100 years ago in Russia the new trend in art that
later received the name of suprematism (after the highest in
Latin) had been created by Kazimir Malevich. For the first time this idea had
found its embodiment in the theatre show. At the beginning of December 1913 in
St. Petersburg Luna-Park theatre the Avant-garde Victory
Over the Sun opera was presented for the first time. The costumes and
decorations for this opera were created according to the sketches by Malevich.
In the second act of this show the artists tears the curtain where the sun was
presented not red and round as usual, but in the form of black square. In such
way the authors (libretto by Alexei Kruchyonikh, music by Mikhail Matushin)
showed his attitude to traditional values of art. The Black Square that became
the emblem for Malevich had superseded the sun and symbolized the victory of
the active human art over the passive form of nature. In 1915 the Black
Square painting was showed as the easel painting. After creation of this
work in Russia began the active movement towards one of forms of non-figurative
art that had the strong influence also on the world culture. The exhibition in
the Russian Museum is devoted to the two stages of creative path of Kazimir
Malevich - before and after the creation of the Black Square. There
are presented the costumes for the Victory Over the Sun opera that
are made depending on author's sketches and close to original works.
The Russian Museum owns the greatest in world
collection of works by Kazimir Malevich that includes 101 paintings, over 50
graphic works, two architectons and the examples of applied art. The exhibition
brings together about 100 works, including the sketches of costumes and
decorations.
On the screen is presented the video version of the
"Victory Over the Sun" opera. Nearby there are presented the costumes for the
opera that are created depending to the sketches by Malevich with the use of
technologies close to original. The reconstruction of costumes was made by the
students of the St.Petersburg Academy of Applied Art named after A.Shtigliz «DivinaHarmonia»
design school under the direction of Olga Kalashnikova and teachers E.Kuptsova,
A.Mahnova, I.Peschanskaya, S.Stazkova, and also by the students of «DivinaHarmonia»
(teachers - L.Bulavkina, N.Palmina, J.Tretyakova, in collaboration with
S.Vorobyeva, D.Ginsburg, E.Lagutina).
With the financial support of OJSC
NOVATEK
