“Russian artistic life in France in the XXth century”

PH D defended november 24, 2008
University Charles de Gaulle, Lille 3
Direction : François Robichon
Président de Jury : Eric Darragon, Université de Paris I
Membres du Jury :
• Sarah Wilson, Institut Courtauld, London
• Andreï Tolstoï, Institut d’Architecture, Moscow

Volume I

Contents

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………..…………p. 2-4
Dedication…………..………………………………………………………..…….p. 5
Contents page……..……………………………………………………………….p. 6-12
Historiography: From Russian art in Russia to Russian art in France – Russian art in France as viewed by the French……………………………………………..p. 13-46
Introduction……………………………………………………………………….p. 47-69

Chapter I

RUSSIAN ARTISTIC PRESENCE IN FRANCE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: OFFICIAL REPRESENTATION OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN CREATIVITY IN PARIS AND THE CREATION OF THE FIRST RUSSIAN ARTISTIC COMMUNITY IN PARIS

Perception of French culture in Russia and Russian artistic culture in France at the dawn of the 20th century………….…………………………………………………p. 71
Russian Francophilia as viewed by Louis Réau in 1922………….……p. 72-76
The consequences in Russia: the Russian national downturn………..p. 76-81
Perception and reception of Russian artistic culture in France at the end of the 19th century……………………………………………………………………p. 81-83
The military alliance of 1893 and the Universal Exhibition of 1900..….p. 83-87
The crystallisation of the Beaux-Arts’ imperial system …………………p. 87-90

The first Russian artistic presence in Paris in the 20th century: the careers and creations of Russian painters and sculptors living in Paris at the dawn of the 20th century………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….p. 91
Location problems…………………………………………………….p. 91-93
Identity problems…….……………………………………………………..p. 94-97
Russian painters in France in the 1900s ……………………………………….p. 97-115
Russian sculptors in Paris around 1900 …………………..……………….p. 115-131

The crowning achievement of Russian culture in France: the “Export Campaign” of Serge de Diaghilev in Paris between 1906 and 1908 …………..…………………….p. 132
1906: Retrospective Russian art exhibition at the Salon d’Automne…p. 132-140
1907: The Historiques Russes Concerts ……………………………….p. 141-144
1908: Boris Godounov and the success of Russian historic folklore in Paris………………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 144-153

Portrait and entourage of Serge de Diaghilev…………………………………..p. 154
A meeting with Alexandre Benois’ circle of St. Petersburg bourgeoisie
……………………………………………………………………………………………..……….p. 154-157
At the heart of the St.Petersburg bourgeois intelligentsia during the 1890s. Between Occidentalism and nationalism, aestheticism and patriotism: the triumph of internationalism..……………………………………………p. 157-168

Les Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1914 ……………………………………………..p. 169
The initiative and conception of les Ballets Russes: Alexandre Benois, Serge de Diaghilev and the Théâtre Russe at the end of the 19th century……..…p. 170-173
The accomplishment of the project and financial catastrophe …….……p. 173-178
The work of painters: at the origin of success and of a legend?…………p. 178-191

Chapter II

FROM 1910 – 1920:
INTERNATIONAL ART

Reflexions around the notion of the école de Paris …………………………p. 193
Russian Jewish artists …………………………………………………p. 193-199
The Russian school in Paris from 1910 – 1920 …………………………p. 199-207

Russian art and Russian Judaism in France (1909-1919)……………………….p. 208
Painting: between the integration of radicalism in pictorial cubism and the perpetuation of post impressionism………………………………………p. 208-240
Sculpture: An unexpected revival…………………………………………p. 240-251
The Russian avant-garde in Paris and Russia …………………………………….p. 252
What was the impact on modern Russian art in France?…………………..p. 252-264
Modern Russian art: the years 1910 – 1920 in depth ………………………..p. 264-282
Transformation and the end of a world ………………………..………………………..p. 283
Russian artistic activity in France during the First World War……….. p. 283-289
Confronted by history (1): a representation of events…….…………….p. 289-293

The Russians in France and the end of the First World War ………..…………….p. 294
The Brest-Litovsk treaty and separated peace: consequences for Russian artists in France ………………………………………………………………………p. 294-296
The end of exchange and a fear of contagion ……………..…………..…p. 296-302

Chapter III

RUSSIAN ART AND ARTISTIC CULTURE IN FRANCE DURING THE INTERWAR PERIOD
“AFTER 1917”

Foundations of emigration for Russian artists ………..…………………………….p. 304
Return to the relationship between art and power between 1917 and 1924: a time of words and theory in the arts in the representation of the verb ‘Leninist’ …………..……………………………………………………………………. .p. 306-310
A time of action: The Proletkult and Izo of Narkompros or ‘the avant-garde of the left’……………………………………………………………………….p. 310-321
Regarding the dictatorship of the proletariat in Socialist Realism: a pre-existing aesthetic reality……..………………………………………………………p. 321-334

Russian emigration and how it was perceived in France …….……………………p. 335
Tales and travels of artists across Europe ……….………………………..p. 335-345
The caricature of reality: fear of contagion and contagion. The political and cultural environment in France…………………..……………………….…..p. 345-367
Russians in France during the interwar period: a divided community ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p. 367-373

Russian art in France during the interwar period ………………………………….p. 374
The first cultural associations: a desire to safeguard Russian cultural heritage ……………………………………..…………………………………………………p. 374-383
Group exhibitions of Russian art in France between 1921 and 1927………………………………………………………………………………………………….p. 383-390

National art and the ‘historical Russian’ style .……………………………………p. 391
Religious art ..………………………………………………………………p. 391-412
Russian folklore: the imaginary resuscitated..………………………….p. 412-440

Two genres inspired by the situation? ………..……………………………………..p. 441
Portraiture in the art of Russian emigration: portraits of exile?………..p. 441-457
The landscape in the art of Russian emigration: expression of nostalgia and ‘France as muse’, memories and discoveries …………………………..p. 457-473

Integration into the problems and the life of contemporary French artists…………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 474
Painting and the perpetuation problem of the object and its representation ……………………..………………………………………………………………p. 474-492
Russian sculpture in France during the interwar period………………p. 492-499

The integration and critical reception of emigrant Russian artists into French public life ……………………………………………………..……………………………………..p. 500
Salons and international exhibitions: Russian participation…………..p. 500-508
Critical recognition of Russian emigrant artists in France: the group exhibitions of Russian art and artists from 1928 to 1936 ………..……….p. 508-518

The reception of emigrant Russian art in France during the interwar period ………………………..………………………………………………………………………..p. 519
Purchases made by the state and establishment of a French national collection of Russian art..…………………………………………………………….p. 519-526
The politics of support for living artists and an expression of recognition ……………………………………………………………………………………..p. 527-539
The Musée des Ecoles Etrangères Contemporaines [The Museum of Foreign Contemporary Movements]: the problematical Russian section..……p. 539-549

Chapter IV

RUSSIAN ARTISTS IN FRANCE AFTER 1945:
WHAT FOR POSTERITY?

1945: emergence of a special ideological climate……………….……………………..p. 551
The USSR as liberator and a possible reconciliation …………………p. 551-555
New political and cultural environment: the ideal and the Soviet reality …………….…………………………………………………………………….p. 555-561

The transition to posterity …………………………………………………….p. 562
The enrichment of the national collection: a modernist artistic policy – one man: Jean Cassou……………………………………………………………………………..p. 562-572
The joining together of the National Museums: acquisitions, donations and bequests ……………………………………………………………………………….……….p. 572-581
The positioning of Russian artists in official exhibitions: which Russian artists?………………………………………………………………………………………………p. 581-584

Russian art of France … … ……………………………………………………………..p. 585
Confronted by history (2): the silence of Russian artists in France.….p. 585-591
The debate ‘figuration/abstraction’ and the Russian solutions..……..p. 591-621
A ‘detestable’ continuity …….…………………………………………….p. 621-635
Orders: religious, public and tapestry ……………….……………………….p. 635-642

Reception and perceptible of Soviet art in France: diagnosis of the sovietisation of thinking?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 643
Group exhibitions of Russian art in France from 1960 ……………..…….p. 643-648
A favourable climate: Emigrant art comes from shadow and passion ………………………………………………………..……………………………………………….p. 648-650
Chapter V

FINAL EMIGRATION OF ARTISTS FROM RUSSIA TO FRANCE OF THE 20TH CENTURY: THE ARTISTS DESCRIBED AS THE ‘NON-CONFORMISTS’

In search of liberty … … … …………………………………………………………….p. 652
The de-Stalinisation of the arts: the thaw ……………..………………………p. 654-673
From apartments to outdoor exhibitions: an impossible life ……………p. 673-689

In search of visibility: the dispersion of works in France … … …………………..p. 690
Seeing art leave for the West: foreign exhibitions and collectors .. ……p. 690-694
The role of Dina Vierny ……………………………………….………….p. 694-695
Alexandre Gleser: from the Museum of Russian Art to exile in Montgeron … … ………………..…………………………………………………………….……p. 696-700

From Non-Conformism to Formalism to no ‘–ism’: a new participation in contemporary art … … … ……………………………………………………………….p. 701
Metaphysical and spiritual painting of St. Petersburg bourgeois style: Anatoly Poutiline’s development of it in France ……… ………………………….p. 703-713
The muscovite problem with space and its prolongation in France ……………………………………………………………………………………p. 713-726

France ignores: in what way and why? …………………………..………………………..p. 727
The debates of 1970s and the “Soljenitsyne” affair ……………….………..p. 727-730
The triumph of the exile myth in the French press ………..……………..p. 730-738
Years of solitude ………..…………………………………………………….p. 738-743

Conclusion: Russian art twice revealed – From a re-reading to a re-writing of the history and the art history ………………………………………………………….p. 744-757
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….…..p. 758-793

ANNEXES

Volume II – ANNEXE I:
– Catalogue of works by Russian artists in France, acquired by the state during their lifetime 1880-1997
– Inventory of works by Russian artists kept by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Volume III – ANNEXE II:
– Inventory of group exhibitions of Russian art in France 1921-1961
– Inventory of group exhibitions of ‘dissident’ artists in France
– Inventory of Russian participation in the Salon des Tuileries in the interwar period and during the Second World War
– Inventory of Russian participation at the Salon de l’Araignée
– Russian participation at the Salon du Franc
– The Russian collection at the Musée du Jeu de Paume
– The artists of the Musée de l’Art Russe in exile at Montgeron

Volume IV – ANNEXE III:
– Subject chronology

Separate Volume:
– Index of proper names