Ambassador Alexander Darchiev’s address at the National Gallery on the occasion of the Russian abstract art exhibition
Ambassador Alexander Darchiev’s address at the National Gallery on the occasion of the Russian abstract art exhibition
“Advent of Abstraction: Russia, 1914-1923”
(February 7th, 2016, Ottawa)
Dear friends, your excellencies, art lovers and professionals,
It gives me great honor, standing under the magnificent crystal roof of the National Gallery of Canada, to address such a distinguished audience and to welcome all of you to enjoy Russian avant-garde, the earliest fully abstract art.
Magnificent artworks by Vladimir Tatlin, marvelous paintings by Kazimir Malevich, works by women artists Liubov Popova and Olga Rozanova, as well as masterpieces by Ivan Klium and El Lissitsky, have vastly extended horizons of modern art in sync with the turbulent revolutionary epoch of 1914-1923.
These were heroic and tragic times, epitomized in Malevich’s iconic Black Square, when previously powerful monarchies of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia vanished overnight, while crowns were laying by the dozen on the ground with no one bothering to pick them up.
This was the great Russian revolution, after all, with its enormous death toll, with tectonic change that unleashed artistic energy as well, challenging existing order, tradition and classical normalcy.
We all know, as time goes on, what posed a challenge once, turns to become the norm; and Russian abstraction, inspired by social and political upheaval to intense experimentation, has been recognized over the years as a genuine inspiration.
No wonder, great Russian and Soviet poet and artist, futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky, well-known for his epatage, was presented during my school time as a classic. I still remember by heart his rhyme of 1913, just a year before the doomsday of World War I, which reads:
“On the scales of a tin fish,
I read the summons of new lips,
And you, could you play a nocturne
On a drain pipe flute?”
I have to stop here, because, as a former history student, I can go on for hours.
Just let me add, that despite ups and downs of Russian-Canadian relations and in world politics, despite international legal intricacies that cannot, unfortunately, be avoided in cultural and museum exchanges, art should and would bring our people and societies together helping them to understand each other better.
In conclusion, allow me to thank wholeheartedly the National Gallery for putting together this unique display of works, as well as the exhibition’s curator Andrei Nakov, and all of you who found time to enjoy these masterpieces tonight.
Thank you!
