...Back to "Knave of Diamonds" in Monaco

By Zelfira Tregulova
Supervisor of the “Knave of Diamonds” Painters: between Cézanne and the Avant-garde” Exhibition

Monaco, 11 March – 12 April 2004

The exhibition “The Russian “Knave of Diamonds” Painters: between Cézanne and the Avant-garde” for the first time presents the creative work of one of the most striking groups of Moscow painters of the 1910s to the international audience. The masterpieces of P. Konchalovsky, A. Lentulov, I. Mashkov, A. Kuprin, R. Falk and other members of the group had been occasionally demonstrated abroad as part of the Russian twentieth century art selective exhibitions always attracting maximum public attention in spite of the fact that they were put on the walls next to such renowned masters, as Kandynsky and Malevich. The acute interest in the painters of this group is revealed in that their works were included in the most prestigious contemporary exhibitions, such as “Moscow – Paris”, Paris 1979, “Moscow – Berlin”, Berlin 1995, “Fauvism or Challenged by Fire”, Paris 2000. However there hasn’t been a single exhibition demonstrating the “Knave of Diamonds” masterpieces at the peak of the painters’ creative activity attributed to 1910s – 1920es, and putting them into the context of the European art of the period.

The current exhibition in Monaco (75 pieces of art) is the first ever major exposition presenting the creative work of the “Knave of Diamonds” painters as an entire artistic trend bringing together canvasses from many Russian museums and private collections. This is a unique endeavour aimed at discovering the enormous potential of Russian object-centred painting which invites even the most knowing observers of Russian avant-garde art of the beginning of the twentieth century to appreciate the originality and the highest artistic level of the demonstrated pieces of art. Many of these works were exhibited only in the beginning of 1910s in Moscow and St. Petersburg and then were made part of regional museum collections or private galleries in the artists’ and their families’ work-shops. Only now it was made possible to expose them as a single collection in the Monaco State Art Gallery.

The geography of the exhibition is rather wide – it includes paintings from the State museums of Saratov, Yaroslavl, Kazan, Samara, Rostov, Ivanovo, Tula, Serpukhov, Ryazan, Vologda and Krasnodar – 18 local museums altogether. The world famous State Tretjakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg are also taking part.

It is for the first time in the history of Russian avant-garde painting that a full catalogue has been compiled and published by the “Ekaterina” Foundation including besides research articles by the leading specialists the unique documentary materials, archive publications and biographical essays on each of the presented painters.

For the first time a Russian art exhibition taking place outside Russia has been conceptualized, prepared, collected, designed and financed largely by Russian benefactors.

The exhibition mostly comprises the “Knave of Diamonds” paintings, and is representative of this artistic movement including a wide range of artists who did not believe in group-centered seclusion. The paintings chosen for the exhibition present the major works by Konchalovsky, Lentulov, Mashkov, Falk, Kuprin, which formed the core of the “Knave of Diamonds” pre-revolutionary exhibitions. The exposition also boasts the works by Natalia Goncharova and Michael Larionov, who was the initiator of the first sensational “Knave of Diamonds” exhibition held in Moscow in 1910, but a year later broke with his colleagues. There are paintings by such masters, as Alexander Exter, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Vladimir Tatlin, mostly those demonstrated at exhibitions during the period of 1910 – 1916.

All the most important “Knave of Diamonds” genres are demonstrated at the exhibition: portrait, landscape, still life, nude. Genre similarity of a variety of paintings enables us to compare the different creative approaches to an artistic task the painters had in common and emphasizes the individuality of each painter.

One of the merits of the exhibition is that it brings together almost unknown works from a number of local museums in Russia. As is well known, in the beginning of the 1920es the avant-garde painters co-operating with the Soviet Government proposed a programme aimed at creating local museums of modern art which were to accommodate the best works of contemporary painters. Thanks to their initiative a considerable number of the best canvasses had ended up in such local galleries in 1910.

The creative work of the “Knave of Diamonds” painters is a unique and most striking phenomenon based in Moscow. At the same time at the root of their effort are Paul Cézanne’s teachings and the esthetics of French Post-Impressionists. Artistic findings of the “Knave of Diamonds” painters ran parallel to the French Fauvists experiments and the development of the German expressionism Group “The Blue Rider”. It is not accidental therefore that Fauvists, “The Blue Rider” painters, as well as Brack and Picasso had often taken part in the “Knave of Diamonds” exhibitions in Russia. Similarly the Russian painters of the period regularly participated in the international exhibitions in Paris and Berlin. For all its typically Moscow untamed peculiarity the “Knave of Diamonds” movement is part of the general European artistic process of the beginning of 1910s. It should be noted however that unlike their French predecessors, Moscow ‘Cézannists’ (another name for the “Knave of Diamonds” painters) with their daring experiments and predilection for Primitivism had always remained within the object-centred trend (what links them up with German expressionists).

This distinguishes them from their Moscow colleagues - Larionov and Goncharova, with whom they were mesmerizing the audience at the first “Knave of Diamonds” exhibition, - and whose experiments later had lead to one of the first systems of the avant-garde art. The “Knave of Diamonds” masters’ interest in the nature of the object is the principle feature separating them from such avant-garde painters, as Tatlin, Udaltsova, Exter, who were close to the “Knave of Diamonds” trend at a certain period of their activity. The irony of the situation however lies in that the last pre-revolutionary “Knave of Diamonds” exhibition was dominated by Kazimir Malevich’s supremacist canvasses supplemented by paintings of only one major representative of the trend – Aristarch Lentulov.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the Cultural Foundation“Ekaterina” . The Foundation became the initiator and the chief organizer of the exhibition.

Of great importance is the contribution of Russian museums taking part in the exhibition, first and foremost, the State Tretjakov Gallery and the State Russian museum. The exhibition includes the best works from 16 local Russian museums, which had been housed there since 1920es. That was a good time for the development of gallery art collections when the first museums of modern art were created not only in Russia but in the world in general. For many years later these paintings had been kept in storage places, and some of them did not survive to the present day. Still many of the paintings remained as the most valuable part of museum collections, and we can enjoy the beauty of these masterpieces today.
The role of the State Museum – Exhibition Center “ROSIZO” can by no means be underestimated. “ROSIZO” became the co-organizer of the exhibition having contributed more than 50 paintings from local Russian museums to the exposition.

Special acknowledgments to the State Russian Museum Publication Centre, the RA and Palace Editions Publishing Houses, who managed to publish the catalogue of the exhibition in a short time.

The design of the exhibition by Aljena Kirtsova made it possible to show each picture against its own colour background underlining its artistic merits. The vivid “Knave of Diamonds” paintings presented at the exhibition are inserted into the strict abstract geometry, with the red rhomb – a symbol of diamonds colour serving as the leitmotif of the exhibition.

Of utmost significance is the co-operation of the State Authorities of Monaco who rendered invaluable support to the project at all stages of its development.