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22 Jan 2014, 15:39

Four days left to see Dutch magic realism exhibition in Moscow

Almost 40,000 art lovers have seen Dutch magic realism of 20th-21st centuries in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts since the exhibition opened on November 12 - museum's press office

MOSCOW, January 22. /ITAR-TAS/. Almost 40,000 art lovers have seen Dutch magic realism of 20th-21st centuries in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts since the exhibition opened on November 12, the museum’s press office told Itar-Tass onWednesday.

According to the organizers, about forty pieces presenting “another world of art” with tradition and innovation entwined will be available in the Gallery of 19th and 20th-Century European and American Art till January 26.

Magic realism is among the most remarkable things in the 20th century’s Dutch art and is not present in Russian collections, the organizers say. The main idea behind the style is that artists depicted the real world’s objects with a photographic accuracy but placed them in an improbable, unreal situation, head curator Sanne ten Brink told Itar-Tass. To distance themselves from the standard perception of the world, masters turned their attention to the 17th century’s painting techniques. The artworks are painted in subdued colors and are not expressive. The link to the 17th century’s tradition could be tracked in the way the artists paint textiles, in the palette they use and the way they accommodated the light, Brink added. These masters felt the artistic influence of Rembrandt, Jan van Eyck, Hans Holbein.

Masterpieces on display

One of the famous artists whose works are on display is Pyke Koch (1901-1991) whose paintings are distinguished by a combination of dim light and melancholy. The master lived in Florence for years and was inspired by Italian and Flemish Renaissance that encouraged him to apply the sfumato technique that helps soften the outlines of people and objects making the air enveloping them noticeable, which is especially characteristic of The Harvest.

Johan Abeling used the same technique in his House located in North Holland’s valleys permeated with mystique.

The exhibition also features detailed and precise portraits of Iolanta and Dolly Spat by Edgar Fernhout (1912-1974) painted against a schematic backdrop.

Another artist, Jan van Tongeren, was inspired by the impressionist tradition with his works full of praise for simple things. Colour and arrangement are of importance in his Still Life with a Chinese Teapot and Still Life with a White Pot.

The display also gives a closer look at masterpieces by Karel Willink, Dick Ket, Wim Schuhmacher.

The new type of realism developed in the 1930s when artists focused on the imaginary reality. The new style became described as new objectivity in Germany, metaphysical art in Italy, surrealism in France. Contemporary Dutch artists practicing magic realism, among them Philip Akkerman and Barend Blankert, are inspired by pop art, neo-expressionism and photorealism.