Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich
St. Petersburg, State Museum and Institute of the Roerich family, Vasilevsky Island, 18th line, 1
30.05.2013 - 17.11.2013
30.05.2013 - 17.11.2013
Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich’s famous paintings from collections of Tretyakov State Gallery and Latvian National Museum of Art and little-known works from the collection of Roerich Research Fund are exhibited at Roerich Family Museum and Institute. The exhibition named “Father and son” gives its guests an opportunity to find parallels in artworks of the two great artists and to discover unique originality of them both. Many of the works are being shown in Saint-Petersburg for the first time.
Among the exhibited paintings there are such famous works of Nicholas Roerich as «Krishna» (1936), «On the heights (Tummo)» (1936), «The hunt» (1936), «Guga Chohan» (1931), «Mother of Genghis Khan» (1931), and Svetoslav Roerich’s «Portrait of Kuluta» (1937), «Cup of Buddha (1934)», «Portrait of the Father», (1938), «Sadhu» (1934), «Rainbow of the Waterfall» (1934), «Gur – the Seer» (1936), «Portrait of the academician N.K. Roerich» (1937).
These paintings, collected in one exhibition space, illustrate the spiritual unity and creative identity of members of the remarkable family, which gave to the world a lot of wonderful works of fine art, literature and science.
“Nicholas Roerich’s figurative language, principles and symbols are succeeded by Svetoslav Roerich. Works of both artists relate such issues as relations between people and nature, the unity of them and spiritual way of an individual. Roerichs’ paintings often have symbols of the Upper World. This teaches us to see some other things in our material world”, - director of the Museum Alexey Bondarenko says.
The father was not only spiritual teacher of his son but his painting teacher as well. This is quite a challenge for an artist to become a self-sufficient figure near a prominent master. But Svetoslav succeeded in doing this. “Nicholas Roerich tried to convey global truth, to unveil mysteries of the Universe, while Svetoslav Roerich’s works are closer to an individual”, - curator of the exhibition Victoria Shurshina considers.
Kseniya Rudzite, principal curator of Foreign art department at Latvian National Museum of Art, says that Nicholas Roerich shows Earth from Space, while Svetoslav Roerich shows Space from Earth. There are works of a certain period represented at the exhibition. There are not Nicholas Roerich’s paintings of early period or Svetoslav Roerich’s works of late period, which would be extremely dissimilar to one another. Thus this is possible to analyse some common things in work of the two artists. There are India, Mongolia and Tibet on the canvases. Thus the differences and the commonness of their works are apparent.
One more distinction between the father and the son is that portrait as genre was not employed by Nicholas Roerich but got central position in Svetoslav’s art. Spiritual and emotional character of an individual is defined clearly in his portraits so that figures depicted look so real and vivid. He wrote around 30 portraits of his father. Two of them are highlighted at the exhibition.
Among the exhibited paintings there are such famous works of Nicholas Roerich as «Krishna» (1936), «On the heights (Tummo)» (1936), «The hunt» (1936), «Guga Chohan» (1931), «Mother of Genghis Khan» (1931), and Svetoslav Roerich’s «Portrait of Kuluta» (1937), «Cup of Buddha (1934)», «Portrait of the Father», (1938), «Sadhu» (1934), «Rainbow of the Waterfall» (1934), «Gur – the Seer» (1936), «Portrait of the academician N.K. Roerich» (1937).
These paintings, collected in one exhibition space, illustrate the spiritual unity and creative identity of members of the remarkable family, which gave to the world a lot of wonderful works of fine art, literature and science.
“Nicholas Roerich’s figurative language, principles and symbols are succeeded by Svetoslav Roerich. Works of both artists relate such issues as relations between people and nature, the unity of them and spiritual way of an individual. Roerichs’ paintings often have symbols of the Upper World. This teaches us to see some other things in our material world”, - director of the Museum Alexey Bondarenko says.
The father was not only spiritual teacher of his son but his painting teacher as well. This is quite a challenge for an artist to become a self-sufficient figure near a prominent master. But Svetoslav succeeded in doing this. “Nicholas Roerich tried to convey global truth, to unveil mysteries of the Universe, while Svetoslav Roerich’s works are closer to an individual”, - curator of the exhibition Victoria Shurshina considers.
Kseniya Rudzite, principal curator of Foreign art department at Latvian National Museum of Art, says that Nicholas Roerich shows Earth from Space, while Svetoslav Roerich shows Space from Earth. There are works of a certain period represented at the exhibition. There are not Nicholas Roerich’s paintings of early period or Svetoslav Roerich’s works of late period, which would be extremely dissimilar to one another. Thus this is possible to analyse some common things in work of the two artists. There are India, Mongolia and Tibet on the canvases. Thus the differences and the commonness of their works are apparent.
One more distinction between the father and the son is that portrait as genre was not employed by Nicholas Roerich but got central position in Svetoslav’s art. Spiritual and emotional character of an individual is defined clearly in his portraits so that figures depicted look so real and vivid. He wrote around 30 portraits of his father. Two of them are highlighted at the exhibition.
Posted by: Bratanyuk Vladimir