The exhibition presents the development of Soviet sculpture from 1917 to 1937 – a period of revitalized artistic life in the two capitals, regions, and national republics.

The project 17/37. Soviet Sculpture. Takeoff is unique in its concept and scope of material. For the first time, the diversity of forms and plastic solutions that emerged during the formative period of Russian sculpture from 1917 to 1937 can be seen in a single venue. The exhibition includes approximately 100 objects from more than 20 museums and private collections spanning Russia’s vast geography.

The project encompasses the first twenty years of Soviet sculpture’s development, creating a nonlinear picture of the art form’s evolution. Art historians recognize the first decade as creatively rich, formally, and socially challenging. The second decade is traditionally associated with the development of a canon and the waning of the avant-garde impulse.

The curators conducted extensive organizational and research work, which allowed them to bring in new material and demonstrate their own vision. In addition to well-known works, the exhibition features sculptures that are rarely displayed and have been stored in storage for many years. This allows us to recall such masters as Nikolai Abakumtsev, Maria Denisova-Shchadenko, Lazar Vainer, Alexey Teneta, and Sergey Chernyshev.

Exhibition project curator: Alla Esipovich-Roginskaya
Exhibition project curator and architect: Anton Gorlanov
Exhibition project coordinator: Elena Semenova

Text and photos: ROSIZO

The exhibition spans the first twenty years of Soviet sculpture’s development. It encompasses two decades, which in itself has a special subtext.

Art historians recognize the first decade as creatively rich, formally and socially projective. The second decade is traditionally associated with the development of a canon and the waning of the avant-garde impulse. The exhibition will create a nonlinear picture of sculptural evolution. The curators have managed to bring together, alongside well-known works, rarely exhibited pieces that had languished in storage for many years.

Museum and exhibition practices traditionally feature reference points: monumental propaganda, sculptural avant-garde, and the Stalinist canon. These are crucial moments, and they are presented, but in their own unique way. Typically, this material is presented through photographic documentation, projects, and models. Authentic pieces are also on display: Leonid Sherwood’s Radishchev left the Museum of Architecture's storerooms for the first time; sculptor Viktor Sinaisky’s Ferdinand Lassalle hadn’t been on display for over 30 years; and Isaak Mendelevich’s Industry of Socialism, a bas-relief created for the pavilion of the All-Union Construction Exhibition, was captured at the end of restoration work, but before its return to the façade of a post-constructivist building from the second half of the 1930s, which Muscovites, due to its cruciform plan, call the "airplane house".

This part of the exhibition will help us understand how these works functioned in a real urban environment.

The entire scope of the material allows us to reflect on the diversity of the artistic process, on how the Avant-Garde and "heroic academicism", Art Deco, Neoclassicism, and Expressionism coexisted in the 1920s.

And yet, the complexity of the configuration of names and trends remains. The exhibition includes approximately 100 works from more than 20 Russian museums and private collections. The curators undertook extensive organizational and research work, which allowed them to bring in new material and showcase their own vision.

It is worth recalling such sculptors as Nikolai Abakumtsev, Maria Denisova-Shchadenko, Lazar Vainer, Alexey Teneta, and Sergey Chernyshev.

As part of the exhibition, a large-scale publication is being prepared, including articles by a diverse group of authors. This publication will not only reflect the exhibition’s contents but also serve as a major research project, capable of providing a new level of understanding of processes in Russian sculpture from the late 1910s to the 1930s.

The exhibition’s structure (architect Anton Gorlanov) evokes 1920s architecture with its symbolic connotations of plans – the hammer and sickle, the star, and so on. There is also a functional subtext: a convenient organization of the exhibition narrative that guides viewers' understanding.

Alla Esipovich-Roginskaya