Russian Museum exposes the horror of war in imposing new annual exhibition

In the midst of uncertainty created by a global pandemic that has been particularly hard on culture, the Russian Museum in Malaga has opened one of its most ambitious annual exhibitions yet, accompanied by two new temporary shows.

War and Peace in Russian Art is made up of 180 works that together present a vibrant journey through the history of Russia guided by the horror of war.

The collection ranges from wooden 16th-century icons to 20th-century avant-garde pieces, focusing on the consequences of wartime horrors. It puts generals alongside wretched paupers, great battles and conquests alongside famine and the wounded, the common thread being the title of the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy, who has his own specific show alongside.

The exhibition's curator Pavel Klimov, explained that the new exhibition is not just about Tolstoy's novel:

"The war and peace of the novel coincide over time like two aspects of a life full of sharp, often unbearable contrasts, where the distance between happiness and sadness, life and death, is sometimes insignificant. The reality of the Napoleonic wars, as described by Tolstoy, could be extended, with some reservations, to the entire history of Russia, which has known few times of peace. And art is a mirror of this history, through which the bitter memory of those who died lives on, and the sound of the drums of war can be heard," he said.

The works in the exhibition, which has been put together in collaboration with Fundación La Caixa, are displayed mainly in chronological order. This starts with a selection of icons, which share space with outstanding paintings such as Viktor Vasnetsov's Battle between the Scythians and the Slavs (1881).

Ivan the Terrible and the so-called Time of Troubles (1598-1613) give way to the wars against the French troops led by Napoleon. A stopping point in this section is Council of War in Fili in 1812 by Aleksey Kivshenko, which shows the moment just after the Battle of Borodino in which Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov takes the decision to abandon Moscow to withdraw troops and, later, win the war.

The most imposing room of the exhibition contains Pavel Filonov's fascinating canvas The German War (1914-1915).

Kazimir Malevich also makes a welcome return to the Russian Museum with Red Cavalry Riding (c. 1932), which has been deservedly given pride of place on the presidential wall of this exhibition.

The room devoted to the Leningrad siege brings more horror, with scenes by Andrei Mylnikov. He depicted streets full of death and desolation, disturbed faces: horror around every corner.

The Russian Museum also unveiled two temporary shows last Friday. The first is a collection of 39 seascapes by Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900), introduced as Russia's great marine artist. The second is the aforementioned exhibit devoted to Leo Tolstoy himself, and includes portraits and pencil sketches of the writer.