MOSCOW.- The Moscow Museum of Modern Art in partnership with the Heritage Foundation of Michael Schwarzman presents an exhibition Vertograds of Michael Schwartzman dedicated to the artists 90th anniversary. The works from the state and private collections are united under the idea of the curator Sergey Khachaturov to show the art of the master through various dialogues with art history, both present and past.
The term hieratism introduced by Michael Schwarzman in context of current artistic life in Greek means the sacred. The philosophy of the hieratic art appeared in the 1960-s and eventually resulted in the system of sign and architectonic codes. Throughout his creative life the artist has consistently moved away from the imitative realistic method striving to get closer to understanding signs of the spiritual hierarchy. He formed his own definition of the image-sign hierature. The fate of a hierat, according to Schwarzman, is a vision and understanding of everything created by the Lord, as well as glorification of the Lords gifts via creativity.
The name of the exhibition Vertograds of Michael Schwarzman figuratively reveals the hieratic art of the artist and accordingly the logic of the exhibitions structure. The vertograd is a very old form of the word orchard and in the Christian tradition the vertograd means the Garden of Eden. The image of the latter known from old icons (The Mother of God Hortus Conclusus by Nikita Pavlovets) supposedly inspired Schwarzman for the creation of hieratures full of mysteries, experience and knowledge of the Universe.
The jubilee exhibition in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art has a unique design of the exhibition. Eight halls of the main building of the Museum, 25 Petrovka street, have become eight branches on the either side of the common axis similar to the trunk of the tree. Each branch is a section devoted to a special theme interconnected with the other ones: The Crystal, The House of a Collector, The Mirror Perspective of the Sign, A Forgotten Factory Shed, The Palm Grove, The Garden of a Birdwatcher, Glasshouses of Memory and The Tree of Life. The exhibition starts with The Crystal section. Rotating the crystal we are witnessing a fascinating process of communication of Schwarzmans art with great traditions of the world culture. The esoteric treatise of Robert Fludd provided by the Russian National Library, books on gardening, film by Peter Greenaway and breathtaking stage illusions in old prints will help to understand the philosophy of the artist through the light and the facets of his sacred themes. For the first time, the art of Michael Schwarzman is being shown in active interaction, in a dialogue with masters of different epochs. On display are also canvases by the artists interlocutors of various years from Hubert Robert to Kazimir Malevich, from Yakov Chernikhov to very young artists interested in problems of the nature philosophy.
The project includes works from the collections of the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, A. Bakhrushin Theater Museum, the State Hermitage, the Russian National Library, IN ARTIBUS Foundation, Foundation of Yakov Chernikhov, EKATERINA Culture Foundation, private collections.
The catalogue has been published under the sponsorship of AVC Charity Foundation.
The State Russian Museum will present a collection of works by Michael Schwarzman at the exhibition to be held in St. Petersburg in 2017.