Lithography from Leningrad: Eric Estorick's Adventure in Soviet Art
This virtual exhibition is a recreation of the commemorative show held in November 2019 at the Collection. drawn from private collections in Russia, United Kingdom and United States and is a recreation of an important exhibition organised at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London.
Lithography from Leningrad
Eric Estorick’s Adventure in Soviet Art
During the early 1960s, when Eric Estorick was running London’s Grosvenor Gallery, he developed a strong interest in Soviet art alongside his passion for modern Italian painting. He had visited Leningrad’s Experimental Graphics Laboratory (LEGL) in 1960, and was so impressed that he bought several hundred works on the spot. In 1961 he mounted a landmark exhibition of Soviet prints titled Lithographs by Twenty-seven Soviet Artists, fifteen of whom are represented in this small display.
The 1961 exhibition created a sensation in London, and for a number of years Estorick’s gallery hosted a stream of shows featuring work by artists from the Soviet Union. For the first time since the Russian Revolution, Westerners were able to see and acquire contemporary art from the USSR. In contrast to prevailing stereotypes about Socialist Realism, garnered at government-sponsored shows, these lithographs expressed an unexpected vitality, modernity and humanity, evoking simple pleasures and the poetry of everyday life. The artists’ commitment to the medium of printmaking was of fundamental importance, allowing them to make their imagery accessible to the widest possible audience. Grigori Izrailevich, one of the artists associated with LEGL, later recalled: “It was a remarkable place in our Leningrad artistic life, where freedom reigned during the darkest times […]. It was a place where the spirt of art prevailed, where it was possible to create lithographs with no worry of Party dictates.”
The prints produced by LEGL are a testament to the fact that imagery produced at the ‘periphery’ of the art world can be just as stimulating and rewarding as that produced in the acknowledged centres of stylistic innovation, evolving in its own distinctive manner. If there are distant echoes of Modigliani and Picasso in the figures of Aleksandra Yakobson’s Scoreboard, her images remain quintessentially Russian in character, as do the prints of Yuri Vasnetsov, which evoke the style of popular lubki, and Boris Ermolaev’s depictions of farm workers, whose simple forms recall the mannequin-like peasants painted by Malevich during the late 1920s.
Following Estorick’s initial London show, other private collectors and museums began to acquire works by these artists. Coinciding as it did with a resurgence of cultural ties between the Soviet Union and the West, Estorick’s adventure in Soviet art proved to be something of a historical milestone.
With thanks to the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, Michael Estorick, Roberta Cremoncini and Christopher Adams.
The next exhibition in the series planned for 2021.
Lithography from Leningrad
Eric Estorick’s Adventure in Soviet Art
During the early 1960s, when Eric Estorick was running London’s Grosvenor Gallery, he developed a strong interest in Soviet art alongside his passion for modern Italian painting. He had visited Leningrad’s Experimental Graphics Laboratory (LEGL) in 1960, and was so impressed that he bought several hundred works on the spot. In 1961 he mounted a landmark exhibition of Soviet prints titled Lithographs by Twenty-seven Soviet Artists, fifteen of whom are represented in this small display.
The 1961 exhibition created a sensation in London, and for a number of years Estorick’s gallery hosted a stream of shows featuring work by artists from the Soviet Union. For the first time since the Russian Revolution, Westerners were able to see and acquire contemporary art from the USSR. In contrast to prevailing stereotypes about Socialist Realism, garnered at government-sponsored shows, these lithographs expressed an unexpected vitality, modernity and humanity, evoking simple pleasures and the poetry of everyday life. The artists’ commitment to the medium of printmaking was of fundamental importance, allowing them to make their imagery accessible to the widest possible audience. Grigori Izrailevich, one of the artists associated with LEGL, later recalled: “It was a remarkable place in our Leningrad artistic life, where freedom reigned during the darkest times […]. It was a place where the spirt of art prevailed, where it was possible to create lithographs with no worry of Party dictates.”
The prints produced by LEGL are a testament to the fact that imagery produced at the ‘periphery’ of the art world can be just as stimulating and rewarding as that produced in the acknowledged centres of stylistic innovation, evolving in its own distinctive manner. If there are distant echoes of Modigliani and Picasso in the figures of Aleksandra Yakobson’s Scoreboard, her images remain quintessentially Russian in character, as do the prints of Yuri Vasnetsov, which evoke the style of popular lubki, and Boris Ermolaev’s depictions of farm workers, whose simple forms recall the mannequin-like peasants painted by Malevich during the late 1920s.
Following Estorick’s initial London show, other private collectors and museums began to acquire works by these artists. Coinciding as it did with a resurgence of cultural ties between the Soviet Union and the West, Estorick’s adventure in Soviet art proved to be something of a historical milestone.
With thanks to the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, Michael Estorick, Roberta Cremoncini and Christopher Adams.
The next exhibition in the series planned for 2021.
