An unprecedented exhibition from the Tretyakov Gallery "The Russian Way. From Dionysius to Malevich" opens in the Vatican

On November 19, an unprecedented exhibition project from Russia “The Russian Way. From Dionysius to Malevich. ” The exhibition will show 54 key works of Russian art from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery and regional museums.

Never before has Russia taken such a number of absolute masterpieces abroad. The exhibition “Russian way. From Dionysius to Malevich ”will be a reciprocal gesture to the equally significant project of the Vatican Roma Aeterna, which was held in the Tretyakov Gallery in 2016–2017.

“This is an exceptional exhibition in terms of its level and design, which for us was a huge milestone on a serious and very difficult path,” said the director of the State Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova during the Russia-Vatican video link, which was held on the eve of the exhibition opening.

The exhibition Roma Aeterna in the State Tretyakov Gallery, where 42 masterpieces were shown - works by Bellini, Raphael, Caravaggio and other great Italian masters. According to the director of the Tretyakov Gallery, the exhibition was visited by about 200 thousand people in three months. The reciprocal project of Russia in the Vatican promises to enjoy no less success, especially since the place for displaying the masterpieces is symbolic and non-standard. The wing of Charles the Great Cathedral of St. Peter is not really intended for exhibiting art, but this is a place that no tourist can avoid, and the entrance to the exhibition will be free. Precautions and logistics are unprecedented, said Zelfira Tregulova.

The curator of the project, Arkady Ippolitov, abandoned the chronological principle of displaying masterpieces. The exposition will be built as a dialogue of two traditions: Old Russian art and painting of the second half of the XIX - first third of the XX century.

“It will be about the Russian spirit,” said Ippolitov. - The exhibition begins with the icon of Dionysius and ends with an icon of the fourteenth century. But the emphasis is on painting of the nineteenth century, which is most fully collected in the Tretyakov Gallery and is not very well known abroad. So no one has ever imagined it ...

Among the masterpieces that will be presented in the Vatican are the paintings “Not Waited”, “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province” and “Before Confession” by Ilya Repin; "Troika. Pupils-artisans are taking water ”and“ The Drowned Woman ”by Vasily Perov; “What is truth? Christ and Pilate "and" Golgotha ​​"of Nicholas Ge; “The Demon (seated)” by Mikhail Vrubel; "Trinity" Natalia Goncharova; "Moscow. Red Square "by Vasily Kandinsky; “Bathing the Red Horse” and “1918 in Petrograd” by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. The only portrait by Vasily Perov depicts Fyodor Dostoevsky, who defined a lot in Russian culture.

“All of Rome cannot wait to look at art, which is little known abroad,” said Barbara Yatta, director of the Vatican Museums, during a video bridge. - This exhibition will call us to get acquainted with the works that very rarely left Russia. This is a generous gesture, which is a worthy response to the Vatican exhibition in Russia, when our museums lost half of their main masterpieces while they were shown in Moscow ...

In total at the exhibition “Russian way. From Dionysius to Malevich, 54 works will be shown: 47 works from the State Tretyakov Gallery (40 of them from the permanent exhibition) and 7 from regional museums.

November 19, 2018 to February 16, 2019