New Moscow (painting)

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New Moscow
ArtistYuri Pimenov
Year1937
TypeOil on canvas
Dimensions140 cm × 170 cm (55 in × 67 in)
LocationTretyakov Gallery, Moscow

New Moscow is a painting by the Soviet artist Yuri Pimenov, created in 1937. The painting symbolically expresses the new way of socialist life in the USSR. In a poetic form, it expresses the artist's pride in his country.[1] The art historian Loginova called it the most popular of the master's works and programmatic for him.[2] It is in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery and is shown in its permanent exhibition.[3]

This painting was presented at major international exhibitions several times.[4] Art historians consider it one of the best paintings of the 1930s.[5]

History and destiny of the painting

In the 1930s, Soviet painting was dominated by narrative and plot. It was based on an acute conflict or clash of characters. Yuri Pimenov chose a poetic understanding of reality, tried to convey feelings, which would become characteristic of postwar Soviet painting.[6]

In the 1930s, Pimenov became interested in the work of Jean-François Millet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, Valentin Serov, and his own artistic style was strongly influenced by Impressionism.[7] In an article written in 1937, Pimenov named Jan Vermeer, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Antoine Watteau, Raphael Santi, Paul Verlaine, Boris Pasternak, Claude Debussy among his favorite authors.[8] The lyrical beginning in his works intensified; the main themes of his work were: woman, city life and changing modernity.[9] The artist wrote about his desire to convey "the great events of life in ordinary prosaic situations", "to extend the boundaries of the poetic, to capture the new things that time brings and that have long remained unrecognized and unnoticed".[10] Recognition came to him. In 1936-1939, the artist was commissioned to create panels for the USSR's exposition at the World's Fair in New York and Paris. At the exhibition "Art and Technology in the Modern World" (1937) in Paris, Yuri Pimenov was awarded the gold medal.[7]

The painting was created in the summer of 1937 for the exhibition "The Industry of Socialism." The exhibition was to be opened on November 8, 1937, to mark the 20th anniversary of Soviet government and the end of the second five-year programm. The idea of the exhibition was to demonstrate the triumph of the socialist system and the achievements of industrialization. Artists were given a list of themes to familiarize themselves with, and they could choose their favorites. There was one section in the list: "New Cities, New People" (Pimenov's painting was created within this framework). After the artist chose a theme and it was approved, he submitted a sketch. The sketch was approved by the exhibition preparation committee. After that, the artist received an advance payment and started working. If necessary, the artists traveled to the place of the painting, for which funds were also allocated. After a certain period of time, the painting was presented to the commission. There were cases when the commission generally accepted the work, but pointed out the shortcomings and ordered corrections in the painting.[4] The exhibition opened on March 18, six months late. During this time, half of the committee organizing the exhibition was suppressed as members of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites". The painting immediately attracted attention and received wide acclaim,[11] but at the same time some art historians accused the canvas of formalism because of the fractional brushstrokes characteristic of the Impressionists.[12]

Technique of painting is oil on canvas. Its size is 140 × 170 cm. The inventory number in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery is 27707.[1] "New Moscow" came to the Tretyakov Gallery in 1945 and since then has been in the permanent exhibition. At present it is exhibited in room 15 of the State Tretyakov Gallery building in Krymsky Val.[4][13] The painting has been repeatedly shown at major international exhibitions, in particular at the XXVIII Biennale in Venice in 1956,[14] at the exhibitions "Communism — Dream Factory", held in Frankfurt, and "Russia", at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York,[4] at the exhibition "Warsaw - Moskwa / Moscow - Warsaw. 1900-2000" in 2004-2005 in the capitals of both countries.[15]

The history of painting studies

The analysis of Yuri Pimenov's painting is usually present in general reviews of Soviet art history.[16][17][5] In 2009, the candidate of philosophical sciences Sergey Ivannikov published the article "Yuri Pimenov's 'New Moscow'. Experience of deconstruction of the aesthetic image".[18] In 2016, the publication of an article by an anonymous author in the popular scientific-historical magazine "Diletant" "Artist Yuri Pimenov and his painting 'New Moscow'".[19]

In 2017, the Tretyakov Gallery Publishing House published the book "Yuri Pimenov. New Moscow" by Elena Voronovich. The publication reconstructs the history of the creation of the canvas. It tells about life in Moscow in the 1930s, about the heroine — an attractive and independent woman of the Soviet society. A special section traces the further use of this plot in Pimenov's work.[20] The same publishing house in 2017 published the booklet "Yuri Pimenov. New Moscow" by Yana Laguzinskaya and Marina Timofeeva.[21]

Plot and interpretation peculiarities

GAZ-A (left) and early model Ford model A (right) at the Vladivostok Museum of Automotive Antiques

Moscow. Summer. The action takes place in the morning of a workday.[19] The artist depicted a square in the center of the capital and a wide avenue after a heavy rain. Cars on the sidewalk and crowds of pedestrians fill the city landscape with movement. The viewer is caught up in the rapid movement and rhythm of city life. In the foreground of the painting, a woman sits behind the wheel of a car with her back to the viewer.[16] A young woman driving a car, for the mid-1930s a symbol of the new Moscow and new life. The speed of the car, the light color, the vastness of the space create a feeling of optimism and hope for a happy future.[19] The artist himself wrote about the theme of rain in "Earth Art"[22]:

"City rain is full of such different images and moods. It brings to the artist no less a wealth of sensations and feelings than the fields covered with the gray shroud of autumn, than the puddles in the ruts of black country roads, than the sparkling drops on the pine branches and the sun through the steamy air of the wet forest".

The angle of the canvas imitates a shot from a movie. Two clavels, white and red, are attached to the side of the windmill, which makes the picture somewhat "glamorous".[4] G. S. Kirillova noted that the painting is based on the artist's real observation. It conveys the documentary nature of the cityscape. In 1937, the viewer, looking at the picture, remembered how this place looked before: cramped, here were benches, stalls, wooden buildings.[23]

The painter's model

The artist's model was his wife Natalia Konstantinovna. The artist almost always painted her rather than professional models . In the book "Earthly Art" he noted: "In my life wife ... always my best model — remembering my work, made over many years, I see her figure, her hair or hands ...". The woman is depicted from the back, but easily recognizable. The artist himself noted the Russian face of his wife, wrote that he used her as a model when he tried to move away from the schematism of youth and express a lively and tender feeling. Particular admiration for his "soft brown hair". For the first time Pimenov turned to the image of his wife's hair from the back in the study the "Golden Dress" (1936, canvas, oil, 55 × 45 cm, collection of M. G. Pimenov).[24] When Natalia Konstantinovna posed her husband for the painting "New Moscow", she was expecting a child. Therefore, the picture is painted by a happy person who is in love with life.[4]

The architectural elements of the painting

Galina Kirillova notes that the painting has a demonstrative quality, as if the artist "decided to show us the city with the broad gesture of a hospitable host. She compares it to Ilya Mashkov's still lifes, which present objects for the viewer's "observation". The space of the painting "New Moscow" rapidly narrows towards the center, forcing the viewer, without dwelling on the foreground, to shift his gaze to the second plan — to the buildings of the new Moscow reconstruction. At the same time, the gentle rhythms of the canvas convey peace and confidence.[25] This is due in no small part to the symmetrical composition, which gives it stability even as it emphasizes the movement of the action.[26]

One of the first images of the new Moscow during the reconstruction of the 1930s was Okhotny Ryad Street. A passenger car is approaching from Sverdlov Square (now Teatre Square). The building on the left is the former Continental Hotel (opened in 1887 in a building rebuilt by architect A. P. Beloyartsev; it was demolished in the late 1960s and early 1970s). In 1931 the Vostokkino cinema was opened here. The corner of the house on the right (it has a big white letter "M") is the ground lobby of the metro station "Okhotny Ryad", opened in 1935 in the old house rebuilt according to the project of the architect A.N. Chechulin. Behind the metro lobby there is the facade of the former building of the Assembly of the Nobility, then the House of the Unions. After the revolution the building of M. F. Kazakov became a place of state events: congresses of Soviets, trade unions, a place for funeral ceremonies, trials, chess tournaments, children's Christmas festivals. Voronovich supposed that the festive decoration of the House of Unions depicted by the artist was connected with the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Architects held there in June 1937, and the general festive atmosphere — with the opening of the Moscow Canal on July 15, 1937, which provided the capital with water. In the background, new buildings of Hotel "Moscow" and the Building of Council of Labor and Defense.[27] On the left, Hotel "Moscow" (architects A. I. Savelyev, O. A. Stapran and A. V. Shchusev, 1933-1935). In the depth in the center: the house of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (1932-1935, architect A. Y. Langman, for a time there was the Council of Labor and Defense).[28]

  • The buildings depicted in the painting
  • The "Moscow" Hotel
    The "Moscow" Hotel
  • The House of the Unions
    The House of the Unions
  • Building of Council of Labor and Defense
    Building of Council of Labor and Defense
  • Okhotny Ryad metro station lobby
    Okhotny Ryad metro station lobby

Art historians, cultural critics, and audience reviews

Painting's cultural aspects

References

  1. ^ a b Бескин, 1960, P. 49.
  2. ^ Логинова, 1970, P. 26, 28.
  3. ^ Шедевры русского искусства: из собраний Государственной Третьяковской галереи и художественных музеев России. Каталог выставки. — М.: Сканрус, 2004. — P. 493. — 515 p. — (Золотая карта России). — ISBN 5-93221-040-0.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Городкова Т. С. Художник Юрий Пименов и его картина «Новая Москва». // Эхо Москвы : Электронная публикация. — 23 September 2007.
  5. ^ a b История, 1989, P. 361.
  6. ^ Логинова, 1970, P. 28—29.
  7. ^ a b Воронович, 2017, P. 10.
  8. ^ Долгополов, 2009, P. 148.
  9. ^ Воронович, 2017, P. 10, 12.
  10. ^ Бескин, 1960, P. 50.
  11. ^ Воронович, 2017, P. 17.
  12. ^ Долгополов, 1988, P. 376.
  13. ^ Шклярская, 2014, P. 98—99.
  14. ^ Воронович, 2017, P. 19.
  15. ^ Мамонтова Н. Москва – Варшава. 1900–2000. // Третьяковская галерея : Журнал. — 2005. — № 2 (7). — P. 57. Archive: 8 October 2018 года.
  16. ^ a b Сопоцинский, 1966, P. 113.
  17. ^ Морозов, 1995, P. 127.
  18. ^ Иванников, 2009, P. 1—3.
  19. ^ a b c Художник Юрий Пименов и его картина «Новая Москва». // Дилетант : Журнал. — 2016. — 1 April. Archive: 7 October 2018.
  20. ^ Юрий Пименов. Новая Москва. Государственная Третьяковская галерея. Дата обращения: 4 October 2018. Archive: 7 October 2018.
  21. ^ Лагузинская Я. В., Тимофеева М. В. Юрий Пименов. Новая Москва. — М.: Издательство Государственной Третьяковской галереи. — 10 p. — (Сочинение по картине). — ISBN 978-5-89580-178-9.
  22. ^ Пименов, 2007, P. 69.
  23. ^ Кириллова, 1980, P. 15.
  24. ^ Воронович, 2017, P. 14, 17.
  25. ^ Кириллова, 1980, P. 16.
  26. ^ Логинова, 1970, P. 30.
  27. ^ Воронович, 2017, P. 20.
  28. ^ Воронович, 2017, P. 21.
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