The Russian Academy Of Arts

Dates: July 11, 2024 – September 1, 2024

Venue: Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts, 19 Prechistenka street, Moscow

 

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The Russian Academy of Arts presents a major exhibition “The Universe of Konenkov” dedicated to the 150^th birth anniversary of one of the eminent sculptors of the 20^th century, Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts Sergey T. Konenkov (1874-1971). The exhibition covering all the stages of the sculptor’s creative career features almost 100 works fr om the funds of the Memorial Museum “Sergey T. Konenkov Creative Workshop” (17 Tverskaya street, Moscow).

 

His art is comprehensive and inclusive – there are practically no fields of human activity, no epochs that have not been reflected in works of the great Master. For 80 years he has created artworks that can be used to trace not only the history of Russia, but also of other countries wh ere he lived and worked - Italy, Greece, America. Sergey Konenkov rightfully holds the title of the reformer of Russian sculpture. He has authored fantastic images of Russian folklore and masterpieces of portrait art, among them there are “Bach” portrait personifying music, as well as realistic portrayals of his friends Shalyapin, Rakhmaninov, Pavlov, Esenin; Russian writers Tolstoi, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, images of scientists including a portrait of Albert Einstein.

 

Sergey Konenkov studied at the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under the outstanding masters C.I. Ivanov, S.M. Volnukhin. He was also much influenced by the renowned sculptor Paolo Trubetskoi. Later, Sergey Konenkov upgraded his skills in St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the studio of V.A. Beklemishev where his first masterpiece was created - the diploma work “Samson breaking the shackles” (1902). The centerpieces of the first exhibition hall are an enlarged photograph of the above sculpture and the unique collection of Konenkov’s early graphics. The topography of the Master’s Moscow period (1902-1916) consists of his recognized masterpieces of the Silver Age such as portraits “Paganini”, “The Shepherd Boy”, “The Shepherd Girl Nastya”. His wooden sculpture is represented by such works as “The Forester”, “Firebird”, “Bacchus with Malachite Eyes”. The display is accompanied by unique pictures of the historical chronicle and sculptures produced in the early 20^th century which location is still unknown , as well as photographs of his Moscow studio in Presnya district.

 

The Revolution of 1917 promoted Konenkov as the first sculptor of the Soviet state. He was invited to design the Red Square and install on the Senate Kremlin Tower the famous memorial plaque “ In Memory of the Fallen in the Struggle for Peace and Friendship of Peoples” and a little bit later - the monument to Stepan Razin on the Place of Execution (1918-1919). In this period Sergey Konenkov maintained creative ties with poets-imagists, Sergey Esenin and Isadora Duncan that can be seen in photographs from the Museum fund (“The Portrait of S. Esenin” and “Isadora Duncan Dancing”). The involvement of Konenkov in the Moscow Handicraft and Industrial Exhibition of 1923 in partnership with the architect Alexey V. Shchusev has been also preserved in pictures.

 

The focus of the exhibition is the American period of the Master’s life. It has been in the United States, that he became world famous: in 1926 at the International Exhibition in Philadelphia Konenkov was awarded the prestigious prize that confirmed his leading position in the international art world. By the commission of the Supreme Court and for the Research Institute in Prinston he created a vast gallery of outstanding lawyers and scientists. This stage of his biography has been highlighted at the exhibition by brilliant sculptural portraits of Albert Einstein and his adopted daughter Margot Einstein, Sergey Rakhmaninov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, The display also includes canvases and graphic works by the noted artists – Konenkov’s friends: Nickolai Feshin; Boris Grigoriev, Boris F. Shalyapin.

 

One more facet of his talent is the Gospel images (“The Prophet”, “John the Theologian”, “Christ”), as well as his graphic sheets on the Biblical topics. The pictures of his sculptural series help the viewer to trace the development of his concept of the image of Samson. The items from the collection of his sculptural fabulous furniture resemble the interior of Konenkov’s New York studio in the 1930s-1940s. During his work in the United States he revealed himself not only as a distinguished sculptor, but also as a deep thinker who left his successors an original system of theosophical ideas mirrored in his symbolic graphic works.

 

In 1945, at the age of 71 Sergey Konenkov returned to Russia and occupied the leading place on the Olympus of Russian sculpture once again. The Motherland gave him a new impetus to continue his work. Konenkov created several monumental compositions, decorations for the theater in Petrozavodsk, reliefs for V. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and sculptural portraits of his contemporaries. The period from 1945 till 1971 is represented by his sculptural works and drawings on plywood. In 1954, Konenkov was re-elected as an Academician of the USSR Academy of Arts (for the first time he received this title in 1916 at the Imperial Academy of Arts). At the end of his life the Master made an attempt to create the first then kinetic sculpture - “The Space” composition that unfortunately has not been completed. The viewers will have a rare opportunity to see his author’s cosmogonic graphics, unique documental films about the sculptor produced in 1947 – the 1960s. The creative work of Sergey Konenkov has made a big impact on the development of the Soviet sculpture. The Russian Academy of Arts also plans to arrange a research conference dedicated to the 150^th birth anniversary of Sergey Konenkov to be accompanied by publication of its proceedings and catalogue.    

 SEE THE PHOTOS IN THE RUSSIAN VERSION OF THE SITE

                       

         

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