State Russian Museum: works "Black Square", "The Ninth Wave", "The Last Day of Pompeii" (photo)

State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg - the largest collection of paintings by Russian artists, numbering more than 400 thousand works. There is no such collection of Russian art in the world anymore.

The creation of the Russian Museum

The decree establishing the museum was published in 1895. For this purpose Mikhailovsky Castle and the garden around, and services, and wings were purchased. By decree, all the works already purchased by the museum can not be sold or sold to anyone. They should always be in the collection. In 1898, the State Russian Museum was opened for visitors. For three years Saint Petersburg has been looking forward to this event with impatience. He received works from the Academy of Arts, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace and private collections. The initial exposure was not extensive.

After the revolution

The collection was constantly replenished, and the area of the museum was enlarged due to the addition of new premises. During the Patriotic War, all the most valuable works were evacuated and did not suffer at all. Those that remained in the besieged city were carefully packed and kept in cellars. They also remained in complete safety. The State Russian Museum completely coped with such a difficult task - to save the entire exposition, which already had more than seven thousand exhibits.

The Museum's growth

New income was actively added in the 50's. He placed the State Russian Museum of the work in the Mikhailovsky Palace, and in the Engineering Castle, in the building of Benoit, as well as other buildings. They have a section of ancient Russian art with priceless works by Rublev, Dionysius and a number of other icon painters of the early and late Middle Ages. It stores the State Russian Museum of 18th-19th centuries. The photo shows the work of DG Levitsky "Portrait of EI Nelidova." The museum is rightly proud of the fullness of the paintings presented to visitors. Enumeration of the names and surnames of our outstanding and brilliant artists will take a lot of place. Widely represents the State Russian Museum works of the middle and late 19th century, as well as the work of painters of the "World of Art" and artists-futurists, who also make the museum proud. The whole room is dedicated to the works of A.N. Benoit, artist, art critic, decorator. In the photo, A.N. Benoit "Parade in the reign of Paul I". In the collection of the museum there are canvases of Soviet artists of all periods of the existence of the Soviet Union. Currently, the State Russian Museum collects and exhibits new, unconventional works. This department, dealing with the latest trends, was established about thirty years ago.

The famous canvas

In the exposition there is the "Black Square". The State Russian Museum acquired it already with scandalous fame and placed in the building of Benoit. Create a loud scandal was the task of futurist artists, and then supermasters, to attract attention. Their predecessor was Herostratus, who, in order to remain in the centuries, burned the temple. The main desire of Malevich and his comrades-in-arms is to destroy everything: we are freed from all the foregoing, and now we will do art on a clean, even burnt place. Initially, Malevich made a black square as a piece of scenery for the opera. Two years later he created a theory that proves that it is above all (supermatism), and denies everything: both form and nature. There is simply art from nothing.

Impressive exhibition of 1915

At the exhibition "0.10" there were pictures consisting of squares, crosses, circles, and in this hall in the right-hand corner above where icons hang, Malevich hung his square. What is important here? The square or the place where it is hung? Of course, the place was more important than what was painted, especially when you consider that it was written "nothing." Imagine "nothing" in the place of God. This was a very significant event. It was a phenomenally talented PR move, thought out to the end, because it's not about what is depicted. The statement was this - nothing, blackness, emptiness, darkness instead of God. "Instead of the icon that leads upwards, to the light - the path into darkness, into the hatch, into the cellar, into the underworld" (Tatyana Tolstaya). Art is dead, here's a piece of nonsense for you. You are ready to pay money for it. Malevich's "Black Square" is not an art, but a brilliant act of a very talented seller. Most likely, the "Black Square" is simply a naked king, and it's worth talking about, and not about the depths of comprehension of the world. "Black Square" is not an art, because:

Where is the talent of feeling?

Where is the skill? Anyone can draw a square.

Where is beauty? The viewer has to think for a long time what this means, and he does not understand.

Where there is a violation of tradition? There are no traditions there.

Thus, if we look from this point of view, we see what happened and happens with art, which breaks with sincerity, which begins to appeal to the intellect, that is, "I think for a long time what to do in order for a scandal to happen and I was noticed" . A normal person asks himself the question: "Why did he do this?" Did you want to earn money or wanted to express some of your feelings? ". The question of sincerity arose because the artist thinks how to sell himself. The pursuit of novelty leads art to complete non-objectivity, and this intellectual aspiration comes from the head, and not from the heart. Malevich and others like him were looking for ways of scandals and sales, which is now raised to a professional level. It is very important to bring the theory under your creation and add an incomprehensible long clever name, which is more important than the image. For some reason the talented in our society is something that is incomprehensible to a person. The absence of a spiritual principle in the "Black Square" for many is undoubted. A sign of time and skilful trade in yourself is the "Black Square". The State Russian Museum could not miss such a "talking" job.

Drama on the sea

In 1850, Aivazovsky created a large-scale painting "The Ninth Wave". The State Russian Museum now exhibits this work. A powerful wave looms over the wreckage of the ship. Mankind is represented in this picture as unfortunate sailors who, on the remainder of the mast, which is not suitable for swimming, desperately cling to it, while the wave mercilessly wants to absorb it. Our feelings forked. They are absorbed in the rise of this huge wave. We go in together with its movement upwards and we test tension between the comb and the force of attraction, especially at the moment when the tip of the wave breaks up and turns into foam. The shaft is aimed at those who invaded this element of water without demand. Sailors are an active force that penetrates the waves. You can try to consider this composition as a picture of harmony in nature, as a picture of a harmonious combination of water and earth, which is not visible, but it is present in our minds. Water - the elements are fluid, volatile, unstable, and the earth as the main object of hope is not even mentioned. In this, as it were, the motivation for the active role of the viewer. This is a picture of the universe, which is shown through the landscape. The waves on the horizon look like mountains covered with haze, and they, more flat, repeat closer to the viewer. This leads to a rhythmic ordering of the composition. Striking is the color, rich in shades of pink and lilac in the sky, and green, blue, purple in the sea, permeated with the rays of the rising sun, bringing joy and optimism. One of the pearls of the collection is the romantic work "The Ninth Wave". The State Russian Museum has a masterpiece written by young Aivazovsky.

The tragedy on earth

If two elements were involved in the previous picture, water and wind, then on the next canvas the land and fire are menacingly - this is the "Last Day of Pompeii". The State Russian Museum received it from the collection of the Academy of Arts. Written in 1834 and exhibited in Rome, the picture produced a sensation among Italians, as subsequently among Russian viewers, a furore. Pushkin, Gogol, Baratynsky dedicated to her heartfelt lines. Why is this work relevant in our days? With plastic movements, twists of bodies and heads, dynamics of the colorful palette, the artist revived the events of the past millennia. We are involved in the terrible experiences of people who are about to die in a fiery lava caused by a volcanic eruption and a powerful earthquake. Do not these days have such tragedies? The classical form of the work is perfect, the mastery of performance is superb, compelling to recall the names of the artists of the High Renaissance. The masterpiece of Karl Bryullov captures with its beauty, despite the fact that it depicts the death of ancient civilization.

Museum in modern times

If originally the museum consisted of the Imperial Palaces, now it is a whole ensemble, extraordinarily beautiful, being a cultural center, as it solves scientific and educational tasks. From the depths of the centuries came to us the legacy of the great painters. Classical, romantic, household, genre stores the State Russian Museum of the work. Photo shows us the main building - Mikhailovsky Palace. This residential building was rebuilt to store the work of the masters of the brush.

The ensemble adjoining the palace

The State Russian Museum is housed in six architectural monuments of the 18th and 19th centuries, which complement the Summer and Mikhailovsky Gardens in which visitors can admire not only strict regular planting of bushes and trees, but also beautiful sculptures. In the museum buildings there are excursions, and also additional services are provided by a lecture hall, cinema hall, Internet class, a cafeteria equipped for disabled people.