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'From Russia': Modernist Surprises at the Royal Academy

by Zoe Strimpel
Fri, 22 Feb 2008 at 3:38 PM

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When I saw the line outside the Royal Academy on Thursday morning for the "From Russia" exhibition, I nearly fainted. Well, that might be something of an exaggeration, but suffice it to say I was really, really glad I'd remembered my press ID. As a result, I got to skip the queue, but my companion (who had already seen it once) could not. We parted ways, and as I overtook the long, curving tail of visitors, I swore the exhibit had better be as good as all that. Otherwise, what were these people doing? It was a Thursday morning at 10:30 for goodness's sake.

Of course, "From Russa, French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925" may have had extra people-pulling powers. In December, Russian officials threatened to cancel the show at the last minute because it feared the paintings could be taken under Britain's loose anti-seizure laws. This panic coincided with increasingly chilly relations between the two countries, following Russia's refusal to extradite to Britain the man suspected of murdering Alexander Litvinenko. Had it come to this? The Royal Academy had spent two years preparing for the show.

Luckily, all was well when the then Culture Secretary, James Purnell, managed to get Britain's anti-seizure laws in place early.

So, was the hype, the bluster and the effort all worth it?

Of course. I was bowled over by the strength, ingenuity and beauty of early 20th century Russian art, doubtlessly the star turn of the show. Who knew Russia was the world capital of the avant-garde in the 1910s? I didn't get too involved with the labels — "Cubo-Futurism" and "Neo-Primitivism" were some that made my head spin. But the basic story here was how Russian artists began the century following their French counterparts, then from around 1910, began using French inspiration to very Russian ends. Their art began to reflect and explore Russian heritage — take Natalia Goncharova's "Peasants" and her abstract, blocky "Pillars of Salt," a gorgeous, weird painting that depicts the Medieval stone "babas" found on the southern Russian steppe. The Russian cubism room was also breathtaking.

"The Rape of Europa" by Valentin Serov, which depicts Zeus's abductee riding a red bull (Zeus) through waves, was stunning and odd. Equally unforgettable was Kasimir Malevich's bright red cubist peasant woman — the intense color and furious florals the likes of which are distinctly Russian. Alexander Golovin's "Grave of the Commander" was an intricate gothic delight from 1911, with no obvious tie to the prevailing styles elsewhere exhibited. And a big smile at Boris Kustodiev's "Beauty," which shows an enormously fat, naked merchant's wife bejewelled on her bed of florals, is unavoidable.

The Impressionist and post-Impressionist French art is all stellar, but you can find that elsewhere. Modernist Russian art, on the other hand, has until now escaped general artistic awareness in the West, and this is a chance to see some of its most gorgeous specimens. Whether it deserves its lines of people snaking around the courtyard, or whether all those visitors will get as much out of it as they seem to think they will, is anybody's guess.

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