Unknown "RUSSIA!" in New York

"RUSSIA!" in Guggenheim

From notes about Canadian Thanksgiving in New York


Finally, now it is time to tell the world about 3 days in New York in October.

The sole idea of this trip was to see the "RUSSIA!" – an exhibition at the Guggenheim and also to visit a few dear friends.

Our trip to New York was uneventful but pleasant; it was the last sunny day before a week of rain and misery. Highway 81 is nice and a different form of the throughway but unfortunately they had a couple of maintenance strips and we took a small trip to Owsego which was mistaken for Otwsego, there are at least 3 other variations of this name.

Owsego sits on the shore of Lake Ontario and it is a place as they said of memorial of the War of 1812. Just it happened to be a place where a ship with British military came to the States side, took the guns and possibly some provisions from the rag-tag American militia and went back. There is no relation to a Napoleonic War of 1812. Actually, we were looking for a Russian Orthodox monastery around there but we found it on our way back in 2 hours drive from this place. Nevertheless it is going to be a subject of another post.

Next day we went to Manhattan and to the Guggenheim Museum directly, using our reciprocal benefits of being members of the AGO and even took our friend with us.

Video: Alphabet of Russian Art

New York: Guggenheim Museum: RUSSIA!
Unprecedented Exposition of Russian Art
Credits: Music: Boris Bazourov;
Visuals: New York Guggenheim Museum
itroom video: 2005

This exhibition is a mind–boggling experience to any Russian to see many great artifacts in one place. And where? At the Guggenheim! A place where only avant-garde and abstract art would rule, where at the very top I have seen an empty canvass with the title: "There is not a drop of art in this painting".

Nevertheless this presentation of Russian art was done thoughtfully and extensively, all Manhattan was marked up with Russian art pieces. To our surprise quite a few people knew the subject matter very well and would give lectures on such topics like details of icon paintings’ canons or fine points of Russian Religious schism. And they were Americans. The Cold War left a mark on people who were educated and professionally occupied with Russian Culture and Art.

More over on that day, it was last Friday of October, they had a party for members and we were invited. It was a blast and the site became even more outlandish with DJ and groovy youth mingled on the first floor under the inquisitive supervision of Russian Saints.
But among many young people you could easily spot Russian speaking students proudly exploring with their friends the vast Russian cultural heritage. I remember a heated discussion in front of Deineka’s "Defense of Sevastopol" about who was fighting with whom and a Yugoslavian woman who said that she regrets the fall of the Soviet Union which was a precursor to destroying of the Republic of Yugoslavia.

In the basement there was a small exhibition of Soc Realism paintings but not many people knew about it. We met a woman probably from the Brighton Beach who showed us the paintings and was beaming with pride of having relation to this exciting event.


Незнакомая “РОССИЯ!” в Гугенхайме
Из заметок о Канадским Дне Благодарения в Новом Йорке

NS