Patrons: evening preview of 'Revolution: Russian Art'
Monday 6 February 2017 6.30 - 8.30pm
Main Galleries, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
Free, booking required. Patrons only.
Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932
RA Patrons have the first opportunity to see our new Main Galleries exhibition; 'Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932'
Join us for a private curator-led tour of our Revolution exhibition, followed by a drinks reception in the John Madejski Fine Rooms. Patrons can choose either the breakfast preview or this evening preview as part of their annual membership benefits. To keep it special, all tours have limited availability.
Renowned Russian artists including Kandinsky, Malevich, Chagall and Rodchenko were among those to live through the fateful events of 1917, which ended centuries of Tsarist rule and shook society to its foundations. Amidst the tumult, the arts initially thrived as debates swirled over what form a new “people’s” art should take. But the optimism was not to last: by the end of 1932, Stalin’s brutal suppression had drawn the curtain down on creative freedom.
Taking inspiration from a remarkable exhibition shown in Russia just before Stalin’s clampdown, we will mark the historic centenary by focusing on the 15-year period between 1917 and 1932, when possibilities seemed limitless and Russian art flourished across every medium. This far-ranging exhibition will – for the first time – survey the entire artistic landscape of post-revolutionary Russia, encompassing Kandinsky’s boldly innovative compositions, the dynamic abstractions of Malevich and the Suprematists, and the emergence of Socialist Realism, which would come to define Communist art as the only style accepted by the regime.
Revolutionary in their own right, together these works capture both the idealistic aspirations and the harsh reality of the revolution and its aftermath.