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The House Where Tsiolkovsky Created His Seminal Work

To visit Kaluga takes 3 hours by train from Moscow. It’s quicker on an express train which is predictably more expensive and sought-after.

I went to Kaluga during the Days of Europe event, previously celebrated in several other cities in Russia. I didn’t even try to follow the map of the event; instead I went to specifically attend the walk around the historic centre of the city. We were guided by an excellent guide Larisa who in the end walked me to a small blue wooden house where in 1902 the outstanding Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky composed his seminal work on rocket science. It is often assumed that it was composed at what is now his house-museum; in truth he only did editing work there, the writing happened in this little building opposite St. George Cathedral Church where a miraculous icon of Our Lady is stored.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky house

 

Tsiolkovsky’s first house in Kaluga stood opposite the blue one,
between the two houses in this photo

 

Tsiolkovsky lived in this house between August 1893 and March 1902

 

Yet another house opposite Tsiolkovsky’s

 

The Church of St. George Across the Top houses a miraculous icon of Our Lady

Kaluga Region Dancers (Video)

The video was recorded during the Moscow Autumn Tourism Industry Week. This annual event traditionally attracts professionals in the sphere of Luxury Travel, Spa and Hospitality services, with a special section on Moscow tourism. And in the video (which is 8mins long) you can see a dancing collective from Kaluga Region. Apart from watching the dance, you may also give some estimate to my filming skills. This year I took a course in film-making, so I hope I put zoom to a good use here.

33rd Russian Antique Salon: Brodsky, Icons, and German Painters

I’m slowly losing the count of events I attended and places I visited in the last 3 months. Today, however, I went to the Antique Salon in Moscow at the Central House of the Artist, and I am sure you will be most interested to learn about the event.

The event is is supported by the International Confederation of Antique and Art Dealers. Having started with mere 18 galleries from Moscow and Petersburg participating in 1996, the Salon has grown into a splendid showcase of antique and art collections and a fair with 250 participants from Moscow, Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Tula, and Ryazan. This year there are also foreign participants: James Butterwick Gallery (London, UK) and St Lucas Gallery (Tallinn, Estonia). The Salon is spread across floors 2 and 3 of 9000 sq. m. of one of the main art venues in Moscow.

Vasiliy Bychkov, the General Director of Expo-Park Exhibitions Projects (the organisers of the Salon), noted the growing interest in Russian art throughout the world. Russia presently has a 3 per cent share on the global art market, but this is a very rough estimate. Paintings by Russian artists are sold for millions of dollars at the auctions: “Bluebells” by Natalia Goncharova went for $4,7mln, while paintings by Vasily Vereschagin, Leon Bakst and Orest Kiprensky were sold for between $2,24mln and $1,1mln. The Russian auction also saw a record: RUB 36mln was paid for an Igor Grabar’ painting, “Pears on the red tablecloth“.

There are themed exhibitions at the Salon, normally dedicated to a specific period or topic. James Butterwick Gallery and Ravenscourt Gallery present the drawings of a Russian artist Boris Grigoriev. Along with several nude sketches there is also a delicate colour cardboard and guache painting, Show (In the Nursery), dated 1912. This is an eloquent testimony to the love of circus that many children had had at the turn of the 19-20th cc., which was usually documented in literature (Kuprin, Gorky, Grigorovich).

Russian avant-garde artists of 1910-30s are also set apart in a themed display. Perhaps, one of the most unique and intriguing displays is dedicated to the works of Russian painters produced in the first half of 20th c. when many of them had emigrated and came in contact with the flourishing or popular styles of art-deco and art moderne. Some works vividly indicate the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite art.

2012 has been declared the cross-cultural year between Russia and Germany, and so the centrepiece of the Salon is a special exhibition of Late Gothic German painters from private Moscow collections. Curated by Professor V. Sadkov who heads the department of Old Masters at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibition is called “The Kranach family, their predecessors and contemporaries“. The showcase of the German painting from the late 15th – first half of 16th cc. is a rare treat for everyone, but especially Russians themselves. It so happened that in the 18th c., the so-called Golden Age of art collecting in Russia, the antiquarians were very fond of Italian and French old masters, while the artists of the Northern Renaissance, among them Albrecht Duerer and Martin Schongauer, were practically ignored. The situation began to change in the early 19th c. when the resonance of the Sturm und Drang movement reached Russia. The great poet and translator Vasiliy Zhukovsky did a lot to propagate the German literature, while Russian collectors (among them – an historian V. Tatischev and diplomat P. Vyazemsky) turned their eye to the art of the previously ridiculed German Gothic. Due to the time lost in amassing Italian and French art, both Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts remained thin on the German Gothic paintings in their collections. Bizarrely, the exhibition at the Antique Salon is now the third largest display of these delicate and unique paintings.

As one might have guessed, the items of display at this exhibition are not on sale. Still, there is a myriad of other works and objects one can buy: Joseph Brodsky’s first edition of his second collection of verses published in New York; a copy of Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Stories published in London in 1978 without the author’s knowledge; contemporary descriptions of coronations of Elizabeth I (18th c.) and Alexander III (19th c.); a watercolour illustrated album on Siberia (19th c.); enamel boxes, plates, crockery and cutlery; old icons from 16-19th cc.; Japanese paintings and vases; Chinese vases from the turn of 16-17th cc.; furniture, sculpture, candelabra, and much more.

Art export from Russia is currently not allowed, although the situation may change. However, those looking for unique gifts to their Russian friends or business partners will surely find something truly outstanding.

I am very grateful to the Expo-Park PR managers for providing access to the press-conference and preview of the Salon. The 33rd Antique Salon in Moscow is open daily between October 20 and 28, from 10am to 6pm at the Central House of the Artist on Krymsky Val (Oktyabrskaya or Park Kultury metro station).

Below is a Flickr slideshow of the photos from the Salon.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=122138

Russia’s Favourite Fairy Tale (By the Will Of the Pike)

A few months ago I came across an article in the Russian media about the favourite fairy tale characters among Russians. Turns out, ladies still prefer a Cinderella story, waiting for a Knight-in-Shining-Armour to sweep them over and away to his beautiful castle. And gentlemen relish another fairy-tale – that of Yemelya guy who sat on the Russian oven and by chance caught a pike that subsequently provided him with many a marvel and a good wife as a bonus.

As you can see, the two tales are poles apart, and there is little wonder that often people cannot make either dream come true. A man is happy to sit and wait for his pike, while a woman waits for the Prince Charming.

You may ponder as to how true this rings to your own country, but here is the Russian fairy tale in English.

By the Will Of the Pike. A Russian Fairy Talehttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/109386720/content?start_page=1&view_mode=book&access_key=key-14gtv3kikz20t8highca

A Press Visit To the Volga Towns

After many press events that I attended in the past there was not a single press-tour. That changed in October this year when I went to survey several towns and villages in Ivanovo Region. I visited the city of Ivanovo in May 2011 for a conference, but most of the oblast’ remained undiscovered.

Our journey was kindly planned and paid for by the Department of Sport and Tourism of Ivanovo Region. A three-day press-tour started with a flying visit to the village of Pestovo from whence we went to the nearby town of Palekh, famous for its black lacquered boxes painted with a variety of scenes and subjects worthy of a proper art movement.

At Palekh we visited several local museums and a 17th c. church. The same evening we moved to Shuya where we were to spend the next day.

Shuya occupies a special place in Russian history and culture. It was the heritage seat of the Shuysky family who played an important part in Russia’s political life of 16-17th cc. One of them, Vassily Shuysky, even led the Russian state for a short period in the early 17th c., during the so-called Mutiny Time when Russia was practically invaded by Poland.

In 19th c. Shuya came to economic prominence as a centre of soap-making, harmonicas and accordions, and cloth manufacturing. But it was the poet Konstantin Balmont and the statesman Mikhail Frunze who now justly constitute the fame of Shuya. Both the poet and the statesman have museums in the town.

We also visited several cathedrals and churches, as well as a soap museum. The fate of such crafts as soap-making currently rests entirely in the hands on enthusiasts. As for churches, they all have rather different and peculiar stories. The Resurrection cathedral in the city centre was the starting point of attacks on churches under the Soviet rule, 7 people who were killed for protecting the cathedral later became the New Russian saints. The church was shut down during the USSR period. Meanwhile, Transfiguration church in Melnichnoe village remained open throughout the same period with a brief pause only during the Great Patriotic War when the church willfully offered its premises to sustain the civilian war effort.

From Shuya we migrated (by bus) to Semigorye village hotel on the bank of the Volga River. Eighteen years later after a visit to Yaroslavl this was my first encounter with the greatest Russian river. It was calm in the early morning drizzle. We went to Kineshma, the last stop of our journey where again we visited the Holy Trinity and Dormition Cathedral, Alexander Ostrovsky Drama Theatre, the Valenki (the famous Russian felt boots) Museum, and the local art gallery that, however, boasts some fine examples of European and Russian art.

As I was writing this, I realized that I forgot a great deal of things and stops. The vodka museum in Shuya where, contrary to its name, you can buy very tasty balsams and spirits. The icon workshop, the linen store, the arts and crafts Orange Cat store, and so much more.

I gave a short interview to the local paper in Shuya where I said exactly what I felt at the moment. There is so much potential in all those places in Russia, and to visit them would be a fantastic experience. Suddenly certain Russian peculiarities become apparent but also more understandable. And it would be a great honour to me to help people discover this vast, beautiful, mysterious country.

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