Russian artist with a Japanese soul
An exhibition dedicated to the 125th anniversary of an outstanding avant-garde artist who is responsible for the Russian translation of the famous "The Manifesto of Futurists" has opened at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
The name of Vervara Bubnova is, in the first place, associated with Russian avant-garde. Her art was displayed alongside the works of Kazimir Malevich, David Burlyuk, Natalia Goncharova. However, her own story deserves quite a few words.
Born into a family of a "philosopher and a dreamer", she was destined to be creative. And so she was. From around 1910 she became an active supporter of new expressive methods of art. Aged 36, the artist left Russia for Japan and lived there with her mother and sister violinist Anna Bubnova-Ono who married a Japanese man and whose niece artist, singer and culture activist Yoko Ono later became the wife of John Lennon.
Varvara Bubnova planned to leave Russia for a couple of years, however, Japan soon sucked her in and she stayed for 36 years, during which she actively participated in art and cultural life. The artist lived a long and full life until she passed away at the age of 96 and left dozens of followers both in Russia and Japan.
After almost 40 years in Japan, Bubnova scored herself the title of one of the country`s best lithographers for her works inspired by Japanese ink made in her own easily recognizable manner.
At an exhibition of black-and-white and color lithographic and later watercolor works of the artist from collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts are now brought to light again.
Early works of the artist are a rarity today, as most of them were burned together with the artist`s house during an air strike in 1945 in Tokyo. However, some still can be found at the display. Most parts of the works on show were created between the 1940s-1970s covering the middle Japanese and late Soviet periods of Varvara Bubnova`s creativity. A total of some 70 works have entered the present exhibition.
The display will be on through July 3.
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