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Nationalmuseum Opens The Peredvizhniki – Pioneers of Russian Painting

The Nationalmuseum in Sweden presents The Peredvizhniki – Pioneers of Russian Painting an exhibition on view 29 September 2011–22 January 2012.


Ilya Repin, Barge-haulers on the Volga, 1870-73 Oil on canvas State Russian Museum © 2011, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The Peredvizhniki were a group of artists who came together in 1870 in protest at the conservative attitudes of Russia’s Imperial Academy of Art. The group aimed to portray contemporary Russian society, and to use art to highlight social and political issues. They organized travelling exhibitions to take art to the people and beyond the cities of St Petersburg and Moscow. Works by the Peredvizhniki have enjoyed huge popularity in Russia since the late 19th century but are little known in the rest of the world.

This autumn’s exhibition at Nationalmuseum is the first of its kind in Sweden. Thanks to the generosity of the Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, and the Russian Museum, St Petersburg, in providing us with works on loan, we are able to present a comprehensive survey of the group’s art.

The exhibition has been curated by Professor David Jackson, University of Leeds, a leading specialist in the field of nineteenth century Russian art, and by Dr Per Hedstrom, curator at the Nationalmuseum.

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