The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center is proud to present an exhibition “Isaac Levitan and Cinematography”. Being an author of the most well-known and penetrating paintings depicting Russian nature, Isaac Levitan advanced the genre of the “mood landscape”. The exposition will show Levitan’s selected works, and embed them into the context of cinematography, which was influenced by the lyricism of his landscapes. The exhibition will be held with the support of VTB Bank. Partners of the exhibition are Transneft company and “Inteza” Bank.
Isaac Levitan was born into a Jewish family – his origins subsequentaly became a reason of the persecution. But probably it was the necessety of moving around a lot, searching for himself and a place to call home that produced Levitan’s incredible sensitivity to nature, his commitment to self-understanding and creating in harmony with nature.
On closer examination it appears that it was cinematography that in XX and in XXI centuries offered a new reading of Levitan’s paintings: on screen his landscapes are a source of inspiration as well as acting as a main character. Levitan’s figure itself became a warderer and vagabond archetype, a call for reflection on philosophy hidden in nature, and uncoventional undestanding of beauty contained in something that usually stays out of sight.
The exhibition will present more than 30 Levitan's landscapes from the collections of State Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, Israel Museum, Ples State Museum-Reserve, and others. The exhibition space will embed Levitan's paintings into the context of well-known scenes from Russian films of Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky, Alexander Sokurov, Andrei Konchalovsky, Roman Balayan, Sergey Solovyov, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Dovzhenko, and others. The integration of the peintings and cinematography will be provided by lighting designer and artist A. J. Weissbard, who worked on numerous theatre, ballet and opera projects on the major venues from La Scala in Milan to Lincoln Center in New York.
Curator: Maria Nasimova
Original author: Katya Krylova
With support of:
Partners:
The project is realized with support of M.S. Gutseriev, the businessman and founder of SAFMAR Charity Fund.
Media partners: