Tretyakov Gallery opens a new exhibition season with a large thematic project. «Precious Framing. Painting and its Frame. Dialogues» will introduce various aspects of the interaction between a painting and its frame throughout several centuries — from the 13th to the 21st. It is important that the history review of the picture frame includes recent art trends — this is the first national study of the topic covering the 20th and the early 21st centuries.
The exhibition will present the stylistic evolution of the frame as a piece of applied and decorative art and also present the principles of interaction between an artwork and its frame, including the meaning of frame as a border of an artwork and the role the frame decoration plays as a commentary to an artwork.
The exhibition will show some 150 pieces of art from the funds of Tretyakov Gallery, Historical Museum and several private collections. In addition to monumental paintings in framings, and frames exhibited separately, visitors will see masterpieces of applied and decorative art of minor genres — carved ivory icons and elegant photo frames by Carl Fabergé. This material has long waited for a special research and demonstration. Some frames were created after sketches of the painters themselves.
The exhibition location in the space of the Museum will become its unique feature. The main part of the exposition will be situated on two floors of the Engineering Building. There you will see icon framings, icon-cases, icon-settings, as well as different types of frames of the 18th and 19th centuries, and transformations and metamorphoses of boundaries of a piece of art in general in the 20th century
The educational program will include lectures, meetings with specialists and interactive classes for children, and a quiz that will be open for all visitors. The exhibition program includes the demonstration of a cartoon by F.S.Khitruk «A Man in a Frame»(1966), as well as films, specially prepared for the exhibition about the technology of frame restoration and about the ‘dialogue’ between artworks and framings with the examples from the collections of Tretyakov Gallery.
The exhibition will last until November 30.
