Works by Kandinsky, Chagall and Malevich are due to travel from Russia to Spain for the opening of Malaga’s State Russian Museum this March. The first European branch of the St Petersburg institution is due to be housed in a former tobacco factory in the southern Spanish city.
The inaugural display, “Russian Art of the XV-XX centuries”, traces a path of the country’s art history through 100 works, beginning with Russian icons from the end of the Middle Ages to Modernism and concluding with Soviet Realism. The director of the Russian State Museum, Vladimir Gusev, told el Diario Sur in an interview: “we want to break the stereotypes of Russian art”.
The presentation of works from the permanent collection is accompanied by a temporary exhibition dedicated to Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), the Russian impresario behind the Ballets Russes who collaborated with avant-garde artists such as Picasso and Matisse. “Russian Art from the Age of Diaghilev” will include over 60 works, from paintings to stage designs, run from March until September, Diario Sur reports. This will be followed by an exhibition on Pavel Filonov (1883-1941), an eccentric avant-garde artist and a fervent supporter of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The city of Malaga will invest over €900,000 in the co-ordination and transportation of these three displays, the newspaper reports.
The exact opening date has not been announced but the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, told local press it will depend “on the schedule of the Spanish and Russian personalities attending the inauguration”, which could include Spanish and foreign government officials. Malaga is witnessing a museum boom with the new Pompidou Malaga space also expected to open in March.
