What does the colour red bring to mind? I have always thought of Russia first and sure enough there is an exhibition on in Paris at the moment called « ROUGE ». The poster itself didn’t give anything away. I went without really knowing what I was going to see. It may not surprise you that the majority of spectators were Russian. I had stepped off the Champs Elysées into Russia. All quietly whispering and pointing to pictures as they strolled along. From the look of things they seemed to know their history too. Apart from the obvious historical events in Russia, I am not too knowledgeable.
The exhibition presents an ensemble of more than 400 works, most of which have never been shown in France. It is organised in two sequences : the 1920’s characterised by a form of pluralism. The Bolsheviks allowed different artistic groups to cohabit and did not (much to my astonishment) impose aesthetic principals. On the other hand in the 1930’s and 40’s +, the State took more and more control of the arts. So, the two periods are dominated by the opposing artistic utopias.
I took vey few photos and only those that really stopped me. They seem to be reasonably well divided between these two periods so you should be able to see the difference quite easily. I have translated the titles as they were only in French...not comment! I was a little disappointed not to see more of some of my favorite Russian artists...but they were not really approved of by the government at that time. I hardly knew any of the artists displayed. I loved Moscow when I was there with Pierrette and hope to go back for a long weekend. When I left the Grand Palais, deep down inside of me a little voice asked, « has Russia changed that much over the past 40 odd years? » . Of course it is much more modern and sophisticated but how about the corruption level today versus then? I wonder…
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| The Red communist phantom travels through Europe. |
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| "Each unjustified absence is the ennemy's happiness, then the work heros is a bourgeois coup" |
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| Sketch for a signboard. NBo date Ivan Pugni (1892-1956) |
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| Project for a Moscow monument by Mikkhaïl Bakounine (1885-1963) in 1918 |
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| Project for a monumet at the lll International. Vladimir Tatline (1885-1953) in 1919 |
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| ??? |
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| The country teacher - 1925 by Evgueni Katsmann (1890-1976) By the look of him he must have been tough! |
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| Strike in Berline by Rudolf (1890-1955 Germany) done in 1920 |
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| On the bottom one is hungry because on the top they are stuffing themselves. Eric Johansson in 1923( 1896-1979) |
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| Presentation of cheap goods by Otto Griebel in 1923(German 1895-1972) |
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| Man and little girl by Jankel Adler ( 1885-1949) in 1920 |
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| "The Flee" study for make-up by V. Maiakovsli -1929 |
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| Project for a village by Ivan Leonidov (1902-1959) in 1935-38. |
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| Millions of workers ! Rejoin the socialist competition ! Sketch for a poster by Gustav Klucis (1895-1938) in 1927 |
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| The First Ukrainian tractor by George Roublev in 1931 (1902-1975) |
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| Kazimir Malévitch (1879-1935) Woman's silhouette 1928-1929 |
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| Kazimir Malévitch "The White Horse" 1930-31 |
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| Portrait of Stalin 1935 by George Roublev (1902-1975) |
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| Fish Factory by Ekaterina Zernova in 1927 (1900-1995) |
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| Film Heroine from here and not there. Frontpiece for a review in 1927 by Youri Pimenov (1903-1977 |
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| We are building by Youri Pimenov - 1920 |
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| The sports lady with a bouquet - 1905 |
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| Bather by Alexandre Deîneka in 1951(1899-1969) |
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| Metro builder with a spade by Alexandre Samokhvalov( 1894-1971). A series done in the 30's. |
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| The Metro by Alexanre Labas (1900-1983) 1935 |
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| The golden obesity of american capitalism by Fred Ellis (American 1886-1965) done in the 30's. |
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| Morgan and Co. 1930 by Jacob Burck (1907-1982) |
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| Airship by Vassily Kouptsov (1899-1935) in 1933 |
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| "The Kremlin - Stalin takes care of" us by V.I. Govorkov (906-1974) in 1940. |
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