Exhibition at The New York Public Library Highlights the Work of Fedor Solntsev Whose Artistic Vision Shaped Russian Identity

Russia Imagined 1825 - 1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev Chronicles an Artist's Role in Developing a Distinctive Russian - Slavonic style, Opens March 2

Fedor Solntsev
Chromolithograph from: Antiquities of the
Russian State
(Moscow, 1849–53).
Slavic and Baltic Division

The prodigious career of Fedor Solntsev (1801-1892), the first Russian artist to record, preserve, and refashion the physical remains of medieval Russian culture in a strikingly modern way is the subject of Russia Imagined, 1825 - 1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev, an exhibition at The New York Public Library. Solntsev's meticulous drawings of regalia, icons, and armor; watercolor portraits of the peoples of European Russia; restoration of historic monuments; and design experiments in an "Old Russian" style all expressed an emerging sense of national identity for the burgeoning and ethnically diverse Russian Empire. His extraordinary career left an indelible mark on the image and perception of Russia in the modern era. The exhibition will be on view in a dramatic installation at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street from March 2 through June 16, 2007. The Library will also present a series of related public programs. Admission is free.

"The New York Public Library is uniquely poised to develop this exhibition," explains Edward Kasinec, Curator of the Library's Slavic and Baltic Division. "Not only does the Library have superb holdings of Solntsev's published work and that of his contemporaries, it also counts among its treasures a portfolio of his original watercolors of ethnographic costume, formerly in the library of Tsar Nicholas II. The Library was extraordinarily fortunate to acquire this and other unique Russian treasures in the 1930s, when the Soviet regime sold off imperial collections to finance industrialization. This is a rare opportunity to display these little-known watercolors--the only collection of his original drawings to have left Russia-- alongside his magnificent chromolithographs, which did so much to shape Russia's exotic image in Western eyes."

"We owe far more than we realize to 'artist-archaeologists' like Solntsev for our ideas about national identity and culture," says guest curator, Professor Wendy Salmond, Professor of Art History, Chapman University. "Solntsev was among the first artists to open a window onto the forgotten medieval past, weaving fragments of Russia's many-layered history and peoples into a composite image of the Russian nation. The sheer range of his activities - archaeological and ethnographic illustration; historic preservation; and design based on medieval fragments - makes him a quintessential part of the international movement known as Romantic Nationalism."

Watercolors, chromolithographs, books, photography, and theater design from throughout the Library's collections are supplemented by two splendid examples of rare imperial Russian porcelain designed by Solntsev, on loan from A La Vieille Russie.

Solntsev and His Contemporaries
In response to the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Europe witnessed a surge of nationalism in the early decades of the 19th century. From London to St. Petersburg, artists turned in their search for an authentic national past to the new sciences of archaeology and ethnography. The exhibition opens by framing Solntsev's career within this international context. His work in the Old Russian style is shown alongside that of his contemporaries, A.W.N. Pugin in England and A. J. Davis in America, both exponents of the Gothic Revival.

Living Traditions
At the heart of the exhibition is the portfolio of original watercolors depicting the rich diversity of regional and ethnic costume worn by the peasant population of European Russia in Solntsev's day. Rendered with almost photographic precision, these exquisite images were to have formed part of a great "chronicle in pictures" of the Russian people commissioned by Solntsev's first patron, the archaeologist and first director of the Imperial Public Library, Aleksei Olenin. Solntsev's watercolors reflect the spirit of scientific objectivity that pervaded the new sciences of ethnography and archaeology, although comparison with an early example of ethnographic photography shows why Solntsev's skills of transcription were soon eclipsed by the camera.

A Life for the Tsar
Solntsev's career reached its apogee under the patronage of Nicholas I (r. 1825-1855), a ruler supremely aware of how images and architecture might advance his grand imperial ambitions. With the publication of the sumptuous six volumes of Antiquities of the Russian State, Solntsev's breathtaking drawings of medieval artifacts in the Moscow's Kremlin cathedrals and Armory Museum were promoted abroad as emblematic of Russia. Nicholas's intense interest in fostering an official national culture is highlighted by the juxtaposition of a porcelain plate from the Kremlin banquet service, which Solntsev designed for the emperor, with an image of its prototype, a 17th century gold and enamel plate once owned by Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (r. 1645-1676).

Restoration and Reclamation
A pioneer in Russia's nascent historic preservation movement, Solntsev was responsible for restoring some of the empire's most venerated historic monuments. In recreating the interiors of the Terem Palace inside the Moscow Kremlin and overseeing the restoration of the 11th century cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev/Kyiv, Solntsev found himself at the center of controversial debates on the treatment and ownership of historic monuments. Today's preservationists still wrestle with the dilemmas he faced in attempting to return a building to its original appearance.

In the Old Russian Style
Solntsev's experiments in creating a distinctively Russian vocabulary of form, color, and ornament based on archaeological fragments laid the foundation for all subsequent visual expressions of Russian national character. The legacy of this design revolution can be seen in a lushly ornamented menu designed by Viktor Vasnetsov for the coronation banquet of Alexander III (r. 1881-1894), in the Art Nouveau book illustrations of Ivan Bilibin, and in Natalia Goncharova's designs for a 1926 production of "The Firebird" by the celebrated Ballets Russes.

The materials displayed in Russia Imagined are drawn primarily from the Humanities and Social Sciences Library's Slavic and Baltic Division. The exhibition also includes materials from several other sources at the Humanities Library--the Rare Book Division and the Art & Architecture Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs--as well as from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The map in the exhibition is based on a vintage map from the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division. Russia Imagined has been enhanced by the loan of porcelain courtesy of A La Vieille Russie. The State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg provided two images reproduced in the exhibition.

Public Programs

Lectures:
Celeste Bartos Education Center, South Court
Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street

Russia Imagined, 1825-1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev
Wednesday, March 21, 6:00 p.m., Celeste Bartos Education Center, Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Exhibition curator Wendy Salmond will discuss Solntsev in the context of 19th century Romantic Nationalism, archaeology, and imperial expansion.

Don't hurry home if the book market is tempting ...: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Slavic and Baltic Collecting at The New York Public Library
Friday, April 20 at 3:15 p.m. and Thursday, May 17 at 3:15 p.m. , Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Robert Davis, Assistant Chief, Slavic and Baltic Division, will discuss how generations of librarians and private donors have cultivated the Library's remarkable collection.

The Lions in Russia: The "Before" and "After" of 1923
Thursday, April 26, 2:15 p.m., Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Edward Kasinec, Chief, Slavic and Baltic Division, will discuss The New York Public Library's book-buying trip to Soviet Russia in 1923-24 and place it in the broader context of the Library's central role in American library history.

Film Screening
Donnell Library Center, 20 West 53rd Street

Russian Ark
Saturday May 5 at 2:30 p.m., Donnell Library Center, 20 West 53rd Street.
Film screening of Russian Ark (2002) (96 minutes), directed by Aleksandr Sokurov.
For more information, call 212.691.0609.

All programs are free. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

About the Slavic and Baltic Division
With over 500,000 volumes, the Slavic and Baltic Division, located on the second floor of The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library, houses the single largest component of the Library's vernacular-language collection of materials relating to Russia, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic states, and to the various émigré communities outside these homelands. This collection is one of the largest of its kind in the West, containing a diverse array of bibliographies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, guides, and printed and microform catalogs of various components of other great Slavic, Baltic, and East European collections from around the world.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Science Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 86 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 21 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 15 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org .

Russia Imagined 1825 - 1925: The Art and Impact of Fedor Solntsev is on view March 2, through June 16, 2007 at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery on the first floor. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 11a.m.-7:30 p.m.; Thursday - Saturday, 10 a.m. -6 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. (through May 20). Closed Mondays; Sunday, April 8; and Saturday, May 26 For more information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the public may call 212.592.7730 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org.

Support for this exhibition has been provided by Mrs. Charles B. Wrightsman and by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency

Special thanks to The Trust for Mutual Understanding and The Harriman Institute at Columbia University in the City of New York for their support of the exhibition symposium.

Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz I. and Adam Bartos, Jonathan Altman, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III

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Contact:    Nadia Riley           212.592.7711   |  nadia_riley@nypl.org

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