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  Circling the Square: Avant-garde Porcelain
from Revolutionary Russia This exhibition deals with an exceptional period in the history of the development of art during the 20th century. For the first time art enthusiasts in Great Britain will be treated to a comprehensive survey of remarkable avant-garde ceramics produced in the world-renowned Lomonosov Porcelain Factory during the post-revolutionary years from 1918 to the 1930’s. The exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to consider the achievements of a group of radical avant-garde artists - Futurists, Cubists and especially the abstract Suprematist painters in the circle of Kazimir Malevich - within the wider context of Russian revolutionary porcelain. The exhibition is jointly organized by the State Hermitage and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and will take place at the Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House. The exhibition and catalogue have been made possible by the kind support of URALSIB Bank. Circling the Square will comprise some 300 pieces of porcelain and design drawings, all dating from 1918 to the mid-1930’s. Objects and designs come from the Porcelain Museum, a new department of the State Hermitage formed from the prestigious historic collection of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory Museum. In addition, there will be three important objects which have been lent from private collections: a saucer and a cup and saucer with abstract compositions after designs by Wassily Kandinsky; and a plate by Nikolai Yankin, which will be shown alongside the artist’s preparatory design. The porcelain will be shown in four rooms, each focusing on a distinct period of the factory’s output. The first gallery will be devoted to Suprematism, and the second to what may be termed ‘artist’s porcelain’, a selection of plates painted or designed by leading avant-garde artists. In the third gallery the visitor will find ‘agit-procelain’ or propaganda porcelain, porcelain that has a direct political message. The last gallery examines the Suprematist legacy of the 1930’s, a final flourishing of avant-garde experimentation at a time when Socialist Realism was introduced the official Soviet style. In addition to the porcelain, the exhibition displays a collection of designs for painted decoration which were either never before published or only recently uncovered. The significance of porcelain in terms of our understanding of popular street art cannot be overestimated; for although the objects themselves very quickly became elite objects - not for domestic consumption or for use by the masses - the iconography and decoration serves as a lasting testament to art of those times, which was created to celebrate major revolutionary festivals. Though fragile and generally perceived as a luxury item, porcelain outlasted many other forms of revolutionary designs and so tells us a great deal about the art, culture and economy of the period. |
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