An exhibition of Bakst will open in the Pushkin Museum. Lev Bakst in the Pushkin Museum

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

Museum exhibits at the exhibition want to be looked at for a long time, touched with hands, they are so attractive, sewn to order by fashionistas. "Bakst managed to capture the elusive nerve of Paris, which rules fashion, and his influence is felt everywhere: both in ladies' dresses and in art exhibitions," wrote Maximillian Voloshin in 1911. The artist created his own Bakstian 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 have moved. 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 Orient quickly became fashionable: from bright colors to unusual turbans. "Russian Seasons" made Bakst a world-class star. Fabrics according to 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 went down in world history under the name Leon. First of all, ballet scenery and costumes, where he remained, according to Alexander Benois, "the only and unsurpassed". In collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky, the artist radically changed the very way of the artist's existence on stage.

“Even in his sketches, he sought 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 Natalia Avtonomova, head of the personal collections department of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

The exhibition would be unprecedented if the museums of America, which applauded Bakst after the First World War, where he painted, designed performances, in particular, the troupe of Ida Rubinstein, took part in it. 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 the American. Its initiator is a specialist in Russian art, who studied at Moscow State University under Dmitry Sarabyanov.

"A lot of Bakst's posthumous things are fake, and one had to be very careful. Some fakes are very good and look almost like Bakst. The museum staff and I were very attentive, cautious about this, this is a big problem now, and I'm afraid after our exhibition there will be more like mushrooms after a fake 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 hype. Like the one that not so long ago called out, a close friend and like-minded person, Lev Bakst. This was indirectly confirmed by the organizer of the Serov exhibition, Zelfira Tregulova: “For the exhibition in Pushkin, you can apply the words of Diaghilev, said to Jean Cocteau: “Surprise me.”

30.06.2016 13:00

The Diamond Club decided to devote another meeting to art and visited the Pushkin Museum for an exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the brightest and most original artists of the 20th century, Lev Bakst.

When the weekday is almost over, when you are tired and unscrewed from the heat and work, going anywhere is akin to a feat, which is difficult to decide on your own. But in good company, for example, with members of the club - for a sweet soul. Especially on Bakst in Pushkinsky, which, frankly, in itself is a great option for a pleasant evening.

And at about seven o'clock, when something terribly hooted, gnashed and rumbled on the street near the museum (and where in the center of Moscow does not hoot and rumble now?), the "Diamond Club" with an impeccable keep smiling gathered in the cool inner paradise of the Pushkin Museum to immerse yourself in the magical world of Silver Age aesthetics.

Before the tour, we were told about the benefits of being a member of the Friends of Pushkin. This is free admission to the museum without a queue for all exhibitions, lectures and all buildings, including the Golitsyn estate. Plus, you can come to Pushkinsky an hour before the opening and see everything you want in peace and quiet. It's like some kind of magical deposit: you put some money on the card, and then you get very generous interest.

"How much should I put on the card?" - we ask the curator of the program Eleanor Tan. “From 4000 rubles is a youth option. There is a card for 6000, there are also more expensive ones - family and premium. "Is it a month?" - we specify. "That's a year!" Eleanor smiles. The more expensive the card, the more interesting, of course. For 25,000 rubles a year, curated individual preview tours, invitations to vernissages, finishes and trips abroad will also be waiting for you. Recently, the premium composition of the "Friends of Pushkin" was in London and Paris, visiting exhibitions there, accompanied by museum staff. A turnkey trip costs about three thousand euros. And the Tretyakov Gallery, especially for Friends of Pushkin, opened the doors to the Serov exhibition on its day off ... In general, booklets with information about all the museum's proposals scattered in an instant.

The exhibition turned out to be grandiose, such in Russia is held for the first time. It was prepared for two whole years, bringing exhibits literally from everywhere: from the Pompidou Center in Paris, the museums of Strasbourg and St. Petersburg, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and many others. The Tretyakov Gallery, for example, provided a portrait of Zinaida Gippius, an absolutely precious painting, which, it seems, has never been parted from.

By the way, the portrait of Gippius made one of the strongest impressions on our company. As well as the early portrait of Lyubov Gritsenko, then Bakst's bride, and the portrait of Filosofov (which is called the portrait of Dorian Gray), and "Dinner", which is, in fact, a portrait of Benoit's wife, strangely fluid and flowing. These are iconic works in which Lev Bakst managed to capture the elusive, indescribable by other means spiritualization, the magic of beauty.

The famous image of Gippius is a portrait of a decadent Madonna, in which diabolical eros and the charm of the revolution of the spirit are combined. A poisonous, mocking and insightful clever girl looks out from the picture, stretching her legs in a tight tights. It is no coincidence that a textbook portrait of Andrei Bely is placed next to Gippius. This woman terribly annoyed the poet, and therefore Bakst came up with such a trick: in order to make the portrait of Bely "mangled" by a grimace of complex passions, he started a conversation with the writer about Gippius.

That evening there was some incredible amount of people in Pushkinsky, literally a full house, so the Diamond Club was given headphones, with which it became much more convenient to listen to the guide. I didn't have to stand very close, it was possible, following the most interesting story, to come closer to the paintings and costumes.

Ballet, theatrical costumes of Bakst are, perhaps, the most amazing and complex exhibits of the exhibition. If only because it is extremely difficult to keep them. But, fortunately, a legendary costume has come down to us, made for the great Nijinsky, who danced the part of the Phantom of the Rose in the ballet of the same name in 1912. The one from which the fans later cut off the rose petals as a keepsake. You can even see the places where these petals broke off.

Elena Ishcheeva: “I have just returned from St. Petersburg from the economic forum and I testify that everyone went to cultural events there. For example, I discovered . In addition, my husband and I always end SPIEF with a ballet - this time we were at the Mariinsky Theater on Giselle. The theater, of course, was full. Today there is a stir on Bakst, but at the same time the TV channels are silent, and the PR of the exhibition is carried out only by the museum staff. And all the same, the halls are full, people themselves are drawn to true beauty. I am familiar with the art of ballet, I was brought up on this, and I cannot say that I am amazed, as if I had met Bakst's masterpieces for the first time. Although it was interesting for me to see the original Nijinsky costume, which has shrunk to a microscopic size for a hundred years. But this is the costume in which Nijinsky danced on stage, it causes real awe. And, of course, I am pleasantly surprised that so many members of our club - and now it's a mixed dance, this is a female and male story - all left and came. It is this true impulse, the desire to touch the culture, that makes Russia great. This is not propaganda and advertising, we are not called here by our leaders. Therefore, for me, today's opening is not so much an exhibition as the number of its visitors and their inspired faces.”

Lyudmila Antonova, the lady with the most radiant smile of the evening, also received a lot of impressions from the exhibition: “It was a fantastic time for the most beautiful women and the most inspired men who knew how to admire these women. The time when Art Nouveau ended, Art Deco began, and our country was represented precisely by such artists as Bakst. Therefore, it is a great gift for Russia that the organizers have collected almost everything that remains of his brilliant legacy.”

Here it must be added that the men of that time not only admired women, they decorated them. Bakst, for example, removed tutus from ballerinas, replacing them with tunics, scarves and loose thin shirts, in which the female body is the embodiment of eroticism and beauty. The aesthetics of Diaghilev's productions in the design of Bakst still has a tremendous impact on culture, and then, a hundred years ago, the artist simply turned all ideas about beauty upside down. The old decrepit European theater was swept away. The French press grumbled about "these great Russians", especially "those who draw and dance" so that after them it became impossible to watch ordinary theater.

Not only did Bakst undress a woman, he painted her body for the first time. Yes, yes, the first tattoos, or rather body art, is also Lev Bakst, he did it before the futurists, who are considered pioneers here. At the exhibition we saw a wonderful Faun costume with a blue scarf for Nijinsky's part. It is known that the dancer's legs were also not wearing leotards at all, but a skillful painting on the body. The nudity for Bakst meant a lot, but this incredible theatrical sexuality was not unambiguously perceived by everyone. For example, "Salome", which was designed by the artist, was banned by censorship in St. Petersburg. Only the dance of the seven veils was allowed, where the extravagant Ida Rubinstein was unrolled as if from a cocoon until her completely naked, painted body appeared.

Vladimir Bokhmat, businessman: “Today I dropped everything to come to Pushkinsky and discovered a completely new artist. Of course, I heard the surname, but it was not associated with anything. I was most struck by the painting "Ancient Horror". It seems so prophetic to me! I think the artist somehow knew how to look through time and saw the troubles of the new era. The portrait of Gippius, of course, is very catchy, perhaps not in the same way as Andrei Bely, but Bakst, of course, is a courageous person. Considering that time, a hundred years ago, I think: how difficult it was for him. But it's hard for all geniuses."

When art is not only beautiful, but also fashionable. A large-scale exhibition of works by Lev Bakst has opened at the Pushkin Museum. It is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous artist. Art connoisseurs first of all remember his works for Sergei Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons", and fashion designers - sketches for fabrics and accessories. How a native of Belarusian Grodno could turn into a trendsetter in European fashion, learned the correspondent of the MIR 24 TV channel Ekaterina Rogalskaya.

"French Revolution" is a stable concept. But if coups in the streets were organized by local residents, then only Russians could arrange a revolution in the French theater. The bright and provocative costumes of Leon Bakst for Diaghilev's Russian Seasons turned the head of the European public. Having visited the performances, the fans wanted to get the costumes invented by the artist, and were ready for anything for this.

“Bakst was the sexiest artist of all, he allowed women not to stand, but to lie on pillows, wear bloomers, translucent tunics, take off their corsets. The erotic principle, which is present in his sketches, could not fail to please the women of the Edwardian era, brought up in Victorian puritanism,” says fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev.

Lyovushka Bakst, a native of the Belarusian Grodno, started with portraits and landscapes. Then his name was still Leib-Chaim Rosenberg. The pseudonym Bakst is a shortened surname of Baxter's grandmother - he took it later, for his first exhibition. Many years will pass before the boy from a poor Jewish family will feel at home in both St. Petersburg and Paris.

“In the West, he was at the height of his fame, which is rare in such an artistic field. Bakst is also well-known in our country, also due to the fact that he was a member of the "World of Arts" galaxy. It is no coincidence that at our exhibition we see portraits of Bakst's friends and associates: Alexander Benois, Sergei Diaghilev, Victor Nouvel, Zinaida Gippius. All of them are representatives of our "Silver Age", - says the curator of the Exhibition Natalia Avtonomova.

Bright colors, rich fabrics. It seems that you are not in the center of Moscow, but somewhere in the East. Just like Bakst, who collected motifs for his works from all over the world, the organizers of the exhibition collected his works. For example, "Portrait of Countess Keller" was brought from Zaraysk. It turned out that in a small town where the only attraction is the Kremlin, there is a work of a famous artist. A sketch of Cleopatra's costume, which Bakst made especially for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, was delivered from London.

“Not every exhibition requires such a detailed approach. It was necessary to collect a lot of different things, and then make sure that they began to live with each other, ”says the director of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin Marina Loshak.

Works for this exhibition were shared by 30 museum and private collections. But it is in the Pushkin Museum, which combines the East and Ancient Greece, the past and the present, that each of the paintings seemed to be in its place.

Auditor/Irina Remneva

About 250 works of painting and graphics, photographs, archival documents, rare books, as well as theatrical costumes and sketches for fabrics. In the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin opened a large-scale exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the brightest and most original artists of the early XX century - Lev Bakst.

Connoisseurs of Russian fine art this year celebrate the anniversaries of two of the largest Russian masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the world-famous theater artist Lev Bakst was also born 150 years ago.

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 150,000 residents and guests of St. Petersburg. And now Moscow is joining the festive celebrations.

Exposition in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin is not just a collection of artifacts, one part of which is directly the work of Lev Bakst, and the other - things related to his work. The purpose of the exhibition is not to show objects, but to try to recreate the artist's world with their help, in which all facets of art are subtly and gracefully intertwined, said Marina Loshak, director of the museum.

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 Cleopatra and Scheherazade were the most iconic. Masterfully working with colors and textures, Bakst embodied in the scenery and costumes for them all the luxury, all the intoxicating beauty of the East. “His Scheherazade drove Paris crazy,” recalled the composer Igor Stravinsky. “And this was the beginning of the European and then the world fame of Bakst.”

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

"The Times font is unmistakable," 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 work of other theatrical artists. If in the drawings of Alexander Golovin or Ivan Bilibin we see, strictly speaking, just a suit, then Bakst has an integral 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 she will jump off the canvas, spinning in a sensual dance.

Alas, such revived sketches are only fantasies. However, at the exhibition you can also see real costumes created according to the drawings of Lev Bakst. So, the Museum of the Academy of Russian Ballet named after A.Ya. Vaganova provided the famous costume of Vaslav Nijinsky from Mikhail Fokine's one-act ballet "The Phantom of the Rose", and the famous Russian fashion historian Alexander Vasilyev - costumes for the ballets "Tamara" and "Scheherazade". In addition, the Elysium curtain, shining with emerald and pistachio hues, created by the artist for the theater of Vera Komissarzhevskaya, was brought to Moscow from the Russian Museum. One of the actresses of the theater 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 im. Pushkin included his 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 arrived in Moscow, from which the founder of the art association "World of Arts" and the organizer of the Russian Seasons in Paris looks resolutely at the viewer. The "Lady with Oranges" ("Dinner") also became a decoration of the exhibition. The canvas depicts the wife of the ideologist of the "World of Arts" Alexander Benois - Anna Kind in a closed black dress and a black hat resembling a flower. At one time, the picture presented at the exhibition caused a storm of indignation. The 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 canvas. Literary critic and publicist Vasily Rozanov admired the "stylish decadent" with a mysterious smile a la Mona Lisa. An elegant portrait of Countess Maria Keller from the Zaraisk Kremlin Museum deserves special attention. The maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna is depicted in full growth, in a dress with airy folds made of the finest fabric, decorated with a pattern of powdery pink and pale lilac flowers.

The work of Lev Bakst had a huge impact on fashion at the beginning of the 20th century. Impressed by the costumes from Russian ballets, high-society beauties began to order dresses according to the sketches of the artist. In June 1910, soon after the stunning success of the ballet "Scheherazade", the oriental style comes into fashion: wide shalwars, colored turbans, richly decorated fabrics.

Bakst enters into a cooperation agreement with the Parisian fashion designer Paul Poiret. Works with 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 the ballets designed by Bakst.

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

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

It is important to note that all the exhibits of 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 im. Pushkin. Nearby in the "Department of Private Collections", in the second part of the exhibition, there are rare items related to the early creative work of Bakst, as well as a large amount 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 in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin, will become a bright event for the audience and leave a long aftertaste of a joyful impression. The exhibition does not just provide information, it creates an atmosphere. Once among the sketches and costumes, the viewer will be able to feel what irresistible creative energy filled the world of Bakst, and, perhaps, for the first time, truly discover this outstanding artist.

What: Exhibition "Lev Bakst / Léon Bakst. To the 150th anniversary of his birth"
Where: State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin (Main Building and Department of Private Collections)

On the day of the 150th anniversary of the artist, a large-scale exhibition of Lev Bakst was opened in the Pushkin Museum as part of the Cherry Forest festival

Exhibition of theater artist Lev Bakst, painter, portrait painter, book illustrator, interior designer, clothes and accessories of the 1910s was solemnly opened yesterday at the State Museum. Pushkin.

After a light cocktail accompanied by live instrumental music, the guests of the evening were gathered on the marble staircase leading to the halls where the director of the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkina Maria Loshak greeted the audience, and after the solemn speech, the exhibition was officially declared open.

Known primarily for his designs for Diaghilev's Russian Seasons in Paris and London, Leon Bakst - as he was known in the West - created unusual and memorable costumes for such legendary productions as Cleopatra, Scheherazade, The Blue God and "Sleeping Princess" His multifaceted work not only brought him success and fame, but also changed his attitude to stage design, forced him to reconsider the way an artist exists on stage, to rethink the relationship between the proscenium and the auditorium.

The first retrospective exhibition of the artist in Russia included works from private Russian and foreign collections, as well as from state collections, some of which will see the light of day in the country for the first time. In addition to paintings and drawings, the exhibition features a number of costumes designed by Bakst, including the famous costume of Vaslav Nijinsky as the Phantom of the Rose. In addition, the exposition included more than 10 exhibits from the personal collection of the famous fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev.
The special guest of the evening was the designer Antonio Marras, who presented a collection of dresses inspired by the work of Lev Bakst.

Lev Bakst, who was in love with the art of Ancient Greece and the East, combined traditional and classical motifs in his works, without giving up on Art Nouveau and extravagance tendencies, which made his work very special - it is difficult to confuse exotic girls from Bakst's paintings with someone else. more.

Ksenia Sobchak, Alena Doletskaya, Olga Sviblova and many others were the first to see the exhibition.