Leon Bakst exhibition at the theater museum. Passion for Bakst: “The Diamond Club” at the exhibition in Pushkinsky

Inspector/Irina Remneva

About 250 works of painting and graphics, photographs, archival documents, rare books, as well as theatrical costumes and designs for fabrics. At the Pushkin Museum named after. Pushkin, a large-scale exhibition has opened to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the most brilliant and original artists of the early 20th century - Lev Bakst.

This year, connoisseurs of Russian fine art are celebrating the anniversaries of two major Russian masters. late XIX- beginning of the 20th century: 150 years ago the world famous theater artist Lev Bakst was born.

One of the large retrospective exhibitions, dedicated to the creative legacy of the latter, has already successfully completed within the walls. Bakst’s works were viewed by more than 150 thousand residents and guests of St. Petersburg. And now Moscow is joining the festive celebrations.

Exhibition at the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin is not just a collection of artifacts, one part of which is directly the work of Lev Bakst, and the other is things related to his work. The goal of the exhibition is not to show objects, but to try to use them to recreate the artist’s world, in which all facets of art are subtly and gracefully intertwined, said museum director Marina Loshak.

Lev Bakst is primarily known as a theater artist. From 1909 to 1914, he designed fourteen ballets for Sergei Diaghilev's Russian seasons in Paris, among which the most iconic were Cleopatra and Scheherazade. Masterfully working with colors and textures, Bakst embodied in the sets and costumes all the luxury, all the intoxicating beauty of the East. “His Scheherazade drove Paris crazy,” recalled composer Igor Stravinsky. “And with this, Bakst’s European and then world fame began.”

Dozens of sketches for costumes and scenery became the basis of the Moscow exhibition. Within the walls of the Pushkin Museum you can see in great detail how Bakst worked on the images of characters in such ballets as Cleopatra, Scheherazade, Firebird, The Blue God, Tamara, Afternoon of a Faun, and once again enjoy the inimitable style of the artist.

“The Times font cannot be confused with anything,” says Sherlock Holmes in one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous stories. The same can be said about Bakst’s sketches. They cannot be confused with the works of other theater artists. If in the drawings of Alexander Golovin or Ivan Bilibin we see, strictly speaking, just a costume, then in Bakst there is a solid, plastic image. Here on one of the walls hangs a sketch of a bacchante’s costume for the ballet “Narcissus”, made in gouache and silver paint. It seems that the bacchante froze only for a second and in a moment will jump off the canvas, spinning in a sensual dance.

Alas, such animated sketches are just fantasies. However, at the exhibition you can also see real costumes created from drawings by Lev Bakst. Thus, the Museum of the Academy of Russian Ballet named after A.Ya. Vaganova provided Vaslav Nijinsky's famous costume from Mikhail Fokine's one-act ballet "The Specter of the Rose", and the famous Russian fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev - costumes for the ballets "Tamara" and "Scheherazade". In addition, the “Elysium” curtain, shining with emerald and pistachio shades, created by the artist for the Vera Komissarzhevskaya Theater, was brought to Moscow from the Russian Museum. One of the theater actresses recalled how the actors said: “Bakst has gone,” meaning that the curtain was rising and it was time to go on stage.

However, Bakst became famous not only as a theater artist, but also as a painter. On display at the Pushkin Museum. Pushkina entered it famous painting“Ancient Horror” from the Russian Museum, written under the impression of a trip to the island of Crete and Asia Minor. There are also a number of brilliant portrait works. In particular, the legendary portrait of Sergei Diaghilev with his nanny came to Moscow, from which the founder artistic association The World of Arts and the organizer of the Russian Seasons in Paris looks decisively at the viewer. The decoration of the exhibition was “The Lady with Oranges” (“Dinner”). The canvas depicts the wife of the World of Arts ideologist Alexander Benois, Anna Kind, in a closed black dress and a black hat resembling a flower. At one time, the painting presented at the exhibition caused a storm of outrage. Russian music and art critic Vladimir Stasov was especially angry: “A cat in a lady’s dress is sitting at the table...”. However, there were those who appreciated the painting. Literary critic and publicist Vasily Rozanov admired the “stylish decadent” with a mysterious smile a la Gioconda. The elegant portrait of Countess Maria Keller from the Zaraisky Kremlin Museum also deserves special attention. The maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna is depicted in full height, in a dress with airy folds made of the finest fabric, decorated with a pattern of powdery pink and soft lilac flowers.

The work of Lev Bakst had a huge influence on the fashion of the early 20th century. Impressed by the costumes from Russian ballets, high-society beauties began to order dresses based on the artist’s sketches. In June 1910, shortly after the stunning success of the ballet "Scheherazade", oriental style: wide shalwars, colored turbans, richly decorated fabrics.

Bakst enters into a cooperation agreement with Parisian fashion designer Paul Poiret. Works with the fashion houses of Jeanne Paquin and Charles Worth. Designs bags, hats, shoes and jewelry. It is known that the artist was friends with the jeweler Louis Cartier. Fashion historians believe that his famous “panther style” arose precisely under the influence of ballets designed by Bakst.

The exhibition features samples of fabrics with patterns based on the artist’s sketches, as well as luxurious evening dresses famous fashion houses of the early 20th century in the Renaissance and Art Nouveau, oriental and pseudo-Egyptian styles. For more than a hundred years, these stunningly beautiful outfits, embroidered with beads, glass beads, gold and silver threads, inspired such great couturiers as Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.

The exhibition is complemented by a series of photographs depicting fragments from the legendary ballets designed by Bakst. In them, in particular, you can see the ballerina Tamara Karsavina and the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky in the images.

It is important to note that all exhibits from the exhibition, provided by more than thirty museum and private collections from around the world, could not fit in the main building of the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin. Nearby, in the “Department of Personal Collections”, in the second part of the exhibition, there are rare items related to Bakst’s early creative work, as well as a large volume of archival and handwritten material. Many of these artifacts are presented in Russia for the first time.

Exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Lev Bakst at the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin, will become a bright event for the audience and will leave a long aftertaste of a joyful impression. The exhibition does not just provide information, it creates an atmosphere. Finding yourself among the sketches and costumes, the viewer will be able to feel what unstoppable creative energy Bakst’s world was filled with, and, perhaps, for the first time, truly discover this outstanding artist.

What: Exhibition "Leon Bakst. To the 150th anniversary of his birth"
Where: State Museum fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin (Main building and Department of personal collections)

A large-scale cultural event is taking place in Moscow, which may be no less successful than the recent exhibition of Valentin Serov. A retrospective exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Lev Bakst opened at the Pushkin Museum - famous artist, illustrator and designer. Bakst is known throughout the world primarily as a theater artist and was glorified by his legendary Diaghilev seasons.

You want to look at the museum exhibits at the exhibition for a long time, touch them with your hands, they are so attractive, sewn to order from fashionistas. “Bakst managed to capture the elusive nerve of Paris, which rules fashion, and its influence is felt everywhere: both in ladies’ dresses and in art exhibitions,” wrote Maximillian Voloshin in 1911. The artist created his own Bakst style. And Paris soon forgot that Bakst was a foreigner, that he was from Russia.

“He was the first artist, interior designer, there was no such word yet, and he was even a little shy about it, but he did it very enthusiastically,” said Marina Loshak, director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

And, and design developments - everything is a success. He wrote to his wife: “Orders are pouring in like nuts from a tree. Even England and America are affected. I’m just throwing up my hands!” Evidence of world recognition is now in several halls of the Pushkin Museum: 250 portraits, landscapes, theatrical costumes, fabrics.

After the incredible success of Scheherazade, the exotic East quickly became fashionable: from bright colors to unusual turbans. "Russian Seasons" made Bakst a world-class star. Fabrics based on his sketches were sold all over the world on an industrial scale.

Three dozen collections - public and private, collected from different countries— represent all facets of the work of Lev Bakst, who was included in world history under the name Leon. First of all, ballet scenery and costumes, where he remained, according to Alexandre Benois, “the only and unsurpassed”. In collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky, the artist radically changed the very way an artist exists on stage.

“Even in his sketches, he tried to make not just neutral costumes, he saw the costume of a specific actor. His costume was not separated from the personality of the performer,” said Natalya Avtonomova, head of the personal collections department of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

The exhibition would have been unprecedented if museums in America had taken part in it, which applauded Bakst after the First World War, where he painted paintings and designed performances, in particular for the troupe of Ida Rubinstein. But, as Marina Loshak said with a sigh, “the unfortunate Schneerson does not let us live, and we cannot take American things.” True, the project arose thanks to an American. Its initiator is a specialist in Russian art, who studied at Moscow State University with Dmitry Sarabyanov.

“Many of Bakst’s posthumous things are fakes, and we had to be very careful. Some fakes are very good and look almost like Bakst. The museum staff and I were very attentive and careful about this, this is a big problem now, and I’m afraid after our exhibition there will be more fakes are like mushrooms after rain,” said John E. Boult, director of the Institute of Contemporary Russian Culture at the University of Southern California.

This project is predicted to be a success, turning into a stir. Like the one that not so long ago called, a close friend and like-minded person, Lev Bakst. This was indirectly confirmed by the organizer of the Serov exhibition Zelfira Tregulova: “The words of Diaghilev spoken to Jean Cocteau can be applied to the exhibition at Pushkinsky: “Surprise me.”

Photo: DR

This summer, the capital will host one of the most significant events in cultural life. For the first time in Russia, a large-scale retrospective exhibition of one of the most famous and original artists of the early twentieth century, Lev Bakst, will be presented. The event is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous painter.

According to the organizers of the exhibition, about 200 paintings by the master, as well as drawings, art objects and ancient photographs from Russian and Western collections will be presented to visitors. Many of the paintings for the upcoming exhibition will be brought to Moscow for the first time.

Lev Samoilovich Bakst is known to art connoisseurs for his direct participation in organizing Diaghilev’s legendary “Russian Seasons” in Paris and London. It was he who had a hand in the costumes and sets of such successful productions as Scheherazade, The Sleeping Princess and The Blue God. However, the artist’s activities were not limited to this. Bakst was also involved in book graphics and worked in the fashion and theater industries. The upcoming exhibition will also help convince you of the master’s design talent. Among other things, it will also present some costumes in the creation of which Lev Samoilovich was involved.

You can see all the artist’s works live at the Pushkin Museum. The exhibition will open on June 7 and will last until September 4, 2016.

MOSCOW, June 8. /Corr. TASS Svetlana Yankina/. The exhibition "Leon Bakst. Leon Bakst", telling about one of the most famous Russian artists of the 20th century, a member of the "World of Art" association and a star of Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons", opened in State Museum Fine Arts named after. A. S. Pushkin on the 150th anniversary of the master’s birth.

The exhibition is striking in scale: it is difficult to remember any other project that would occupy two buildings of the Pushkin Museum at once - the main building and the Museum of Personal Collections. In the first one you can see sketches for productions of St. Petersburg theaters and the Russian Seasons in Paris, as well as costumes made based on them and products of fashion houses designed by Bakst. The second showcases Bakst's early work and archival materials - from personal correspondence and invoices for the purchase of glasses to a diploma from an officer of the Legion of Honor.

Immersion in context

Earlier, the Pushkin Museum opened an exhibition of works from the collection of Ilya Zilberstein, which became the basis of the Museum of Personal Collections. Two halls with the Bakst exhibition were, as it were, built into this exhibition, where works of the artist’s contemporaries and friends - the founder of the World of Art - Alexander Benois, Valentin Serov, Boris Anisfeld are presented, which is why immersion in the artistic context turn of XIX-XX it turns out more complete.

In the part dedicated to early creativity Bakst, the large-scale painting “Meeting of Admiral F.K. Avelan in Paris on October 5, 1893” and the small-sized painting “Bathers on the Lido. Venice” stand out. The artist went to Venice after the triumph of the Russian Seasons in Paris and wrote from there: “I’m bathing on the Lido in the company of Isadora Duncan, Nijinsky, Diaghilev. I’m swimming up to my neck in aesthetic impressions.”

The section presented immediately with graphic portraits of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, depicting artists Philip Malyavin, Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Somov and Anna Benois, seems to connect the display of Bakst’s works in the Museum of Personal Collections and the main building.

If I were a sultan

There, in a separate room, are collected the later brilliant portraits of the artist - “Portrait of S. P. Diaghilev with a nanny”, “Portrait of Zinaida Gippius” and “Dinner”, which depicts Alexander Benois’ wife Anna Kidd. One evening in a Parisian cafe she was met by Bakst and Valentin Serov, who worked together on the design of the ballet “Scheherazade” to the music of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

A curtain based on Serov's sketches for "Scheherazade" was recently shown at his retrospective in Tretyakov Gallery. Now at the Pushkin Museum you can see Bakst’s drawings for this performance, as well as a reconstruction of the dances of the star of the production, the performer of the role of Zobeida Tamara Karsavina - a black and white film is shown in the White Hall.

In the center of the exhibition composition is a podium with historical theatrical costumes from museum collections and private collections, including from the collection of fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev. The background is the curtain for "Elysium" of 1906, and on the walls the works are grouped by theme: ancient visions, romantic dreams, oriental fantasies. Here you can see bright colors and incredible plasticity key works artist in sketches for "Orpheus", "Firebird", "Narcissus", " Afternoon rest faun."

Many of them are well known, they have been exhibited and published, but just by looking at the selection of sketches for the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” to the music of P. I. Tchaikovsky, one can see how many resources had to be used to put together this large-scale exhibition.

Thus, the costume sketch for the “Good Fairy” came from the private collection of Nina Lobanova-Rostovskaya, and the “Rowan Fairy” - from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. What these costumes looked like on the dancers for whom they were created can be seen here in black and white archival photographs.

Undoubtedly, the attention of the audience will be attracted by Vaslav Nijinsky’s costume from the ballet “The Vision of a Rose” with its careful design and preservation of the petals, as well as the fairy-tale panel “The Awakening” based on “The Sleeping Beauty”. It depicts the happy newlyweds James and Dorothy de Rothschild, who commissioned Bakst in 1913 to decorate their London mansion with a series of panels depicting family members, friends, servants and even pets. Until recently, these works, which are now located in the Rothschild estate of Waddesdon Manor, now a museum, were inaccessible even to specialists and are still considered poorly studied.

The exhibition "Leon Bakst. Leon Bakst" will last until September 4, 2016. You can learn more about the artist’s work at a specially organized exhibition at the Pushkin Museum. educational program with lectures and excursions, including for children.