St. Petersburg, Russia - The State Russian Museum opened the “Arkhip Kuindzhi” exhibition in the Benois Wing of the Mikhailovsky Palace. More than 150 paintings and works of graphic art will be presented.
 
The Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842(?)-1910) exhibition is organised by the Russian Museum and dedicated to the 165th birth anniversary of the classic master of Russian landscape. Kuindzhi is among the most prominent Russian artists who contributed to the forming of national landscape school of painting.
 
Art of Kuindzhi is characterised by emotionally elated interpretation of nature, generalisation of forms, increased contrast and intensity of artistic composition, as well as by the search for beauty.
 
The viewers know only some of his romantic canvases, which are constantly exhibited in largest national museums. The major part of the artist’s heritage, which belongs to the Russian Museum, is unknown to the public, though in studies and sketches Kuindzhi was a true innovator and forestalled the formal search of the Russian avant-garde artists.
 
The exhibition presents works by the artist from the Russian Museum collection. In addition to such famous works by Kuindzhi as the Moonlit Night on the Dnieper (1880), Evening in the Ukraine (1878-1901), Nocturnal (1905-08), and Rainbow (1900-05), the exhibition presents unknown studies and unfinished large paintings, such as Clouds (1900-05) and Fog at Sea (1905-08), exhibited for the first time.
 
The State Russian Museum collection contains circa 400.000 exhibits. The main complex of museum buildings - the Mikhailovsky Palace and Benois Wing - houses the permanent exhibition of the Russian Museum, tracing the entire history of Russian art from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. The museum collection embraces all forms, genres, schools and movements of art. Visit The State Russian Museum at : http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/museum/