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Russian Artists in Denmark 1994-2004 Written by Marina Jiharkhanian in connection with the exhibition “Two Seas and Two Shores” in St. Petersburg. At certain places in life is inseparable from the ideas that make it meaningful and from those who are the authors of these ideas. These are places that make up historical and cultural map of the world. Some time ago, Skagen became such a spot on the map of Denmark. Once a small fishing village, it is now one of the most famous resorts of Europe. The reason is, first and foremost, its location, on a cape between Skagerak and Kattegat, exactly where they conflux. The beauty of the cape with its endless beaches and wandering dunes, in combination with the incredibly bright Norse light reflected by the transparent water and golden sand attracted as early as the second half of the nineteenth century, young painters from Denmark and Sweden. As a result, Skagen soon became the Danish Barbison, both for artists and authors. Genre paintings, portraits and landscapes by Viggo Johansen, Anna og Michael Ancher, Peder Severin Kroyer, Laurits Tuxen and Carl Locher depict the then life of Skagen. The works became the core of the art museum opened in Skagen 1928. At the end of the twentieth century, Russian artists made their contribution to the cultural history of Skagen. Vladimir Zagarov, Piotr Tatarnikov and Piotr Konnikov were the first to visit Skagen in 1994, to be followed later on by many of their fellow artists. The idea to invite them to Skagen belonged to Erik Warming, who also played a major role in the subsequent events, momentous for the artists and their relationship with the city and the people who live in it. Erik Warming of Sweden, visited St.Petersburg in connection with his business establishment (he was the founder of a fashion house, now well known Tatyana Parfyonova on Nevsky Prospekt in St.Petersburg). There he met Zagorov and then some other artists of the same circle; he immediatley became captivated by their works. An enthusiast and romantic inclined to inpromptu actions, Warming decided to capture Skagen by infusing fresh blood of Russian art into it. First, three artists were invited (Zagorov, Tatarnikov and Konnikov), then another two, Boris Zinkevich and Alexander Rumiantsev. A man of taste, Warming able, unmistakably, to choose and purchase works of the highes quality produced by St.Petersburg painters and sculptors. As a result, in a very short time, he had a collection of works, sufficient to represent the art of St.Petersburg. In 1995, an exhibiton was held in the light and spacious dockyard rooms rented from Knud Degn Karstensen. The exhibition was triumphant. Imbued with spiritual tension and energy, the paintings broke in Skagen, disturbing the serenity of the city’s everyday life. Beneath it, the artists had seen and were able to reveal some exciting and mysterious aspects. This, as well as the eccentric beauty of their art immediately arrested the spectators’ attention. They were conquered by metephoric fairytale imagery of Zinkevich’s paintings (mermaids luring men of Skagen or couples on the beach), by the boats in Rumiantsev’s canvases fraught with the brightness of Skagen air, by the colour gamut of Zagorov’s brilliant improvisations, and the musical reverberation of Tatarnikov’s fantasies on the themes of Skagen, inspired by the city’s elevated poetry. Although many of the works shown at the exhibition were not concerned with Skagen, its very atmosphere and its beauty were the source of inspiration for the artists. For instance, the tragic solitude of Konnikov’s melancholy characters does not seem to be concordant with the reality of Skagen. But placed within the context of its quit rhythms, their expressiveness becomes even more acute, while their dreams acquire definiteness of meaning. The first echibition was followed by another one, a year after, with more of St.Petersburg artists participating in it. The circle of the Danish friends of St.Petersburg art had also expanded. Besides buying the artists’s works, they were propagating them by organizing soirees devoted to Russian art. Especially cordially were the painters’ relations with the Nippers, Kirsten and Frederik. Like Erik Warming, they contributed greatly to establishing ties between St.Petersburg and Skagen. By the time, Warming had become less interested in what he once started so enthusiastically. It was Frederik Nipper sho took up the task of continuing the project. Assisted almost exclusively by his naive enthusiasm, he began to think how to help Russian art establish itself in Denmark. Applying to various foundations and spending his own money, he was able to organize two exhibitions shown in Copenhagen, Aalborg, Frederikshavn and other places. He converted his garage located near his house into a small gallery of works by Russian artists. His nice garden became an art salon and a meeting plae for art lovers. His resourcefulness was truly surprising. In order to attract the attention of the public to Russian artists, for example, he once organized a sale of mouse traps decorated by them. He knew that mouse traps would find a market (strangley, mice are not limited to Russia!) so the sale was a good way to introduce art into everyday life. Indeed, each mouse trap found an owner. Dissatisfaction with the former arrangement of paintings and the lack of space in his house made Frederik think about changes of the interior. One of the walls became a panel, a kind of mosaic consisting of three rows of paintings by different authors. In this way, different artistic temperaments(Danilov’s, Tatarnikov’s, Zagarovo’s, Dalgat’s and many others’), complementing one another made up a complex whole, in which Russian extreme pshychological tensions acquired a fresh harmony. Later on, another island of Russian culture was created. Following Frederik’s example, the Karstensens made a gallery on the dockyard premises, which Erik Warming had rented for his exhibiton. This was not a coincidence, because, in a sense, it was Russian art that united the two persons into a family: Marín, the wife, was woking at the exhibiton, and there she med Knud Degn Karstensen. That was the beginning of their romantic love story; the result was they gallery. In running it, Marín and Knud complement each other perfectly. In art, she relies mainly on her taste and intuition. He, although an ardent art lover and connoisseur is, at the same time, a businessman, therefore his approach is more rationalistic. Their opinions are nevefr conflicting, although they may be different; this has a positive effect on the collection´s variedness. Likewise, the artists of the older and more traditional generation, such as Yuri Pavlov, Zaven Arshakuni, Vitaly Tiulenev, and Levon Lazarev create a profound psychological background for the younger painters who gravitate either towards the immediacy of feeling (Viacheslav Mikhailov, Ivan Govorkov, Elena gubanova, etc.) or, as is typical of avant-garde artists, towards stylistic experiments that add disturbing or even aggressive tension to poetry and harmony (Roland Shalamberidze and Marina Kaverzina). The gallery exists for eight years (12 yrs ), during which time many paintings have been added to its collection and new names appeared in it. Quite a few artists have visited Skagen, each contributing to the development of Russo-Danish relations, for the two cultures’ mutual benefit. Works by Russian painters have become part of Skagen’s cultural environment; the paintings decorate offices, restaurants, and cafes, as well as homes. For a small town, ten years’ time is an entire epoch. The ten years’s history of the relations between Skagen and St.Petersburg has accumulated the best of what each of the two had to offer. Individual lives have become part of the process that unites the world; it wipes boundaries which separate people and brings remote cities closer to each other. Now the two seas, instead of separating the two coasts, have united them, Skagen and St.Petersburg, creating a common space for their past and present, as well as for their people’s thoughts and feelings that , like the infinity’s particles, combine into the energy of creativity. |
