9 april 2007 - 10 june 2007
Kournikova Gallery presents exhibition: "New objectivity" of Nicolaus Zagrekow and Russian Painters

The New Objectivity: Nikolaus Sagrekow and Russian Artists continues the theme of Russian emigre art at gallery. The exhibitions of the works of Nikolaus Sagrekow at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St Petersburg in 2004 have already given Russian viewers a general picture of the master's oeuvre. Celebrating the 110th anniversary of the birth of Nikolaus Sagrekow (Nikolai Alexandrovich Zagrekov), our show takes a closer look at the specific features of the artist's creative manner and figurative style. We concentrate on the golden age of the master's career — the 1920s and 1930s, when his interests turned to a new movement in German painting called Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). A young artist with a brilliant education in art, trained by llya Mashkov and Pyotr Konchalov-sky, Nikolaus Sagrekow moved to Berlin in 1922. He initially fantasised on the theme of German Expressionism, combining what he had learnt from his great Russian teachers with the sharp and brittle forms of German art. But the world was changing. After the agitated art capturing the distressed and bitter state of society during and after the First World War, there was a gradual movement towards composure and regulation. Bursting with youth and thirsting for innovation, Sagrekow could not help responding to these new trends. The revival of the classical tradition naturally caught the imagination of an artist raised by the Saratov school, familiar with and appreciative of the classical canon. This "new realism" left a trail in the art of several European countries. Besides Germany, Italy and France, it also drew Russia into its orbit. There was a distinct weariness with the various movements breaking down and even negating form, leading a series of Russian artists to a new, realistic vision. With his Russian roots and Russian background, Nikolaus Sagrekow is the perfect figure on which to draw interesting parallels between the Russian and German schools of neo-figurative art in the late 1920s and first half of the 1930s.

We think that our viewers will also find it interesting to explore the lesser-known theme of Neue Sachlichkeit. The essays in this catalogue, written by two leading international art experts — John E. Bowlt and Ekate-rina Degot — offer a fascinating insight into this historically short, yet extremely exciting artistic phenomenon.

We would like to thank the artist's family for carefully treasuring his heritage and generously presenting a wide range of materials for exhibition; in particular Olga Leonidovna Medvedko for consultations. We would also like to thank the following representatives of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg for responding to the idea of our exhibition and kindly loaning works from their collections: Irina Lebedeva, deputy general director for inventorisation, storage and restoration, Tretyakov Gallery; Ekaterina Selezneva, head curator and deputy general director, Tretyakov Gallery; Tatyana Yermakova, head of the department of Russian painting of the first half of the twentieth century, Tretyakov Gallery; Tatyana Mikhienko, senior curator of Russian painting of the first half of the twentieth century, Tretyakov Gallery; Lydia Antonevich, head of the department of inventorisation, Tretyakov Gallery; Yevgenia Petrova, deputy director for academic research, Russian Museum; Alisa Lyubimova, senior curator of painting of the second half of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Russian Museum; Pavel Rosso, head of the exhibition department, Russian Museum