Restoration of the church. “Homecoming. Forgotten name – Alexander Vakhrameev”

Thanks to the exhibition “Homecoming. Forgotten Name – Alexander Vakhrameev” in Arkhangelsk, the futher theme to restorу еру destroyed monuments, namely the Church of the Ascension of Christ, was raised. In this same church, the artist’s father, Ivan Vakhrameev, served as a deacon.

The exhibition was held by the joint efforts of the art gallery “Kraski Zhizni” together with the ASF “Kraski Zhizni” and TsGALI of St. Petersburg, with the support of the authorities and the Museum Association of the Arkhangelsk Region.

Since July 2023, the restoration of the church has begun.

Awarding exhibition “Discovering new names – 2023”

“Discovering new names” is an annual exhibition project that brings together young professional artists.

The purpose of the Competition is to increase interest in the fine arts and to support artists.

Objectives:

  • Promoting the development of Art
  • Identifying active and talented artists
  • Realizing the creative potential in the artistic environment

As part of the Competition, the Fund establishes awards from 20,000 up to 100,000 rubles. The winner is also awarded a personal exhibition for 10 days.

Theme 2023: Cultural Code

Acceptance of applications: from 09/01/2023 to 12/17/2023

Cultural heritage

Together with Stolbova Valentina Petrovna, expert in the S. K. Sukhanov’s art, the Fund organizes a new competition among artists “Cultural Heritage. S.K. Sukhanov” among artists.

The artists’ goal is to depict places from the archival list of documents.

Objective of the project:

  • Increasing interest in the works of S.K. Sukhanov;
  • Increasing interest in cultural heritage;
  • Artist support

Within the Competition, awards are established for 2 nominations (“professional” and “beginner”).

Socialization of foster families

The ASF “Kraski Zhizni” for foster families – wards of the charitable foundation for children left without parential care “Children wait” (“Deti zhdut”)

The project was designed to support the institution of a foster fmily and had a creative and artistic orientation, realized through a set of classes. Thanks to lectures on art, adults and children learned about the features of common genres in painting, and creative workshops intriduced them to various artistic techniques.

Musical and literary concert “The Hour Struck!”

The musical and theatrical performance “The Hour Struck” opened the Great Easter Festival, which is traditionally organized by the Pomeranian Philharmonic.

This is a premiere based on a short story by St. Petersburg writer Andrey Loginov. He was inspired by the story of finding the manuscript of Igor Stravinsky’s “Funeral Song”. It was lost over 100 years ago and was discovered in 2015.

Performed by: The State Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Region under the direction of Mikhail Golikov.

Andrey Loginov, writer, poet, St. Petersburg
“There is so much musical text in this short story that, of course, is worth showing it to the general public. Precisely by combining it with musical compositions, works by both Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.”

Vasily Larionov, director of the Pomor Philharmonic
“It is very important to understand that this is the All-Russian premiere. I would like to focus on this. Prior to this, the show was demonstrated only once. It was held at the Saint Petersburg Academic Philharmonia Named After D. D. Shostakovich

Exhibition series. “Homecoming. Forgotten name – Alexander Vakhrameev”

Vakhromeev’s theme was further developed. The leaders of the Arkhangelsk region, the “Museum Association” and the residents who are not indifferent to art became interested in the works of their compatriots and turned their attention to the TsGALI and the “Kraski Zhizni” gallery in order to organize the exhibition “Homecomming. Forgotten name – Alexander Vakhromeev”.

The name of the artist Alexander Ivanovich Vakhrameev is little known to a wide circle of lovers of Russian fine art. Vakhrameev died in 1926 in Petrograd.

New personal exhibition of the artist hold in Arkhangelsk. It is no coincidence that the undeservedly forgotten author returns to his roots. He was connected with the Arkhangelsk Territory not only by the place of his birth, but also by his creativity. Here, in the North, he found inspiration for many of his works, writing sincere, northern landscapes imbued with a special lyrical feeling.

The collection of the Museum Association contains a small but extremely valuable collection of paintings and drawings by Alexander Vakhrameev, relating to different periods of his work. They entered the museum in the early 1970s as a gift from the artist’s son and daughter. This small heritage represents both the early period of creativity and the works of the 1920s, created by Vakhrameev shortly before his death.

The early period is represented by pictorial sketches and graphic sheets created by the author in 1905. They are dedicated to the North – his small homeland. He repeatedly made trips along the Northern Dvina, to Arkhangelsk, to the Solovetsky Islands. The small-sized sketches depict northern villages, landscapes with genre scenes, piers with colorful types of Pomor sailors. Arkhangelsk sketches tell about the turbulent everyday life of the port city. Particularly picturesque and expressive are watercolor works with views of the Solovetsky archipelago.

The work of Alexander Vakhrameev is multifaceted. He worked in various stylistic directions: he painted realistic genre paintings, portraits in the Art Nouveau style, conveyed fleeting moments of life in the artistic language of impressionism. His works reflected the historical events of the first third of the 20th century, he created a whole galaxy of female images, but still the main theme of Vakhrameev was always the North.

The North is famous for its outstanding artists such as Alexander Borisov, Stepan Pisakhov, Nenets artist Ilya Vylka. Exhibition project “Homecoming. Forgotten name – Alexander Vakhrameev” provides a unique opportunity to expand the circle of names of northern authors and presents the Arkhangelsk audience with the work of another bright and original master, which is the fellow countryman, Alexander Vakhrameev.

Awarding exhibition “Discovering new names – 2022”

“Discovering new names” is an annual exhibition project that brings together young professional artists.

The purpose of the Competition is to increase interest in the fine arts and to support artists.

Objectives:

  • Promoting the development of Art
  • Identifying active and talented artists
  • Realizing the creative potential in the artistic environment

As part of the Competition, the Fund establishes awards from 20,000 up to 100,000 rubles. The winner is also awarded a personal exhibition for 10 days.

Theme 2022: Art and Spirituality 

The exhibition “Discovering new names” included paintings and drawings of 58 artists, having presented 71 works (2 sculptures and 69 paintings and graphic images). 

The finalists of the competition were awarded by the Art Support Fund “Kraski Zhizni”: 

  • Yandyganov Gennady – 1st place (70,000 rubles + personal exhibition for 10 days). 
  • Tsukan Dmitry – 2nd place (50,000 rubles) 
  • Davletshina Evgenia – 3rd place (30,000 rubles) 

In addition to the Fund awards, art patrons have noted and granted the following artists

  • Vershinina Alexandra 
  • Volkova Natalya 
  • Delieva Natalia 
  • Dobrovolskaya Maria 
  • Kalinina Serafima 
  • Koryashkin Alexander 
  • Nezhdanova Polina

A separate incentive in the form of a personal exhibition from the representative of the IT company “OBIT” Mikhail Telegin was granted to Tsukan Dmitry.

Сrimean plein air

The Crimean Plein Air is a project for supporting young artists and their teachers in creating beautiful sketches and paintings.

ASF “Kraski Zhizni” sends artists to the south of Russia (Crimea), free of charge, where they get the opportunity to work in the most beautiful places on the peninsula. 

The exhibition “Crimean Plein Air” has absorbed the works of seven St. Petersburg artists who worked in Crimea in September 2021. The audience saw a variety of creative individuals, jointed by the unity of place, time, and purpose.

Plein air is not just a sketch, it is a separate type of painting, which makes it possible to deeply absorb and live the uniqueness of a place with its landscapes, people, culture, smells and sounds. All of this inspire one to search for something new – shapes and colors, images and lines, angles and techniques. Crimea for many contemporary artists is an amazing and inexhaustible source of inspiration. Its views make you freeze with delight and, of course, you want to capture them on canvases – these are natural expanses, and sea latitudes, graceful reliefs and succulence of colors, and cultural heritage.

The paintings created in the Crimea are endowed with a special atmosphere and energy, southern flavor, and the views are revealed differently, as this place enriches the artist’s color palette – it expands, brightens, ceases to be restrained.

The works of artists are distinguished by an expressive sense of color and form, light and air, dramaturgy of great relationships between forms and color, detachment from all fuss, refinement and color subtlety, a bewitching dance of life, not only bright cheerful coloring, but also lyricism, and firmness of the hand, clarity of form.

Tatiana Bruni. Theatrical graphics.

The exposition of works by Tatyana Georgievna Bruni (1902-2001), a well-known St. Petersburg theater artist, graphic artist and teacher, was presented thanks to the finds, the help of the TsGALI and the support of the ASF. 

She is a representative of a long artistic dynasty: the granddaughter of the architect and painter Yuliy Fedorovich Bruni, the great-granddaughter of the artist Fedor Antonovich Bruni, the author of the murals of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the rector of the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1855 to 1871. In the 1920s, Tatiana Bruni became one of the artists of the “Young Ballet”, created by George Balanchivadze (George Balanchine). In addition to ballet, Tatyana Georgievna worked in opera and drama theater. During her creative life, the artist designed more than 200 performances for theaters in Leningrad, Moscow, Kyiv, Sverdlovsk, Yaroslavl, Perm, and Saratov.

Awarding exhibition “Discovering new names – 2021”

“Discovering new names” is an annual exhibition project that brings together young professional artists.

The purpose of the Competition is to increase interest in the fine arts and to support artists.

Objectives:

  • Promoting the development of Art
  • Identifying active and talented artists
  • Realizing the creative potential in the artistic environment

As part of the Competition, the Fund establishes awards from 20,000 up to 100,000 rubles. The winner is also awarded a personal exhibition for 10 days.

Theme 2021: About the new reality and digitalization, creativity in self-isolation and life after it. 

For the first time, the participants were offered a topic. A total of 47 ironic, philosophical paintings with “signs of the times” were demonstarted. The exhibition is attended by 36 Russian artists from St. Petersburg, Moscow and Vladivostok. 

The competition commission especially noted the works of Maxim Korolkov, Ksenia Istomina and Varvara Zankovich. 

  • Maxim Korolkov received a grant in the amount of 50 thousand rubles and the opportunity to hold a personal exhibition for a period of 10 days;
  • Ksenia Istomina was awarded a grant of 30 thousand rubles; 
  • Varvara Zankovich was awarded a grant of 20 thousand rubles. 

Artists Denis Kuksov and Artem Tikhonov received a special award from an art patron Yekaterina Volkova.