Chagall Kandinsky Malevic

Masters of the Russian Avant-garde

On exhibition at Villa Olmo there are eighty works that include oils, works of tempera and drawings from the finest Russian museums and collections that take us through the great Russian avant-garde movement from the early twentieth century through to the start of the thirties. The masterpieces on show are a selection from Vassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevič and Pavel Filonov. 
The exhibition opens with the works of Chagall from the early Russian period, that express his emotions for and his close ties to his home town of Vitebsk. The works include the masterpiece Lovers in blue of 1914, The Red Jew and The Mirror, both of 1915. 
His works are followed by those of Kandinsky, with paintings from a ten year period that bear the mark of the thinking in “The Spiritual in Art”, published in 1910. 

The narrative heart of the exhibition is embodied in the 20 masterpieces of Malevic, that embrace the whole expressive range of the master from the post-impressionist period through to his cubist and futurist work with the Cow and Violin of 1913, and on to his Suprematist period, the celebrated Red Square of 1915 and then his subsequent return to figurative painting. The tour through the exhibition culminates for the first time in Italy with the powerful imaginary world of the turbulent spirit that was Pavel Filonov, master of analytic art, with the Feast of Kings of 1913 standing out, as well as the Two Heads of 1925 (sailors of the sea of Azov).