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Russian academy of arts: the way of the Russian art

We finish publishing the report devoted to the 250th jubilee of the Russian Academy of Arts. The highest artistic level of its graduates in the 19th century was provided by educational activities of such major painters as P.P. Tchistyakov, I.E. Repin and A.I. Kuindzhi. These glorious traditions of the Academy survived till nowadays.

Especially big role in the history of the Academy of Arts played the outstanding professor P.P. Tchistyakov. In 1861, he finished his course with the meritorious award of the Big Gold Medal and was sent to Italy at the expense of the Academy. After returning to St.Petersburg he started teaching in the Academy. Tchistyakov was expert in the world cultural heritage and fonder of the Russian painting school, especially of such masters as Ivanov, Bruni and Brullov. His educational activities were based on the best practices of the Academy. One of his beloved phrases was: ╚No, the art is the beauty after all. It is also the truth, of course, but the beautiful truth╩.

Celebration of 250th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Arts at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Moscow. 2007 [zoom (70k)]

The professor paid particular attention to the quality of drawing technique. Looking at the works of the artists of the past he stressed the nature for Titian or Caravaggio being not a source of images for copying but starting point for creative activities: ╚We do it close to reality, but they do it better than in reality╩. In different periods, such talented painters studied in Tchistyakov▓s classes as Repin, Polenov, Vasnetsov, Surikov, Serov, Vrubel, Nesterov, Vasnetsov and Kardovsky ≈ glory of the national Fine Arts. Repin called him ╚our common and sole teacher╩.

However, there were also tough periods in the history of the Academy. In 1860-s, anew trend in the national painting art emerged: the one of the critical realism. Its followers were occupied with revealing the dark sides of the contemporary life, which was far from the academism ideals. It was in that period when the term of ╚academism╩ turned into a symbol of stalemate and conservatism in art. It was in this period, when the famous ╚Mutiny of Fourteen╩ took place.

In the autumn of 1863, fourteen students-participants of the contest for the Big Gold Medal, giving the winner the right to study abroad at the Academy expense. This group included I.N. Kramskoy, A.N. Korzukhin and K.E. Makovsky. Having refused to create works on the subjects from the ancient mythology proposed by the Academy, these artists demanded on the right of free taking any theme for a competition work. Their demand was not satisfied and in protest they left the Academy, asking, however, to confer the official title of painter to them. Their plea was met; however, secret surveillance of the police over the ╚mutineers╩ was established.

After living the Academy these men formed ╚The Association of Free Artists╩, later renamed to ╚The Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions╩ called also ╚The Wanderers╩ or ╚The Itinerants╩. The group▓s motto was ╚Democratism, Realism, National Character╩. Such famous artist as I.N.Kramskoy, V.G. Perov, N.N. Ge, G.G.Myasoedov, as well as many other talented painters of 1870╛s and 1880╛s were among the initiators of the movement.

On the first stages of the Company▓s existence, the Academy▓s administration supported the new organization. The first exhibitions of the Association were organized in the Academy. The only condition was the free admission of the Academy members and students. Grand Prince Vladimir Alexandrovich, president of the Academy of Art of that period, proposed to merge the exhibitions of the academy members and the Itinerants Association. His idea, however, was rejected by the latter, who did not want to loose their independent position.

Unlike realism, the academic painting of that period kept close ties with the classic tradition. B that time, it featured already a big variety of themes. Apart from the traditional subjects of the Bible and the Antique, the new themes, the ones loved by the Romantics appeared. They included tragic events of the Gothic and Renaissance epochs and, also, the subjects from the national history of Russia. As a result, the Academism with its longing to Beautiful and idealization of heroes became close to the Salon Art.

Through its whole existence, the Academy was a center of artistic enlightenment, actively influencing the development of all fields of art, organizing artistic contests and exhibitions. Its judgment was final by considering all major architecture, sculpture and painting projects in the capital and the other towns of Russia. Academic staff representatives and Academy pupils participated in the construction of the all major architectural ensembles including Kazansky Cathedral and St.Isaac Cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Saviour on Blood in St.Petersburg and Christ, the Savior▓s, Cathedral in Moscow.

A. Shmarinov. Spring Landscape. 2000. Watercolour on paper. 57.0 x 76.0 cm [zoom (56k)]

The activities of the Academy were not only in the field of education: when the Russian Museum of Alexander III was established, the Academy made a considerable donation of art treasures of the national school (paintings, drawings and sculptures) from its collection. Big efforts were undertaken for the promotion of the Russian art works in the Western Europe in the period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The revolutionary disturbances of 1905 had a heavy influence on the life of the Academy. In autumn 1905, nearly all of its students participated in the civil unrest. In return, the President ordered to shut down the Academy for a whole year▓s period.

Grand Princess Maria Pavlovna, the wife of Grand Prince Vladimir Alexandrovich, was the last President of the Academy-member of the Imperial Family. In the period of her presidency, new regulations and list of staff were adopted. It was decided to widen the range of comprehensive school subjects taught in the Academy in order to raise the general level of its education. The Grand Princess patronized the Society of Architects-Painters and the exhibition ╚Lomonosov and the time of Elizabeth╩, taking place in the halls of the Academy. She promoted the construction of the special exhibition hall ≈ The Palace of Art. For this purpose, she organized the acquisition of the building of the former State Printing House (today▓s Benoit▓s Corpse of the State Russian Museum) by the Academy in 1912. Vice president, Prince GBPG.G. Gagarin, emphasized the necessity of studying the Byzantine art in it. According to his proposal, a new Academic class of the Russian Orthodox Icon Painting was established; a museum of Christian Antiques with its collection of ancient Russian icons was opened. The Grand Princess left the presidential position in 1917.

In 1918, the Academy was disbanded in accordance with the Lenin▓s degree of Sovnarkom and substituted by a subsequent number of educational institutions on its basis. The State Free Workshops of Moscow (the Academy branch) existed a bit longer. The institution bearing the name VKHUTEMAS was renamed to VKHUTEIN in 1925. In 1932, it regained academic status. It was called then the All╛Russian Academy of Arts (higher education institution).

In 1934, I. Brodsky was appointed to the head of the Academy. The student of the famous I. Repin was a talented painter, a master of Lenin▓s portraits and, at the same time, a subtle lyrical landscape paiter. As Lunacharsky specified by issuing documents, required for the painter▓s free passing to the Lenin▓s workroom, he was ╚ethically and politically reliable╩. The political reliability may be stems to the pre-revolution period of the Academy students▓ unrests, when Brodsky was one of the initiators of the Academy students▓ disturbancies of 1905. For this reason he was sent down from the Academy and only advocacy of I.E. Repin and an Academy▓s rector, V.A. Beklimeshev, permitted him to finish the course.

As well as the pre-revolution Academy presidents, I. Brodsky was an outstanding collector, who succeeded in collecting more than a thousand first-class paintings and graphic works of I.E. Repin, V.I. Surikov,V.A. Serov, B.M. Kustodiev, I.I. Levitan, F.A. Maliavin, S. Zhukovsky, A.N. Benois, Z.A. Serebryakova, K.A. Somov, N.K. Roerich and A. Golovin. Isaac Brodsky was the rare person in Communist Russia, who was officially allowed to keep in his collection not only paintings, drawings and aquarels of the Silver Age masters, but also the works of emigres: A.E. Yakovlev, B.D. Grigoriev and M.Shagal. In 1949, a museum was organized in the I. Brodsky▓s apartment, being today a department of the Russian Academy of Arts.

After the Great Patriotic War (in 1947) the Academy got the All-Union powers and moved to Moscow. Since that time, it included two artistic educational institutes (in Moscow and in Leningrad), scientific and research institutes, museums and artistic colleges and the bodies steering the educational activities of the artistic institutes of Russia and the USSR republics.

In spite of its not so easy history, the Academy managed to preserve the traditions of the Russian artistic education. Today it is a unique complex of educational, scientific and museum organizations, having no analogues in the world. It has branches in the Volga region, Ural, Siberia and the Far East.

Foreign painters consider it a big honour to get a meritorious title of a member of the Russian Academy of Arts. In recent years, especially close ties were established with the French Academy of Fine Arts, with the Spanish academy of Arts and the British Royal Academy of Arts, as well as with a number of Italian artistic academies. So, there is no surprise that the 250th jubilee of the Academy is widely celebrated not only in Russia, where a special President▓s decree proclaimed it a holiday of the whole Russian culture, but also in the whole world, where the UNESCO included the day in the list of the internationally celebrated dates.

A. Akritas. Copper, flowers and clothes. 2004. Oil on canvas. 94.0 x 81.0 cm [zoom (88k)]

One of the major tasks of the academy is the preservation of the academic artistic style. Special institute must be organized to bring new life to the big artistic forms such as monumental sculpture. The Academy plans launching of new museum and exhibition facilities. For example, the Modern Art Museum was opened recently in Moscow. A number of exhibition projects is planned in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Paris, Rome and London. The Academy plans organising a great exhibition in Grand Palais, presenting the whole history of the Russian Art since the ancient times till nowadays.

A jubilee exposition marking the 250th Academy anniversary was staged in the State Russian Museum. The exhibition in the Central Manezh Exhibition Hall of Moscow took place in frames of the celebration program. It featured works of fine arts classics from Russia and Europe, architecture models and designs and artistic photography works.

According to the words of the today▓s Academy President Zurab Tsereteli ╚the historic way of the Russia Academy of Arts is of every citizen concern, because it is closely connected with the history of the whole Russian art and of the country itself╩.