Gagarin flight-dedicated art exhibition to run until Apr 26

MOSCOW, April 6 (Itar-Tass) - An art exhibition dedicated to the 50th
anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first-ever space flight opened at the Leonid
Shishkin Gallery here on Neglinnaya Street on Tuesday night.
The exhibition on the theme of "One Week Prior to the (Gagarin)
Flight" features works by artists of various periods, styles and trends.
"The exhibition is notable for the selection of painters and diversity of
works. This is precisely why the display demostrates sort of transition
from the Soviet-era country to the present-day Russia," Anastasia
Shishkin, director of the gallery, has told Itar-Tass. On view in several
small halls of the gallery are works by both Soviet artists and
contemporary ones, and even pictures painted in 2011.
Visitors can see paintings and drawings by Boris Smirnov-Rusetsky, a
representative of the Amaravella -- a artistic society existing in the
1920s. His canvases resemble photo pictures taken by a telescope.
Genuine interest is also aroused by the works of Alexander Labas, a
retrospective exhibition of whose pictures is currently held at the
Tretyakov Gallery. Particularly high pointing are a picture showing the
artist at work in his studio, or a portrait of the second-ever woman
cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya who is portrayed as a heavenly muse.
On display are also works by venerable Socialist realism artists
Alexander Silin, Nikolai Ovchinnikov, and Boris Okorokov. The etudes (to
the pictures "Wedding of Cosmonauts" and "Explorers of Outer Space") by
the latter two artists show Valentina Tereshkova and Andriyan Nikolayev.
Soviet unofficial, as well as contemporary arts are represented by
works by Konstantin Batynkov, keen on aeroplanes and airships, Vladislav
Yefimov, who works with the theme of science from metaphysical point of
view, and Sergei Shutov. The latter artist, who is often referred to as a
'psychodelic cosmist", pressnted the picture "Boy and Planet" dated 1993.
The picture aptly illustrates the novel "The Little Prince" by
Saint-Exupery.
"The language that we, the present-day artists, speak has grown on the
basis of the language spoken by Soviet artists," pointed out woman artist
Marina Zvyagintseva. She displays an installation "Planet Solaris", made
from paper and embued with the colours of "sapient ocean".
The small section Memorabilia features real photos taken from space,
collection photos and documents, boosk and even a rarity -- a red arm-band
indicative of permission to enter the space launch bunker -- with
signatures of Gagarin and Sergei Korolyov. The arm-band belonged to Mark
Gallai, test pilot and the instructor of the very first cosmonauts. The
present exhibition is also dedicated to Gallai's memory.
The exhibition "One Week Prior to the Flight" will run in Moscow until
April 26.