Exhibition activity of the trade of the Fedoskinsky lacquer miniature of the Soviet period of the post-war period (the second half of the 1940s – the beginning of the 1970s).

Lavrov Dmitrii Evgen'evich ORCID: 0000-0002-2607-7220 PhD in Art History Senior Educator, the department of Museology, Saint Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, nab. Universitetskaya, 7-9, aud. 91 agitlak@mail.ru Other publications by this author

An important factor in the public recognition of the craft of the Lukutinskaya (Fedoskinskaya) lacquer miniature of the XIX century, as well as the Soviet period, was the exhibition activity. Meanwhile, if a lot has already been written about the participation of Lukutinsky products in exhibitions of the XIX century ^{[24, p. 15; 20, p. 14]}, then there are practically no special scientific publications about the exhibition practices of the Fedoskino craft in the Soviet period: the only exception is the dissertation of V. B. Klyuchikova 2004 "The lacquer miniature of Fedoskino in the history of folk art culture", which briefly examines the exhibition activity of the craft of the pre-war period ^{[9, pp. 79-83]}, but, however, the exhibitions of the post-war period are not given any sufficient attention ^{[9, p. 88]}. The proposed article is intended to fill this gap and characterize the exhibition activities of the Fedoskinsky craft of the post-war period (the second half of the 1940s – early 1970s).

         In the pre-war period, the exhibition activity of the Fedoskino labor artel had already reached a significant scale: starting with the All-Union Agricultural and Handicraft Industrial Exhibition of 1923 (which became the first serious success in the public recognition of the craft after the Revolution) ^{[13, p. 40]}, the artel took part in many prestigious art shows, including Republican, All-Union (for example, the All-Union the Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow in 1939), as well as the World Exhibitions of 1937 (in Paris) and 1939 (in New York). Meanwhile, it was in the post-war period that certain changes and additions were made to the exhibition activity of the craft, allowing it to be characterized as having specific features, compared with the pre-war time.

         Extremely important both for the post-war exhibition activity of the craft, and for its entire subsequent history, was the transfer of most of the artists of the Fedoskino artel from copy work to creative work that took place in the early 1950s. In other words, if in the pre-war period, almost exclusively copies, i.e. not original compositions (traditional subjects of horse triples and tea parties, as well as copies from easel paintings and sample drawings) were presented at exhibitions in which the Fedoskinsky artel participated, then, since the 1950s, artists of the Fedoskinsky craft began to present the exhibitions are mostly original, independently developed compositions. The desirability and even the necessity of such a transition, leading Soviet art historians drew the attention of Fedoskin's artists back in the 1930s in their reviews of craft exhibitions ^{[3, p. 10; 2, p. 46]}. In the first post-war years, these reviews were repeated: for example, in his review of the All-Union Art Exhibition of Folk Decorative and Applied Art "Victory" held in Moscow in 1946, the famous art critic, connoisseur of lacquer crafts G. V. Zhidkov wrote: "Returning again and again to the magnificent works that came out of the oldest center of the Russian lacquer miniature by Papier-Mache – Fedoskin, one cannot help but think about the need to create conditions that would help to revive the work of artists to create their own original compositions. There are no words, excellent copies from paintings by Fedotov, Repin, Vasnetsov, and some Soviet artists are good and needed, in which the original passed through the creative prism of the "Lukutinsky" style. What can I say, the traditional winter and summer "troika" and "tea parties" are wonderful. But along with this, I would like to see more works, in connection with which there is no need to refer to the word "copy"" ^{[8, p. 36]}.

         In the early 1950s, such a transition was carried out on the initiative of the leading masters of the Fedoskin craft M. S. Chizhov and V. D. Lipitsky ^{[22, p. 178]} with the help of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, as well as the Research Institute of Art Industry and the Moscow Regional Branch of the Art Fund of the RSFSR, who introduced the practice of concluding direct (i.e. bypassing the Fedoskin Labor Artel) contracts with craft artists to perform creative works, followed by sending them to one or another upcoming exhibition. Thus, if in the pre-war period almost all the exhibited works of the craft were replica products, then, since the 1950s, the general rule of the Fedoskinsky masters was to present original compositions at exhibitions of any level. So, already in 1952, Fedoskinsky artists presented a number of original works to the Moscow exhibition "Applied and Decorative Art" (S. P. Rogatov's casket "Young Builders" and other works) ^{[19, p. 72]}. Exclusively original works were presented by the Fedoskinsky Artel at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, at which the casket "Russian Ballet" by artists M. S. Chizhov and V. P. Egorov was awarded a special diploma and a bronze medal (and the artel itself was awarded a Diploma of the first degree and a Gold Medal) ^{[21, p. 282]}.  

As in the 1930s, in the post-war period, the Fedoskinsky fishery took part in all the most important art exhibitions of the USSR at various levels. Participation in exhibitions of republican and All-Union significance, which were periodic in nature and often timed to anniversaries and dates significant for Soviet ideology, was especially prestigious (products previously exhibited at Republican exhibitions were mainly allowed at All-Union exhibitions). Republican exhibitions were held in Moscow and Leningrad: for example, in 1963 in Leningrad (at the State Russian Museum), a Republican exhibition of decorative and applied art was held, which presented, as part of the section "Artistic varnishes", 15 new original works by Fedoskinsky artists (the box "Bridge" by P. N. Macheev 1962, the box "Herons" S. P. Rogatova 1961 and other works) ^{[16, pp. 15-156]}. In 1967, the Republican exhibition "Soviet Russia", dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, was held in Moscow, for which Fedoskin's miniaturists performed a number of propaganda works (the box "Bygone Days" by M. S. Chizhov, the plate "To Ilyich" by V. D. Lipitsky) ^{[7, p. 180]}. A major event in the life of Fedoskinsky craft was his participation in the All-Union Exhibition of Decorative and Applied Art at the Moscow Academy of Arts of the USSR and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of V. I. Lenin, at which 19 works selected from the previous Republican exhibition were presented ^[14].      

An important form of exhibition practices carried out to popularize the Fedoskinsky craft of the post-war period (as part of general expositions dedicated to Russian folk art) were traveling exhibitions of various museum organizations. Russian Russian Folk Art, a traveling exhibition dedicated to the XXI Congress of the CPSU, was held in the Leningrad Region in early 1959, prepared by the State Russian Museum together with the House of Folk Art of the Leningrad Regional Department of Culture and presented the works of Fedoskinsky artists from the collection of the State Russian Museum (V. I. Lavrov, M. G. Pashinin) to regional residents ^{[18, p. 17]}.

Another new form of exhibition activity used in the exhibition practices of the Moscow Museum of Folk Art were retrospective anniversary exhibitions, i.e. exhibitions of the works of those miniaturists who celebrated their anniversary in one year or another. Such, for example, was the retrospective exhibition "Anniversaries-73", which presented the works of masters Kholuy (V. A. Belov), Zhostov (A. P. Gogin, M. R. Mitrofanov), but most of the exhibition space was occupied by the works of Fedoskin artists: Nikolai Ilyich Balashov, Mikhail Stepanovich Chizhov, Gennady Venediktovich Skripunov and Sergei Vasilyevich Monashov (celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1973) ^{[23, p. 3]}. Exhibitions organized by the Moscow Regional Organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR were regularly organized for the artistic youth of the Fedoskinsky craft. So, in 1972, a similar show called "Exhibition of works by young artists of the Moscow region" was held in the House of Artists of the city of Noginsk. The works of four Fedoskinsky miniaturists (A.M. Grachev, Y. L. Dubovikov, N. M. Soloninkin and E. I. Starykh) comprised the section "Artistic Varnishes". Despite its small number (6 works were presented), each of them reflected an important stage in the work of each of the participating young masters: A. M. Grachev's box "Sea Stories" in 1971, E. I. Starykh's compact "Autumn Leaves" in 1970 and other works ^{[5, p. 57]}.

         The Moscow Museum that most "patronized" the Fedoskinsky fishery, of course, was the Museum of Folk Art of the Research Institute of Art Industry (located at 7 Stanislavsky Street). It was here, on the initiative of the museum director Lyudmila Konstantinovna Rozova, in August 1962 – April 1963, a retrospective exhibition of Fedoskinsky products took place, which became the largest viewing of the craft of the time in question and in general for its entire 160-year history: more than 600 works from the collections of eight Soviet museums were shown at the exhibition, the works of more than 90 Fedoskinsky miniaturists ^[4]. The show, called the "Exhibition of Fedoskin's Miniature Paintings" and gathered over 20 thousand visitors, became an important cultural event of that time, repeatedly covered in the Moscow press ^[1], it was shown on television and filmed by newsreels.

Special attention should be paid to the analysis of the innovative design of the exhibition, made by the famous architect V. G. Makarevich and deservedly received rave reviews in publications and reports ^[6]. Three sections of the exhibition – the Lukutinsky miniature of the XIX century, the lacquer miniature of the Soviet Fedoskin and, finally, the works of students of the Fedoskin school of miniature painting – were placed in a small museum hall in chronological order and united by a common theme: showing the nature of the Moscow region as a creative environment of Fedoskin masters and the maximum approach of the visitor to this nature. As a result, critics unanimously noted as a great achievement of V. G. Makarevich the successful combination of modern materials, high-tech design (multi-level suspended ceilings; lamps in the form of cylinders above the showcases; duralumin thin tubes imitating birch trees; huge photo panels with views of Fedoskin) with traditional images and materials of Russian folk art (elements of a peasant interior made of real birch, benches, carved platbands, lace of the XIX century.) ^{[17, pp. 196-197]}

         An important part of the preparation and holding of the "Exhibition of Miniature Paintings by Fedoskin" was scientific work. Thus, during the preparation for the exhibition, the chronological attribution of the miniature of the Fedoskinsky craft of the XIX century was clarified (according to the stamps), in particular, it was found that genre compositions from Russian folk life in it (the famous Lukutinsky troika, tea parties) did not appear in the 1840s – 1860s (as previously thought), and in the 1870s - 1880s ^{[17, pp. 184-185]}, the creative conference held following the results of the exhibition, which was attended by leading art historians, experts in folk culture L. K. Rozova, N. I. Kaplan, was extremely important, but, however, more ambiguous for the further development of the Fedoskinsky craft. M. D. Rakov and V. M. Vasilenko. Such creative conferences following the results of a particular exhibition of works of folk art were not unusual and were held back in the 1930s; their main goal was to find weak (artistically speaking) places of the works shown and to give advice to artists on correcting (allegedly) mistakes they made, and often these tips were contradictory character ^{[10, p. 16]}. The exhibition conference we are reviewing was no exception, largely devoted to the criticism of the trends of stankovism in miniature – one of the most acute art criticism discussions about the lacquer crafts of the Soviet period ^[12]. Thus, V. M. Vasilenko and M. D. Rakova opposed stankovism; in particular, M. D. Rakova drew attention to the inadmissibility of showing in the Fedoskinsky miniatures of aerial perspective presented at the exhibition. On the other hand, the director of the museum L. K. Rozova, drawing attention to the reduction in the range of crafts (compared with the XIX century), proposed to expand the list of forms of Fedoskinsky products due to large wall panels approaching their purpose – to hang "on the wall in the form of any plates" ^{[17, p. 191]} - namely to easel paintings. 

         Thus, the exhibition activity of the Fedoskinsky craft of the post-war period became an important step towards its further public recognition and organizational and economic strengthening. Having preserved the already existing forms of participation in exhibition projects (Republican, All-Union, World Exhibitions), in the post-war period Fedoskinsky fishery actively participates in traveling, as well as retrospective exhibitions. The presentation of mostly original compositions as exhibition samples contributed to the strengthening of the own creative manner of each major Fedoskinsky miniature master, as well as his public recognition as an original master and at the same time a bearer of the traditions of the unique craft of Russian folk culture. These achievements of the exhibition activity of the Fedoskinsky craft undoubtedly had the most beneficial effect on its entire future.