Holding
“Russian Avant-Garde, Imagination of Future with Art and Design”, the most comprehensive exhibition of the Russian Avant-Garde movement in Turkey, was held in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum of the Sabancı University with the contributions of Sabancı Holding. The exhibition, which will bring the Russian avant-garde art together with its visitors using a comprehensive selection, will be available on 01.04.2019.
Making a speech in the press conference organised for the opening of the exhibition, Ms. Güler Sabancı, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sabancı Holding, specified “Up to now, we have contributed to displaying those artists who made a breakthrough in their fields, from Picasso to Monet, Rembrandt to Miro, to art lovers under the roof of our museum. Today, we bring another important exhibition, “Russian Avant-Garde. Imagination of Future with Art and Design”. Sabancı Holding are proud of being a supporter of this exhibition. Art brings people and societies closer. This exhibition offers the best example of this closeness and cooperation to all of us. We are also continuing our tradition of cooperating with the most important museums of the world in this exhibition.”
Ms. Sabancı continued, “We are witnessing women artists so intensively for the first time in this period. Moreover, we encounter, from the reflections of this period changes in life itself with textiles, cinema, theatre and other such areas, just like the effect of technology on our time. This exhibition tells us about a period and transformation in life. Technology and design are making progress side by side in this period. We are working on a new period in Sabancı Holding. We are in, and are part of, a transformation with a focus on technology, in the light of our vision of ‘Sabancı of the New Generation’.”
Providing information about the exhibition, Ms. Dr. Nazan Ölçer, the Manager of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum of the Sabancı University, stated “The movements of innovation in art, which began to develop in Russia at the end of the 19th century turned into a ‘total art movement’ which were not repeated again in the first quarter of the 20th century when wars and revolutions took place. Our “Russian Avant-Garde. Imagination of Future with Art and Design” reflects the important place of the Russian Avant-Garde in the history of art, where it represents a great acceleration resulting from the progress of art and science, side by side in a wide range of music, literature, theatre, painting, sculpture, architecture, the movies and scientific studies.
Organised under the co-curatorship of Ms. Dr. Nazan Ölçer, the Manager of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, and Ms. Dr. Maria Tsantsanoglou, the Manager of the Thessalonica State Modern Art Museum – Costakis Collection, the exhibition sheds light on the rich position of the Russian Avant-Garde, which is being presented in Turkey for the first time in the history of art shows, with 513 works of art selected from the Overall Russian Decorative Arts Museum and Multimedia Art Museum besides the Costakis collection as well as from some of the special leading collections of Europe.
Being a part of the Sabancı University, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum plans to fulfil its academic mission by presenting the layers of the political background of the Russian Avant-Garde within a framework that can form a basis for this exhibition, which focuses on one of the most exciting periods in the history of art in the 20th century. The artists and schools which were active during the period and aimed at generalising art in all areas of life, are represented in the exhibition with their rich productions in the fields of painting, design, literature, movie and theatre.
The “Russian Avant-Garde. Imagination of Future with Art and Design”exhibition was designed with an understanding which mirrored the effects of the intellectual and artistic developments resulting from the dramatic changes and radical innovations in the first half of the 20th century, not only in terms of the Russian artistic culture but also the world’s history of art. Besides the innovative works of the Russian avant-garde artists in this period, who had been suggesting art was a power to transform life since the beginning of the 1900s, the exhibition reveals their social designs, implemented with the support of the new regime, in the innovative atmosphere allowed by the Revolution in October 1917 and the wide limits of the future they imagined with excitement. The belief of avant-garde artists in progress linked to science, with the excitement of the technological developments and industrialisation at the beginning of the 20th century, meant they carried their dreams to a space beyond the limits of the world, and this can be vividly seen in their pieces of art in this exhibition.
As one of the most important Russian Avant-Garde collections and archives in the world, the Thessalonica State Modern Art Museum – George Costakis Collection, also forms the basis of the “Russian Avant-Garde. Imagination of Future with Art and Design” exhibition. The artists included in the exhibition from the Costakis Collection, which were brought together by George Costakis with great passion and enabled the transfer of the works of art of the Russian Avant-Garde to the next generations, cover the important figures of the Russian Avant-Garde including Kazimir Malevich, the creator of the Black Square, one of the most iconic work pieces in the history of art, Vladimir Tatlin, who made the limits between art and production indistinct and became a leader of a new period in artistic doctrine, Alexander Rodchenko, the brave leader of photography, painting, sculpture and graphic arts. The figures who represented the intensity of women artists of the period in the Costakis Collection include Olga Rozanova, who predicated upon the interaction between text and image, Lyubov Popova, who contributed to the transformation of theatre language with the play scenes designed by her and Natalia Goncharova, who headed towards Russian folk art, and all of whom assumed a determinant role in the Russian Avant-Garde with their works of art. “Russian Avant-Garde. Imagination of Future with Art and Design” brings work pieces of all the important figures of this period, as one of the milestones of the history of art in the 20th century, together in Turkey for the first time.
These works of art reflects this orientation of the Russian Avant-Garde, which paid regard to Russian folk art as well its research depicting what new art and the society structure must be. The selection includes design drafts in all areas, borrowed from the Whole Russia Decorative Arts Museum located in Moscow, and reflects both the scope of the ideal of the Russian Avant-Garde related to the reorganisation of life and the history of its relationship with folk art.
The wide photography selection of the Moscow Multimedia Art Museum which is in the nature of a documentary and involves the photography archive of Alexander Rodchenko, a great figure in the Russian Avant-Garde, not only reflects the adaptation of the Russian Avant-Garde to new technology but also opens a window to the special world of these artists.
The transformative effect of the Russian Avant-Garde on the cultural atmosphere of the period is reflected with magnificent constructions and revivals in the exhibitions besides the works of art. The model of Letatlin’s construction, the aircraft designed by Vladimir Tatlin, points out the scope of the dreams of the Russian Avant-Garde artists for transforming life. The theatre stage of the Russian Avant-Garde, where the foundations of modern theatre were laid, and which is suggested to be the place where the Russian Avant-Garde was discovered according to many art historians, is also presented in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, in all its glory, by way of reproductions.
An exhibition tour will be organised on October 18th, Thursday at 11:00 accompanied by Ms. Dr. Maria Tsantsanoglou, the co-curator of the exhibition. Furthermore, the production of the Russian Avant-Garde in different disciplines will be depicted in detail through movie screenings, music concerts, literature events and workshops for children and adults during the exhibition. A catalogue, which will contain the texts of international specialists of the Russian Avant-Garde, will also be available in the exhibition.