The Hermitage Group of St. Petersburg | Paintings from the Russian Soul

Design by Jon Wells Associates

Photography by John Costill

Consulting Curator: Peter Frank

Introductions by Richard V. West (Director, Frye Art Museum) and Jean-Claude Rouzard (Champagne Louis Roederer)

This catalogue was published by the Hermitage Group in conjunction with the exhibition The Hermitage Group of St. Petersburg: Paintings from the Russian Soul in St. Petersburg, Russia (November–December, 1998). The exhibition travelled to the Frye Art Museum, Seattle (April–June, 1999) and the Montery Museum of Art, Montery, CA (January–March, 2000). This exhibition features the works of Hermitage Group artists Albert Bakun, Alexander Daniel, Sergei Daniel, Boris Golovachov, Yuri Gusev, Vladmir Kagarlitsky, Vladmir Obatnin, and Mark Tumin.

The Hermitage Group is an informal association of eight Leningrad-now St. Petersburg-painters, which has existed for thirty years, but only began exhibiting outside Russia in the 1990s. The group developed under the tutelage of Grigory Yakovlevich Dlugach (1908-1988). When Stalin closed vanguard schools throughout the Soviet Union in the early 1930s and suppressed the creation of experimental art, Dlugach retreated into the Hermitage Museum of Western Art, studying the Old Masters’ techniques and styles on his own. The artwork of the Hermitage Group painters speaks of a deep love for nature’s beauty, of man’s perseverance and inherent nobility in the face of a depersonalizing society, and of the strength of the Russian people. It serves as an homage to hope and personal expression.

This publication includes introductions by Richard V. West and Jean-Claude Rouzard, a summary of the history and context of the Hermitage Group, brief biographies and commentaries by each of the exhibiting artists, illustrations of the exhibition artwork and a list of shows, and exhibitions by the Hermitage Group.

23 pages, full color illustrations

11 x 8.5 in.

Softcover, 1998

Catalogues published before 2010 have been in storage and may have small signs of wear and tear.