Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art
Encyclopedia
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
organized in 1918 by Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
and Alexander Romm. In 1921 it exhibited 120 paintings "representing all the movements of the contemporary art from the Academic Realism
Academic art
Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism,...
to Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
to Suprematism
Suprematism
Suprematism was an art movement focused on fundamental geometric forms which formed in Russia in 1915-1916. It was not until later that suprematism received conventional museum preparations...
". In the mid 1920s the museum was abolished. While some paintings have found their way to museums of Russia and Belarus, the whereabouts of many paintings are unknown.
History
The history of the museum starts in 1918. On 12 September 1918 famous painter Marc Chagall, then the CommissarCommissar
Commissar is the English transliteration of an official title used in Russia from the time of Peter the Great.The title was used during the Provisional Government for regional heads of administration, but it is mostly associated with a number of Cheka and military functions in Bolshevik and Soviet...
of Arts for Vitebsk Region, went to Petrograd for getting the official approval for his idea to organize a Museum of Modern Art in Vitebsk. On 14 November 1918 newspaper published information that the works on organization of museum of modern arts had started in Vitebsk.
The Museum was organized in the building of the People's Art School (Народное Художественное Училище) on 10 Bukharin Street. The museum was headed By Chagall and Malevich and later by Alexander Romm who was appointed the Chief of Vitebsk Commission on preservation of Heritage and Arts on 15 January 1920. In parallel the same building also hosted another art museum, the so called School Museum for the works of the graduates of the People's Art School. The second museum was organized on 8 July 1919.
In the 1920s the museum got a significant collection of the contemporary painting. In spring 1921 Alexander Romm wrote about 120 paintings "representing all the movements of the contemporary art from the Academic Realism
Academic art
Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism,...
to Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
to Suprematism
Suprematism
Suprematism was an art movement focused on fundamental geometric forms which formed in Russia in 1915-1916. It was not until later that suprematism received conventional museum preparations...
. Almost all contemporary painters are represented in the collection by their serious characteristic works". Today 90 paintings of the museum are known (some may belong to the School Museum. The painters included Nathan Altman
Nathan Altman
Nathan Isaevich Altman was a Jewish, Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, Cubist painter, stage designer and book illustrator who was born, grew up and began his art studies in Ukraine, Russian Empire.-Early life:He was born in Vinnytsia, Russian Empire to a family of Russian...
, Abram Brazer, David Burliuk
David Burliuk
David Davidovich Burliuk was a Russian avant-garde artist of Ukrainian origin , book illustrator, publicist, and author associated with Russian Futurism...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster was a Russian-French painter and designer.-Biography:-Childhood:...
, Robert Falk
Robert Falk
Robert Rafailovich Falk was a Russian painter.-Biography:Falk was born in Moscow in 1886. In 1903 to 1904 he studied art in the studios of Konstantin Yuon and Ilya Mashkov, in 1905 to 1909 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture with Konstantin Korovin and Valentin...
, Sergei Gerasimov
Sergei Vasilyevich Gerasimov
Sergey Vasilyevich Gerasimov was a Soviet Russian painter.Gerasimov was one of the most important of all Soviet artists. A student of Konstantin Korovin as a young artist he later went on to join the Makovets group. His early watercolors are considered masterpieces and show a tendency toward...
, Natalia Goncharova
Natalia Goncharova
Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist , painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Her great-aunt was Natalia Pushkina, wife of the poet Alexander Pushkin.-Life and work:...
, Alexander Ivanovich Ivanov, Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
, Ivan Klyun, Pyotr Konchalovsky
Pyotr Konchalovsky
Pyotr Konchalovsky , was a Russian painter, a member of Jack of Diamonds group.-Life and career:...
, Konstantin Korovin
Konstantin Korovin
Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin was a leading Russian Impressionist painter.-Biography:Konstantin was born in Moscow to a merchant family officially registered as "peasants of Vladimir Gubernia". His father, Aleksey Mikhailovich Korovin, earned a university degree and was more interested in arts...
, Nikolai Krymov
Nikolai Krymov
Nikolay Petrovich Krymov was a Russian painter and art theoritican.Krymov was born into an artistic family. He studied with his father and at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the faculty of Architecture under Abram Arkhipov, Nikolai Kasatkin, Leonid Pasternak, and at...
, Pavel Kuznetsov
Pavel Kuznetsov
Pavel Varfolomevich Kusnetsov was a Russian painter and graphic artist.He studied at Saratov at Bogolyubov Art School , then Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and for a year in Paris . His early paintings were exhibited by the Mir Iskusstva group, and he was closely associated...
, Alexander V. Kuprin
Alexander V. Kuprin
Alexander Vasilievich Kuprin was a Russian painter, a member of the Jack of Diamonds group. Kuprin was born in Borisoglebsk in 1880 and died in Moscow in 1960. His most famous works are various landscape and still life....
, Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was an avant-garde Russian painter.-Life and work:...
, Aristarkh Lentulov
Aristarkh Lentulov
Aristarkh Lentulov was a major Russian avant-garde artist of Cubist orientation who also worked on set designs for the theatre.- Biography :...
, Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
, Ilya Mashkov
Ilya Mashkov
Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov was a Russian artist, one of the most significant and at the same time most characteristic painters of the circle of "Jack of Diamonds" .He was born in the cossack village Mikhailovskaya-on-Don in a peasant family...
, Vassily Millioti, Alexey Morgunov, Alexander Osmerkin
Alexander Osmerkin
Alexander Alexandrovich Osmerkin was a Russian painter, graphic artist, stage designer, and art teacher. He was a member of the Knave of Diamonds avant-garde group, AKhRR, and Society of Moscow Artists groups...
, Yakov Pain, Vera Pestel, Lyubov Popova
Lyubov Popova
Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova was a Russian avant-garde artist , painter and designer. She was also a rarity in the highly male-dominated world of Soviet art.-Early life:...
, Yehuda Pen
Yehuda Pen
Yehuda Pen was a Jewish-Belarusian artist-painter, a teacher and an outstanding figure of the Jewish Renaissance in the Russian and Belarusian art of the beginning of 20th century...
, Alexander Rodchenko
Alexander Rodchenko
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova....
, Vassily Rozhdestvensky, Olga Rozanova
Olga Rozanova
Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: (Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (1886-7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist in the styles of Suprematist, Neo-Primitivist, and Cubo-Futurist.-Biography:...
, Alexander Romm, Nikolay Sinezubov, Konstantin Somov
Konstantin Somov
Konstantin Andreyevich Somov was a Russian artist associated with the Mir iskusstva. Born into a family of a major art historian and Hermitage Museum curator, he became interested in the 18th century art and music at an early age.Somov studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Ilya Repin from...
, Varvara Stepanova
Varvara Stepanova
Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova , was a Russian artist associated with the 'Constructivist' movement.She came from peasant origins but was fortunate enough to get an education at Kazan School of Art, Odessa. There she met her lifelong friend and collaborator Alexander Rodchenko...
, Władysław Strzemiński, Aleksandr Shevchenko
Aleksandr Shevchenko
Aleksandr Shevchenko was a highly influential Russian avant-garde painter and theorist. In 1913 he wrote the book 'Neo-primiivizm', from which the Russian art movement derives its name....
, David Sternberg, Solomon Yudovin.
The exposition of the museum was open to public in July 1920. In July–October 1922 23 paintings were moved to Petrograd. To the 1 April 1923 only 35 works left. In 1925 there were signals that paintings of avant garde artists from the museum are cut for canvas by the students of Art School. On 26 September 1925 the surviving 32 paintings were transferred to Vitebsk Regional Museum. Most of them were transferred to the Belarusian National Arts Museum
Belarusian National Arts Museum
Belarusian National Arts Museum is a museum in Minsk, Belarus. It is the largest museum in the country....
in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
in 1939. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
only one work from the former Vitebsk Museum of Modern Arts was left in Vitebsk
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
: a small still life by David Sternberg. Besides this painting the whereabouts of only 24 are known: 19 paintings are in State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, four paintings are in Belarusian National Arts Museum in Minsk and one painting is in the Kawamura Museum of Modern Art in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.