On June 16, Pavel Kaplevich's project Manifestation will open in a separate pavilion at the Tretyakov Gallery. The project will be available to viewers until the end of July.

Alexander Ivanov stands as an isolated figure in the world of painting. He managed to outgrow academic norms and developed his own view of art. Quite rare for painting, the plot "The Appearance of the Messiah" Ivanov presented in an epochal manner, seeing in it the semantic culmination of the Gospel. The artist hoped that his painting was intended to elevate the moral impulses of society, and believed in the regenerating mission of art. "The appearance of Christ to the people" became for Ivanov a picture of his whole life.

“I wanted to reconcile my dear Russian compatriots with my story, the first story in the world! Which was sent to me by God himself - at least I believe so ”

Realizing the complexity and grandeur of his own plan - to reveal the "essence of the entire Gospel" - and not wanting to be just an "illustrator" of the Holy History, he embarked on the path of deep immersion in the topic, developing it in sketches and countless studies, which none of his predecessors did . It was a kind of experiment to create an artistic message to humanity.

Combining the legacy of Giotto with the coloring of the Venetians and the inner drama of da Vinci's gospel stories, the artist harmonizes the plot with nature. He paid special attention to the textural features of painting and work with the line, varying the techniques of modeling. A feature of the painting was the technique of non-finito, when carefully crafted and unfinished details are combined in painting.

Based on experiments and discoveries in the field of artistic technologies and traditional crafts, having studied the great canvas, preparatory sketches and sketches for it, Pavel Kaplevich offered his own interpretation of the painting and the process of the artist's work.

The popular theatrical artist played with the pictorial and plastic component of the picture and transferred the artistic canvas to the fabric. The media project "Manifestation" is an experiment with the method of high-molecular processing of materials. In Kaplevich's painting, cotton is intertwined with velvet or wool, and the texture of an old Venetian canvas is replaced by the effect of a tapestry. Tested earlier in theatrical scenery, the material "absorbed" a painting by Alexander Ivanov along with sketches for it.

With the help of modern technologies, "The Appearance of Christ to the People" comes to life, pulsates, changes and even breaks up into 25 variations.

The canvas turns into a sculptural relief, a crumbling fresco or a black-and-white engraving, and the figures of the picture either disappear into the distance, or reappear before the viewer. Additional emphasis is placed on the music.

Composer Alexander Manotskov envelops the viewer with the rustle of leaves, the singing of birds or the murmur of water.

You can watch the "Manifestation" of the hidden motives of Ivanov's painting from June 16 to July 31 in the pavilion in front of the entrance to the main building of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane.

media project State Tretyakov Gallery "Manifestation" demonstrates the dialogue of the artist Pavel Kaplevich with the main painting of Russian art of the 19th century - “The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)” (1837-1857) by Alexander Ivanov. Based on experiments and discoveries in the field of artistic technologies and traditional crafts, having studied the great canvas, preparatory sketches and sketches for it, Pavel Kaplevich offered his own interpretation of the painting and the process of the artist's work.
The work of Pavel Kaplevich, made in the size of a painting by Alexander Ivanov (540 × 750 cm), with the help of modern technologies, “comes to life” and involves the viewer in a world created one hundred and fifty years ago by a classic artist. Seen anew by a modern artist, this world is transformed into a different color-texture-spatial form. By changing the material properties of the original, the author of the media project offers his own understanding of the masterpiece, reveals the mystery of its creation.

The artistic expression of Pavel Kaplevich is addressed to those structural and semantic features of Alexander Ivanov's painting, in which his originality, uniqueness of design and pictorial and plastic discoveries lie. The categories of "experiment", "miracle", "texture", "palimpsest" declared in the concept of the media project are projected onto the creative search of a Russian artist of the 19th century.
Ivanov considered the birth of the idea of ​​a picture in his mind a revelation sent down from above: “I wanted to reconcile my dear Russian compatriots with my plot, the first plot in the world! Which was sent down to me by God himself - at least I believe so. Realizing the complexity and grandeur of his own plan - to reveal the "essence of the entire Gospel" - and not wanting to be just an "illustrator" of the Holy History, he embarked on the path of deep immersion in the topic, developing it in sketches and countless studies, which none of his predecessors did . It was a kind of experiment to create an artistic message to humanity.
The huge canvas of Alexander Ivanov calls on everyone standing in front of him to feel himself among the characters of the picture, to experience the feelings with which they are filled - sincere faith or doubt, acceptance or rejection of the preaching of John the Baptist, to experience fear along with the "trembling" or to succumb to the reckless impulse towards the coming Messiah , like John the Theologian and the young man with a white veil.
The creative dialogue that Pavel Kaplevich decided to enter into allows us to take a fresh look at the rich textural possibilities of Ivanov's painting, to realize the breadth of his artistic preferences and the freedom in their choice. A student of the Imperial Academy of Arts, he eschewed academicism, one of the first to appreciate the sacred, deeply symbolic art of Giotto, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, the expressiveness and variety of plastic solutions they found. From the great Venetians - Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto - he studied color and awareness of its role in creating an artistic image, in the art of Raphael he saw an example of artistic harmony, from Leonardo da Vinci - an understanding of the internal drama of gospel stories.
In search of plastic means to convey matter animated by the Spirit, Ivanov turned to various sources - he copied the works of old masters, painted sketches from a carefully selected nature, tried to feel the timeless ethical prototype in a particular person. Combining in his mind numerous sketches made for each character, he tried to reveal the most essential and valuable in natural material.
None of Ivanov's contemporary artists paid so much attention to the textural features of painting, working with line and spot, liquid and pasty strokes, using both complex paint mixes and pure, local colors. He enriched the traditional multi-layer technique by varying modeling techniques, experimenting with the base, primers and underpainting, using the non-finito technique (combining carefully worked out and unfinished details). Long before the advent of the watercolor "Biblical sketches" in nature studies, mostly painted in oil on paper, Ivanov's inclination towards fresco matteness and a mobile, vibrating brushstroke appeared. The technology he found using volatile solvents made it possible to work quickly. By varying the strokes of the brush, applying translucent layers of paint, Ivanov achieved a sense of the pulsation of life that fills natural forms.
At the end of his life, the artist realized that this work was only a "station" on the way to finding new forms for art to solve new large-scale problems. Facing the future, Ivanov's painting is open to dialogue with the next generation of artists and inspires them to create many interpretations.
On the canvas of Pavel Kaplevich, almost imperceptibly for the viewer, the images of “The Appearance of Christ to the People” are replaced, sketches of the picture appear through one another. Ivanov's creation appears now in the form of a tapestry, now a crumbling fresco, then turns into a sculptural relief or a black-and-white engraving. The figure of Christ either disappears into the distance, then reappears after the mystical dove, soaring in one of the variants of the composition. The world of sounds, created by the composer Alexander Manotskov, fills the space: the rustle of leaves, the singing of birds, the murmur of water envelop the viewer, enhancing the effect of immersion in the subtle substance of the transformed world of Ivanov’s painting, the world of phenomenon, the manifestation of a miracle.
"Manifestation" is the realization of more than fifteen years of experience of Kaplevich's work on the creation of unique fabrics. The artist discovered the enormous possibilities of the method of high-molecular processing of fabrics, which allows one to transform one material into another: to reproduce the texture of an old Venetian canvas or create the effect of a tapestry. At the will of the master, cotton is “combined” with velvet or wool, golden threads are “sprouted” in the fabric, the effect of brocade appears, etc. Previously tested in theatrical scenery, now the unique material has “absorbed” the painting by Alexander Ivanov along with sketches for it and presented the "Appearance of Christ to the People" in a new capacity.
Designed by architect Sergei Tchoban, the pavilion, which demonstrates a media project, is located in front of the main building of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane, where Ivanov's painting is exhibited. Entering the pavilion before viewing the permanent exhibition, the visitor of the museum will be able to get acquainted with the sketches for the great painting and the view of the modern artist on the images and meanings depicted on it.

Alexander Ivanov's painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People" received special attention this week. No, no anniversary, it so happened, apparently due to the density of events, that in the Tretyakov Gallery, where the grandiose canvas is kept, two offerings were made to him at once. After all, the picture is really special and reflects, as it was said about it back in the 19th century, the appearance of Christ not to the people, but to the peoples, his appearance in history, the significance of Christianity for all history.

One event of the week is the receipt by the Tretyakov Gallery as a gift of the painting by the artist Eric Bulatov "Picture and Spectators". The modern artist was worried that the painting, which he considers fundamental to Russian art of the 19th century, lost direct contact with the modern viewer. It took the artist several years to come up with an idea, to prepare visual material, and to complete the painting. The work was completed six years ago. And here it is - in the Tretyakov Gallery, donated to the museum by the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation. And this event supports the program of replenishing the museum's collection with works by contemporaries, a program that directly continues the work of Tretyakov. After all, he acquired the works of his contemporaries.

Eric Bulatov considers any painting to be a universal artistic model, namely, a demonstration of how the plane and infinite space oppose each other. Ivanov's painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People" can be considered exemplary in this sense, it is precisely reclaiming the vast space with which contemporary artists love to work. Pavel Kaplevich, one of them, also a theatrical artist, who also has a sense of space, literally penetrated into the Ivanovo canvas.

He created a media project called Manifestation, in which he started a conversation with Ivanov's painting. Yes, so that the audience could, as he himself said, compare the sensations from the dialogue I proposed. Kaplevich says that in this case, the size matters, and his canvas is made in the size of Ivanov's work: 540 × 750 centimeters. And this is precisely the canvas, the fabric, the fragile matter of the minimum density and the maximum sensitivity of the matter. The artist used his experience in high-molecular tissue processing, which he has been doing for 15 years. This method allows you to transform one material into another, so the Ivanovo images flow from one state to another, appear either as a tapestry, or as a fresco, or as a plaster relief. Composer Alexander Manotskov added mystery to the project, he filled the space with mystical sound.