Mikhail Vrubel’s Exhibition as a Subject of Art Criticism Reflection

Abstract

In this article, written after visiting the exhibition of works by M.A. Vrubel at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in the winter of 2021–2022, the author shares some of his impressions of the event. Vrubel appears as an innovator who predicted and anticipated in his work many phenomena in the art of the coming 20th century. The author examines the influence of Vrubel’s creative work on the artists of the Russian avant‐garde and the perception of his works by the masters of new trends in art. The purpose of the study is to analyse various connections between the young Russian artists of the 1900s‐1910s and the art and searches of Vrubel. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that this topic has not been fully studied to date. The significant exposition of Vrubel’s works at the Tretyakov Gallery provided a lot of new material for studying the influence of the artist’s work on the masters of the Russian art of the 20th century. In the article special emphasis is placed on the consideration of the last period of the master’s work associated with his illness. From the point of view of a modern researcher this period is a significant and completely independent phenomenon that completed his work of the 19th century and opened up new opportunities for the art of the 20th century. Research material for this article is presented by the works of Vrubel shown at the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery in 2021–2022, the memoirs and testimonies of the artists of the early 20th century, and subsequent works of the art historians of the 20th century.

Keywords

• m.a. vrubel
• d.l. andreev
• p.i. bromirsky
• v.v. kandinsky
• p.i. karpov
• m.f. larionov
• k.s. malevich
• s.m. romanovich
• v.n. chekrygin
• impressionism
• symbolism
• monumental painting
• russian avant‐garde
• futurism