Feminine art

Not only forms, but also content: we went to the sensational exhibition at the National Art Museum

The main cultural treasure of the country continues to show ingenuity. Until October 1st, one can experience the Zhanochy Rod [Feminine in Belarusian] project here — an exhibition of extraordinary subtlety and thoroughness, revealing and glorifying the nature of the female world. Interestingly,  a man took up a topic that had long ceased to be a niche one. An experienced and well-known curator in media circles Dmitry Solodky turned out to be up to the task and at least ambitious: tickets for his curatorial excursions are sold out in just ten minutes.

At A Bush of Roses work of Mikhail Savitsky

With reference to history

The Zhanochy Rod exhibition, Dmitry immediately warns, can be read in different ways. It is to read, because it is a very intelligible and detailed story. Or rather, several stories. The Zhanochy Rod unpretentious title refers to two topics at once: the world of women (in the first hall) and the feminine. All this, of course, is represented through the prism of an artistic view. 
Solodky selected dozens of works of folk and professional art that reveal traditional archetypal ideas about the essence of female nature from the large and miraculously preserved heritage of the National Art Museum. However, it is important to understand that this is not an exhibition of a female portrait, but rather an attempt to collect a poetic image of a Belarusian woman of the 20th century, the curator highlights, “I wanted to look at the museum’s collection of works of the 20th century from the gender point of view. Compare how imagery and idea are developed. Thus, if we compare female and male images in our collection, then the theme of women is unequivocally revealed in a more interesting, deep and diverse way. In archetypal ideas, a woman is both mother earth, and a symbol of fertility, as well as the housekeeper... Therefore, the exhibition is about the traditional feeling of female nature.” 
This is the richest theme, and Solodky found his original concept in it. He focused not on the exclusivity of the works, but on their interpretation. 
The Witnesses painting by Gavriil Vashchenko is the central part of the famous triptych and the artist’s striking vision of the past and present. The exhibition begins and immediately places accents with Witnesses. 
Dmitry is sure, “No other Belarusian master worked with the theme of roots in such a deep and varied way. Who, in Vashchenko’s view, is the witness of our culture, the past, and life on Earth in general? Women. The profile of the central figure, by the way, resembles the profile of Stefaniya Stanyuta.”
The ceramics of our contemporary Tamara Vasyuk was paralleled by the curator with the drawings of reconstructions of traditional Belarusian national dresses. Ethnographer Mikhail Romanyuk and artist Leonid Borozna are the authors of the composition. 
“National dress, just like language, is a sign of a nation. In the 14th century, namitki appeared in almost all regions of our country — an intricate towel-type headdress. They are rooted in the Middle Ages, when European aristocrats imitated the main woman — the Mother of God, who was always depicted with her head covered,” explains curator. 
The installation, where jugs made in the technique of traditional smoky ceramics coexist with bronze sculptural portraits is another reference to the roots and history (and another stopping point). There is also a homespun ‘poscilka’ [a coverlet in Belarusian] from the Grodno Region and a typical image of a woman of the Soviet era, perfectly matched with it in colour, painted on canvas. 
Dmitry Solodky jokes, “The Thinking painting by Aleksandr Kishchenko seemed to be in a conspiracy with this ‘poscilka’. See how the craftswoman who wove it was not afraid to use a lot of black, complementing it with the colour of fuchsia. This is the popular instinct. It is the traditional culture that teaches us aesthetics, the combination of form and colour.
Aleksandr Kishchenko again has the central place in the hall. His Belarusian Woman With Dry Brushwood is dedicated to the women of our country, not so much in formal terms, but in essence.”
“Just take a look at this masterpiece. A Belarusian woman calmly and confidently holds dry branches on her fragile shoulders through time and space. Actually, she holds the whole world with its difficulties, sorrows and worries. Where does she carry this brushwood? And why?.. We don’t know. Nonetheless, she knows. Times, worlds will change. But the Belarusian woman will still confidently continue to move forward,” the curator reflects. 
The spindle has another place of honour as a symbol of order, and more broadly, of the feminine gender at the exhibition. The image is in parallel with the clay sculptures of Mikhail Filippovich, whose peak of creativity came in the 1920s — a period of active Belarusianisation and increased interest in national stuff. 

Poleshanka by Dmitry Popov

Bread by Mikhail Potapov

Dedicated to the Missing by Aleksandr Finsky

Maternity by Nelli Yakovenko

Part of the Women triptych by Olga Melnik-Malahova

Motherly instinct

Shadows, profiles, silhouettes, colours and a variety of techniques — everything here works to promote the feminine theme in art. However, the second hall represents new meanings, deep-mythological ideas of a person about procreation. A woman-mother is an image quite popular in art. But here, too, Dmitry Solodky disowned too literal interpretation. The Mother of God icon is the beginning, which, with the adoption of Christianity, became the main spiritual landmark for Belarusian women. Continuation — through the image of the Belarusian Madonna and Child already of the 20th century.
Aleksandr Kishchenko copied this image from his wife Nina and son Maxim. Relatives of the artist, by the way, were among the first visitors to the exhibition.
From the mother who gives life to the image of the earth-nurse. Sculptor Mikhail Potapov depicts a Belarusian woman with a loaf in her hands. The artists Vasily Sharangovich and Boris Kazakov have their own interpretation. The masters of the 20th century also recorded a special theme of the experiences of mothers who lost their children in the war.
“There is nothing stronger than mother’s grief... After the Great Patriotic War, art worked a lot with this theme, and in the context of the theme of procreation, it cannot be bypassed. So, Aleksandr Finsky dedicated his work to mothers whose sons went missing. Interestingly, visually this sculpture echoes the very first painting of the exhibition — Witnesses by Gavriil Vashchenko,” the curator belives.
The general intonation is picked up by A Bush of Roses by Mikhail Savitsky. The picture continues the theme of his famous Madonnas and puts the final point in the exposition, notes Dmitry Solodky, “In a figurative sense, roses are a fragrant paradise. And who provides this paradise? 
Mother holding a child in her arms. Mother’s hands are the very haven to which everyone wants to return. This is our strongest defence.”

By Yuliana Leonovich
Photos by Aleksey Stolyarov