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| A Bridge from Moscow to Paris: 130 Works of Modern Art | A Bridge from Moscow to Paris: 130 Works of Modern Art |
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| PARIS — Some cities mark time by natural events — the year of the earthquake, the flood, the tsunami, the hurricane. But Parisians, being Parisian, tend to tell time by landmark exhibitions: “Paris-Moscow 1900-1930” at the Pompidou Center in 1979, the Cézanne retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1995, Dada at the Pompidou in 2005. | PARIS — Some cities mark time by natural events — the year of the earthquake, the flood, the tsunami, the hurricane. But Parisians, being Parisian, tend to tell time by landmark exhibitions: “Paris-Moscow 1900-1930” at the Pompidou Center in 1979, the Cézanne retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1995, Dada at the Pompidou in 2005. |
| This fall, “Icons of Modern Art” at the Louis Vuitton Foundation may be the show that takes Paris by storm. No fewer than 130 paintings by Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and Derain, among many others, from the collection of the renowned Russian cultural figure Sergei Shchukin will hang on the walls of this museum by Frank Gehry (itself designed like a building painted by Picasso). President François Hollande of France and President Vladimir Putin of Russia will open this exhibition in mid-October in a display of diplomatic handshaking: Culture remains a bridge connecting two countries that have not recently seen eye to eye. | This fall, “Icons of Modern Art” at the Louis Vuitton Foundation may be the show that takes Paris by storm. No fewer than 130 paintings by Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and Derain, among many others, from the collection of the renowned Russian cultural figure Sergei Shchukin will hang on the walls of this museum by Frank Gehry (itself designed like a building painted by Picasso). President François Hollande of France and President Vladimir Putin of Russia will open this exhibition in mid-October in a display of diplomatic handshaking: Culture remains a bridge connecting two countries that have not recently seen eye to eye. |
| Shchukin crossed the Paris-Moscow bridge many times before, driven by a personal passion that became a cultural mission. A textile heir and magnate, he amassed his collection of 275 works from the late 1890s until the outbreak of World War I, a period when Paris incandesced as the world capital of artistic insurgency. His collection progresses through Impressionist, post-Impressionist and Modern art, displayed at the foundation in rooms designed to evoke the way Shchukin organized his masterworks in his Trubetskoy Palace. Many state institutions and several museums — the Hermitage and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin and Tretyakov in Moscow, each an ocean liner of bureaucracy — proved surprisingly nimble in putting together this expansive show once it got its go-ahead in 2014. | Shchukin crossed the Paris-Moscow bridge many times before, driven by a personal passion that became a cultural mission. A textile heir and magnate, he amassed his collection of 275 works from the late 1890s until the outbreak of World War I, a period when Paris incandesced as the world capital of artistic insurgency. His collection progresses through Impressionist, post-Impressionist and Modern art, displayed at the foundation in rooms designed to evoke the way Shchukin organized his masterworks in his Trubetskoy Palace. Many state institutions and several museums — the Hermitage and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin and Tretyakov in Moscow, each an ocean liner of bureaucracy — proved surprisingly nimble in putting together this expansive show once it got its go-ahead in 2014. |
| “The Shchukin is easily the most important collection of early 20th-century Modern art in Russia, and certainly one of the most important in the world,” said Anne Umland, a senior curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “It’s an unparalleled and not-to-be-missed opportunity to see this group of work brought back together.” | “The Shchukin is easily the most important collection of early 20th-century Modern art in Russia, and certainly one of the most important in the world,” said Anne Umland, a senior curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “It’s an unparalleled and not-to-be-missed opportunity to see this group of work brought back together.” |
| The exhibition includes 30 progeny paintings by Russian avant-garde artists who studied the collection and produced similar work, or took steps beyond. These include Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Kliun and Vladimir Tatlin, who invented worlds of pure abstraction beyond the still-representational work of Matisse and Picasso. | The exhibition includes 30 progeny paintings by Russian avant-garde artists who studied the collection and produced similar work, or took steps beyond. These include Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Kliun and Vladimir Tatlin, who invented worlds of pure abstraction beyond the still-representational work of Matisse and Picasso. |
| But the foundation show really belongs to Shchukin, and not just as a sentimental tribute to a cultural figure only recently emerging from repressive Soviet fogs. | But the foundation show really belongs to Shchukin, and not just as a sentimental tribute to a cultural figure only recently emerging from repressive Soviet fogs. |
| “Icons of Modern Art” makes the case that Shchukin himself was an artist, that his collection was his masterpiece. He painted with paintings, lining his neo-Classical Trubetskoy Palace, creating environments of color and energy. | “Icons of Modern Art” makes the case that Shchukin himself was an artist, that his collection was his masterpiece. He painted with paintings, lining his neo-Classical Trubetskoy Palace, creating environments of color and energy. |
| “It’s on the brink of psychology, involving very deep feelings,” said Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage. “It was also a period of Russian history when icons were being cleaned in what was a revelation of bright and beautiful colors. He was in the textile business,” he added. “As a businessman, he dealt successfully in what we now call futures, and he knew what would be important in two years. He had an intuition in every step of his life.” | “It’s on the brink of psychology, involving very deep feelings,” said Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage. “It was also a period of Russian history when icons were being cleaned in what was a revelation of bright and beautiful colors. He was in the textile business,” he added. “As a businessman, he dealt successfully in what we now call futures, and he knew what would be important in two years. He had an intuition in every step of his life.” |
| The idea of a major show in the West honoring Shchukin, who died in 1936, was informally incubated by his 74-year-old grandson, André-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, who lives in Paris; Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud’s wife, Christine; and Shchukin’s biographer, Natalya Semenova. Mr. Piotrovsky gave his “da” in a 2012 meeting that Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud clocked in at seven minutes. Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud remembers him saying, “Don’t try to convince me, we’ll lose time, let’s start work.” He lent the pictures without a fee. | The idea of a major show in the West honoring Shchukin, who died in 1936, was informally incubated by his 74-year-old grandson, André-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, who lives in Paris; Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud’s wife, Christine; and Shchukin’s biographer, Natalya Semenova. Mr. Piotrovsky gave his “da” in a 2012 meeting that Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud clocked in at seven minutes. Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud remembers him saying, “Don’t try to convince me, we’ll lose time, let’s start work.” He lent the pictures without a fee. |
| Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of the luxury firm LVMH and founder of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, felt a personal resonance: Two businessmen, a century apart, brought contemporary art to the public in their private museums. Mr. Arnault tasked Jean-Paul Claverie, his cultural adviser, with negotiating the three-dimensional chessboard of Russian (and French) bureaucracy. “This collection is a national treasure for Russia,” Mr. Claverie said. “So we had to convince everybody, not only at the museums but also ministers at all levels, plus the two presidents.” | Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of the luxury firm LVMH and founder of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, felt a personal resonance: Two businessmen, a century apart, brought contemporary art to the public in their private museums. Mr. Arnault tasked Jean-Paul Claverie, his cultural adviser, with negotiating the three-dimensional chessboard of Russian (and French) bureaucracy. “This collection is a national treasure for Russia,” Mr. Claverie said. “So we had to convince everybody, not only at the museums but also ministers at all levels, plus the two presidents.” |
| Anne Baldassari, until recently the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, agreed to come on board as chief curator of this show. | Anne Baldassari, until recently the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, agreed to come on board as chief curator of this show. |
| Collections, like people, have biographies, and none are more Shakespearean and darkly Russian than the interwoven biographies of Shchukin and his collection. | Collections, like people, have biographies, and none are more Shakespearean and darkly Russian than the interwoven biographies of Shchukin and his collection. |
| Shchukin began collecting seriously in 1898, acquiring mostly Impressionist paintings, then almost a social convention of his class. But his Paris-based brother, Ivan, introduced him there to Cézanne’s paintings and then to Gertrude Stein and her family, collectors who changed his thinking. The Steins introduced him to Matisse, who in turn brought him to Picasso, opening him to art he did not always understand or even like. He eventually bought from the Steins’ collection. | Shchukin began collecting seriously in 1898, acquiring mostly Impressionist paintings, then almost a social convention of his class. But his Paris-based brother, Ivan, introduced him there to Cézanne’s paintings and then to Gertrude Stein and her family, collectors who changed his thinking. The Steins introduced him to Matisse, who in turn brought him to Picasso, opening him to art he did not always understand or even like. He eventually bought from the Steins’ collection. |
| “He bought the best Gauguins in the world, but he had to train himself to love the pictures,” said Marina Loshak, director of the Pushkin Museum, which is lending 65 paintings. | “He bought the best Gauguins in the world, but he had to train himself to love the pictures,” said Marina Loshak, director of the Pushkin Museum, which is lending 65 paintings. |
| Through 1906, Shchukin experienced only success. He was gifted, shrewd and wealthy, a family man with four children, married to a woman he loved. Breaking his Impressionist habit, he bought his first Cézanne in 1903. But then in 1906, his youngest son disappeared, later to be found dead in the Moscow River. His wife died a year later. | Through 1906, Shchukin experienced only success. He was gifted, shrewd and wealthy, a family man with four children, married to a woman he loved. Breaking his Impressionist habit, he bought his first Cézanne in 1903. But then in 1906, his youngest son disappeared, later to be found dead in the Moscow River. His wife died a year later. |
| Despondent, he set off on a camel caravan to a monastery on the Sinai Peninsula on a retreat. “He decides that his place on earth is collecting and comes back completely different,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “He makes bolder moves, collecting Gauguin’s Tahitian paradises and Matisse’s paradises of color, but he also makes a break and starts collecting Picasso.” By 1908, Shchukin also opened his palace to the public gratis, establishing the first museum devoted to contemporary art. But his misfortune continued: Ivan Shchukin committed suicide in 1908, followed in 1910 by the death of a second son, also a suicide. | Despondent, he set off on a camel caravan to a monastery on the Sinai Peninsula on a retreat. “He decides that his place on earth is collecting and comes back completely different,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “He makes bolder moves, collecting Gauguin’s Tahitian paradises and Matisse’s paradises of color, but he also makes a break and starts collecting Picasso.” By 1908, Shchukin also opened his palace to the public gratis, establishing the first museum devoted to contemporary art. But his misfortune continued: Ivan Shchukin committed suicide in 1908, followed in 1910 by the death of a second son, also a suicide. |
| “A profoundly different Shchukin is borne from these tragedies,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “Collecting becomes a sort of cure. His drawing room becomes his orangerie, where he says he can find a little rest, breathing all the beauty on the walls.” Shchukin went on to buy 50 Picassos, kept in a single room. All the paintings in the palace became a teaching collection for the emerging Russian avant-garde thirsting for the visual news coming out of what was then the world’s art capital. | “A profoundly different Shchukin is borne from these tragedies,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “Collecting becomes a sort of cure. His drawing room becomes his orangerie, where he says he can find a little rest, breathing all the beauty on the walls.” Shchukin went on to buy 50 Picassos, kept in a single room. All the paintings in the palace became a teaching collection for the emerging Russian avant-garde thirsting for the visual news coming out of what was then the world’s art capital. |
| But in 1918, Lenin appropriated the paintings and the palace, as the pillar of the newly created State Museum of New Western Art. | But in 1918, Lenin appropriated the paintings and the palace, as the pillar of the newly created State Museum of New Western Art. |
| Shchukin had remarried in 1914, and the birth of a daughter, Irina, gave him a sense of redemption. For him, the war and then the revolution were dislocating but not cataclysmic. The family left Russia, settling into a fashionable quarter of Paris with other Russian émigrés. “He had closed that chapter of his life,” said Ms. Semenova, his biographer. “His new piece of art was his young daughter.” | Shchukin had remarried in 1914, and the birth of a daughter, Irina, gave him a sense of redemption. For him, the war and then the revolution were dislocating but not cataclysmic. The family left Russia, settling into a fashionable quarter of Paris with other Russian émigrés. “He had closed that chapter of his life,” said Ms. Semenova, his biographer. “His new piece of art was his young daughter.” |
| According to Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud, Shchukin had, in any event, planned to bequeath his collection to the public. He acquiesced to Lenin’s confiscation of his art because he felt the new Soviet state would protect it during unpredictable times, as Russia neared civil war; his daughter Ekaterina Keller was appointed the State Museum of New Western Art’s first curator. But in Paris, understanding his work was endangered by a Stalinist turn of events, Shchukin bequeathed the collection to his wife and three surviving children in his last will. | According to Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud, Shchukin had, in any event, planned to bequeath his collection to the public. He acquiesced to Lenin’s confiscation of his art because he felt the new Soviet state would protect it during unpredictable times, as Russia neared civil war; his daughter Ekaterina Keller was appointed the State Museum of New Western Art’s first curator. But in Paris, understanding his work was endangered by a Stalinist turn of events, Shchukin bequeathed the collection to his wife and three surviving children in his last will. |
| Purges against “bourgeois” art started at the end of the 1920s, and the collection lapsed into disfavor, and after ’28, into eclipse — rejected, sequestered, frozen, denigrated. Because Shchukin represented the very image of the bourgeois class enemy, his name was removed from the labels on the walls. During World War II, the State Museum of New Western Art closed and the paintings were sent away for safety, but after they returned in 1944, the museum never reopened. One minister proposed destroying the paintings — suggesting that they were not realist, not socialist, not useful to the state. The final decision was to spare the collection by dividing it evenly, the more conservative half going to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the more extreme works to the Hermitage (where they would be shown to students as object lessons in bourgeois decadence). The paintings languished in obscurity for years until, after Stalin’s death and during Khrushchev’s “thaw,” they gradually emerged. | Purges against “bourgeois” art started at the end of the 1920s, and the collection lapsed into disfavor, and after ’28, into eclipse — rejected, sequestered, frozen, denigrated. Because Shchukin represented the very image of the bourgeois class enemy, his name was removed from the labels on the walls. During World War II, the State Museum of New Western Art closed and the paintings were sent away for safety, but after they returned in 1944, the museum never reopened. One minister proposed destroying the paintings — suggesting that they were not realist, not socialist, not useful to the state. The final decision was to spare the collection by dividing it evenly, the more conservative half going to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the more extreme works to the Hermitage (where they would be shown to students as object lessons in bourgeois decadence). The paintings languished in obscurity for years until, after Stalin’s death and during Khrushchev’s “thaw,” they gradually emerged. |
| “The collection was stolen two times — as a fortune, as an estate, and then it was stolen as memory,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “My grandfather’s name disappeared. He was not only robbed of the collection, his palace and belongings, but he was also erased from history.” | “The collection was stolen two times — as a fortune, as an estate, and then it was stolen as memory,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “My grandfather’s name disappeared. He was not only robbed of the collection, his palace and belongings, but he was also erased from history.” |
| When the paintings re-emerged in the museums and began traveling on loan, earning museum fees, Irina Shchukin contested the confiscation, making financial claims. Later, her son did the same. The family’s challenges, including a threat of seizure, have provoked some harrowing moments for the Hermitage. In his tenure as the Hermitage director, Mr. Piotrovsky has had to retrieve paintings just before the police came to sequester them, hurriedly crating them back to Russia. In several cities — London, Paris, Rome — Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud played Javert to Mr. Piotrovsky’s Valjean. | |
| At the 2012 meeting at the Hermitage, to make the show happen, Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud personally guaranteed that there would be no further threats of seizure from the Shchukin family. According to Mr. Claverie, ministers of the French government had to further guarantee that French laws against seizing art lent by foreign countries would apply to each work from Russia. “With an exhibition at such a level the major part of the injustice is repaired — the memory of Shchukin is back,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “We could not retrieve the collection, but what we could do was bring back his name. We must thank the Russians.” | At the 2012 meeting at the Hermitage, to make the show happen, Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud personally guaranteed that there would be no further threats of seizure from the Shchukin family. According to Mr. Claverie, ministers of the French government had to further guarantee that French laws against seizing art lent by foreign countries would apply to each work from Russia. “With an exhibition at such a level the major part of the injustice is repaired — the memory of Shchukin is back,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “We could not retrieve the collection, but what we could do was bring back his name. We must thank the Russians.” |
| Still, he said, though the Shchukin family agrees the collection must stay in Russian museums, the issue of compensation remains. “We are the victims of the holdup of the century,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “Our duty as a family is never to accept the principle of such dispossession.” | Still, he said, though the Shchukin family agrees the collection must stay in Russian museums, the issue of compensation remains. “We are the victims of the holdup of the century,” Mr. Delocque-Fourcaud said. “Our duty as a family is never to accept the principle of such dispossession.” |
| Though aggrieved, he still marvels at the exhibition and talks about “a special flow of energy passing over the show,” as though the show had a soul. The Hermitage director, Mr. Piotrovsky, agrees. | Though aggrieved, he still marvels at the exhibition and talks about “a special flow of energy passing over the show,” as though the show had a soul. The Hermitage director, Mr. Piotrovsky, agrees. |
| “There’s great satisfaction in knowing that Shchukin is coming back to Paris, as well as the collection,” Mr. Piotrovsky said. “There’s something very special and mystical about the event.” | “There’s great satisfaction in knowing that Shchukin is coming back to Paris, as well as the collection,” Mr. Piotrovsky said. “There’s something very special and mystical about the event.” |
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