The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents for the first time in Russia an extensive solo exhibition of Jacques Lipchitz, a major personality in the 20th century sculpture, a foremost figure in the School of Paris, a close friend of Amedeo Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine and Pablo Picasso. The project is a part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the Israel State foundation.

The exhibition at the MMOMA will introduce the Moscow public to the art of one of the most significant sculptors of the 20th century. Besides, it will be a historic event for the world art scene, and rightfully so, as Lipchitz, a Franco-American artist of Jewish origin, was born in the Russian Empire, and now an extensive display of his works will be open in Russia for the first time ever.

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina

The project ‘Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973). A Retrospective’ is a progressive immersion into the creation of the artist whose oeuvre is intrinsically connected with the crucial events of the 20th century that overturned the very course of the world history. Progressing through the display, the viewer witnesses the changes in the style of Lipchitz’s works, as he/she ‘lives through’ the epoch. The artist’s manner evolves from naturalistic traditions to Cubism, and then to a less formalised style of his urban sculptures, which dwell on the complex mixture of mythological and religious motifs.

The Cubist traditions are coherently expressed in Lipchitz’s artworks. If he developed the basics of Cubist sculptural vocabulary at the beginning of his artistic career, later on the artist used these practices to create his unique plastic style, his music of space. Over 100 works displayed at the MMOMA, including sculptures, drawings in Indian ink, crayons and pencil, form a meditation on the existential expression of the 20th century sculpture, its place in the present-day culture and the milieu where the artist formed over the period of his career. Geometric studies and sketches, commissioned artworks, and Cubist sculptures go together with works on paper, including drawings of independent design. The dynamical rhythm of the display is supplied not only by Lipchitz’s artwork but as well by the fragments from his diaries, photos and objects.

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina

PHOTOS BY Polina Poludkina