The STaTe hermiTage muSeum annual reporT

temporary exhIbItIons
object but an exquisite decoration used by
both ladies and gentlemen.
Anna Matveyeva, “The Artificial Week:
a Week of Simple Pleasures”, BaltInfo.Ru,
27 June 2010
SwiSS STained glaSS from
The 16Th – 18Th cenTurieS
in The hermiTage collecTion
Swiss stained glass panels did not just reflect
the traditional Biblical subjects – they were
a mirror of people’s lives, which makes them
a valuable historical source. After the age of
splendid cathedrals had passed and the large
stained glass windows were no longer in demand,
the “cabinet stained glass” used in
secular buildings came into fashion. The Hermitage
possesses samples of all the types:
illustrative, armorial, figurative, salutatory,
matrimonial, panels with a standard-bearer,
marking accession to an office, peasant, and
magistrate ones.
Ludmila Leusskaya, “Stained Glass with
a Peasant Wedding”, Sankt-Peterburgskie
Vedomosti, 8 July 2010
At “Since Tobacco You Love So Much...”
exhibition
The Hermitage possesses 70 Swiss stained
glass panels of the 16th – 17th centuries.
This is all that remains of a considerable collection
of stained glass after the barbarous
sales of valuable artwork in the 1930s. According
to Svetlana Adaksina, Chief Curator
of the Hermitage, the history of adding to
the Hermitage collection of “painted window
glass separated by lead bars” is no less exciting
than the study of the art of the mediaeval
Swiss masters, heirs of the Holy Roman Empire.
“This collection has been forming since
the foundation of the Hermitage. To a certain
extent, it was expanding quite haphazardly –
the elegant luminous miniatures were presented
to the Emperors by the connoisseurs
of Swiss stained glass”.
Natalia Shergina, “Luminous Glass”,
Novye Izvestiya, 12 July 2010
The SailS of hellaS. Seafaring
in The ancienT world
The exhibition displays over 200 objects
which tell the story of seafaring and shipbuilding
in the Ancient World, of pirates and
sea deities benevolent or hostile to the sailors.
The exhibition is divided into sections:
the heroic cults of Ancient Greece, the real
heroes – Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar,
the marine deities and fantastic creatures,
the dwellers and gifts of the sea, the
marine trade – coins and amphorae, the advances
in seafaring – sailing warships.
Rosbalt-Peterburg, “ The Hermitage
Presents the Sails of Hellas”,
22 September 2010
“Seafaring” is traditionally associated with
shipbuilding and navigation, but the scope
of the exhibition is wider. From squids
to gods, from warriors to fishermen and
vintners, from women to sea monsters –
these are the animate characters it presents
to us. From coins to seafood dishes (as in
plates) and cups, from earrings decorated
with a pearl or a golden dolphin, and armour
(don’t miss the impressive chausses
with the head of Gorgon Medusa) to the
remnants of anchors, from inscriptions to
mosaics – these are the objects represented
here. This is why the word “sails” in the
title should not be taken literally, but rather
as a symbol, a powerful image in the history
of humanity: the yearning for a dream, the
wanderlust, the past, the beauty.
Olga Shervud, “The Dark Waters Boiled”,
Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti,
12 October 2010
paBlo picaSSo. nude woman
in a Red aRmchaiR from TaTe
modern, london
The exhibition of a single painting is a commendable
but controversial task. Sometimes
it is spot on, like in the case of many other
Hermitage exhibitions which show one by
one the works sold by the Bolsheviks in the
1930s. Sometimes it is a unique masterpiece
brought from somewhere else. But sometimes
an outstanding work, even a masterpiece,
does not make an exhibition – maybe
the genius loci is against it, or the stars decree
that it is not to be. But a beautiful story
can rescue the whole business, or else it
will just go away quietly. One can argue which
category the current display of Nude Woman
in a Red Armchair belongs to…
Kira Dolinina, “A Chance Meeting”,
Kommersant, 6 October 2010
The Hermitage has no works by Picasso executed
in the same manner in the 1930s. It is
all the more important that our visitors now
have the opportunity to see Nude Woman in
a Red Armchair in St. Petersburg. According
to Mikhail Piotrovsky, the new one-painting
exhibition is an example of museum solidarity.
An exchange of masterpieces is a complicated
affair in the age of the financial crisis,
soaring prices and general problems. Nevertheless,
after sending three Gaugins to be
displayed in London, the Hermitage was able
to get a Picasso in return.
Natalia Shergina, “The Walter Girl”,
Novye Izvestiya, 7 October 2010
This was the time when the Shchukins and
Morozovs were no longer able to collect art
in Russia, so we have no works by Picasso
from his “Marie Walter Period”. It is all the
more interesting to see Nude Woman in a Red
Armchair, which the Hermitage secured from
the London Tate Modern Gallery in exchange
for the use of the Hermitage paintings in a
Gaugin exhibition. It is a good thing that this
is just one painting. It is worth a long contemplation
which reveals affinities with portraits
by Ingres and highlights Picasso’s mastery
of colour.
V.Sh., “Picasso of the Marie-Therese
Period”, Gorod, 18 October 2010
cenTre pompidou in The STaTe
hermiTage muSeum
A performance, an installation, an abstraction
– these are unfamiliar events for the Hermitage
halls. Provocation meets you at the
doorstep. The Bottle Drier is called a masterpiece.
It is even used as the emblem of the
exhibition. This is the mother of all contemporary
art. The visitors frown, look down –
and they are trapped.
At this exhibition, even the Comments Book
is a provocation. In order to leave a comment,
you have to climb to the podium, approach
a speaking platform. And this is already a performance
or an installation, call it what you
like. In any case it is a creative act of contemporary
art.
Dmitry Vitov, “The Hermitage Presents
an Exhibition from the Famous Centre
Pompidou”, The First Channel,
18 October 2010
It must be a joke! The Hermitage, the greatest
museum of Western art in Russia, has
no works by Expressionists, or Futurists, or
Dadaists, or Surrealists. As for the second
half of the 20th century – the least said… The
conservatism of the museum and the public
is a legacy of Soviet times, when avant-garde
art was not in favour. The Pompidou Festival
is an attempt to introduce contemporary art
to the Hermitage.
Stanislav Savitsky, “The Bottle Drier
in the Hermitage”, Delovoy Peterburg,
16 October 2010
The exhibition of the Centre Georges Pompidou
in the Hermitage organized as part of the
France – Russia Year is in a way a concise
temporary exhIbItIons
history of contemporary art in its French incarnation.
On the whole, the most interesting journey in
the exhibition is the evolution from Duchamps
to Lavier, from readymade to appropriationism,
which works in the same way. But the
object appropriated by the artist is no longer
a household item from outside the sphere of
art, but the art of the previous generation itself.
This is the story in which contemporary
art is biting its own tail: several decades after
inventing the technique of readymade, it becomes
readymade itself.
Igor Gulin,
“The Readymade Creators”, Weekend,
8 October 2010
The Comments Book is a testimony to the indifferent
reaction of the Hermitage visitors to
contemporary art, which finds its way to the
city’s greatest museum more and more often.
So far, the pages are dominated by various
negative emotions. There is also a laconic
“Cool” in a child’s hand, and a condescending
“It is good that the museum is not afraid
of taking risks”.
The existence of contemporary art in classical
space is a little like a mock trial with defence
and prosecution lawyers. The visitors
who don’t want to impair their aesthetic sensibility
usually represent the prosecution,
while the professional community is trying
hard to prove that the defendant has a right
to be playful.
Polina Vinogradova.
“The Defence of Spring and Love”,
Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti,
22 October 2010
At Centre Pompidou in the State Hermitage
Museum exhibition
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