"Lydia Masterkova. An Enriched Retrospective"

The first retrospective exhibition in Russia of the nonconformist artist Lydia Masterkova (1927–2008) will bring together around 150 paintings and works on paper from private and museum collections in Russia and France. 

Lydia Masterkova was among the first female artists to turn to abstract art after 1953. This is the first exhibition at Garage that is almost entirely devoted to abstraction, although it will feature some figurative works. Masterkova’s retrospective will be contextually enriched with other visions of abstract art. 

Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig (b. 1958) will show works that demonstrate the alternative reality of the situation in Central Europe as opposed to the Soviet Union. There, after a short period of persecution in Nazi Germany and Austria, abstract art was completely rehabilitated and became an object of profound research, conceptual polemics, and jests. Zobernig’s tactile canvases exist somewhere between a joke and a conceptual rethinking of the relationship between the viewer and the artwork.

The exhibition is divided into eight parts. Five cover the evolution of Masterkova’s creative method. "Thicket" features her early studies from nature and first experiments in abstraction that bring to mind Mikhail Matiushin’s “organic culture” and his concept of “seeing-and-knowing” (Zorved). "Lacunae" explores the work of Efrosinya Ermilova-Platova, who Masterkova met before turning to abstraction. "Ruptures" presents the beginning of Masterkova’s mature period, when her focus shifted from vegetal form to textures and spatial plans within the painting. "Gold" looks at the short period when Masterkova made trips to abandoned churches, where she collected fragments of church attire to include in her collage paintings. In "Spheres and Numbers", the key themes of the mature painter find their final shape, and the cosmic sequence of numbers, rhythmic patterns, and circles becomes the main compositional principle. "Macrocosm" consists of works that Masterkova made after her emigration to Europe in 1975, a more precise and minimalist version of her earlier structures.

Separate galleries are given over to the "Rembrandt Series" by Eva Levina-Rozengolts, in which the artist revisits the humanitarian disasters of the Great Purge and the war, and three works by Heimo Zobernig, produced for the exhibition. 

Zobernig also created the architectural concept. As the visitor progresses through the galleries, the walls lose their color and textural intensity. The first galleries feature elements of set design from several theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg and toward the end the space is cleared of color. This gradient reflects the internal and external transformation of Masterkova’s art: from apartment exhibitions and close interactions with the environment to the strict autonomy of the white cube gallery and museum spaces.

CURATORS: VALENTIN DIACONOV AND SASHA OBUKHOVA

As part of the exhibition dedicated to the development of  abstraction by the Russian artist Lydia Masterkova, Heimo Zobernig  was invited to create an architectural situation and a dialogue  between the Russian and Western branches of abstraction. The exhibition will feature new works by the artist from theatrical  platforms and blankets based on the "Chess painting" series, with  which the visitor will be able to interact, gaining a tactile experience.  As a spatial solution, according to Zobernig's idea, the architecture  of the exhibition will be assembled from the theatrical scenery found.

Heimo Zobernig work and the architectural concept of the exhibition "Lydia Masterkova. An Enriched Retrospective" in Garage Museum

Since 1997 the Cultural Department of the City of Graz is awarding the literary scholarship "Grazer Stadtschreiber:in" on the basis of a city council resolution.

In the sense of a literary - cultural exchange as well as the very consciously promoted contact with the Graz literary scene, the city of Graz provides the scholarship holder/scholarship holder:in with an apartment in the Cerrini-Schlössl on the Schlossberg in Graz free of charge from September, 2022 to August, 2023 as part of this annual stay.

Deadline: 31.3.2022

The call for applications "Grazer Stadtschreiber:in" is only open to writers (prose, poetry, theater)!
All papers have to be sent as PDF! Other formats will not be accepted!

For further information please see: http://www.kultur.graz.at/kulturamt/33
The following links lead to the application guidelines in German and English.
http://www.kultur.graz.at/pdfs/richtlinie_stadtschreiber_2022.pdf
http://www.kultur.graz.at/pdfs/guidelines_stadtschreiber_2021.pdf


For your questions please contact:
Konrad Stachl
Cultural Office of the City of Graz
Stigergasse 2 (Mariahilfer Platz), 2nd floor, A-8020 Graz
Phone: +43/316/872-4924
fax: +43/316/872-4909
e-mail:konrad.stachl@stadt.graz.at

Open Call for applications for the LITERATURE SCHOLARSHIP "Grazer Stadtschreiber:in"

The coronavirus pandemic turned the museum world upside down. During the strict lockdowns, galleries and museums closed for months, and the only way to stay connected to their audiences was to launch online projects. Although museums have returned to their usual routine, albeit with limitations, digital products are not going anywhere. In fact, they are gaining momentum with each passing day.

Strelka Mag and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow spoke with the directors and representatives of eight museums—four in Moscow and four in Vienna—to learn how they are handling these challenges and why people should still go to museums, even in the digital age.

STRELKA MAG
Belvedere Museum
Albertina Museum
Leopold Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM)
Pushkin States Museum of Fine Arts
State Tretyakov Gallery
Multimedia Art Museum Moscow
Moscow Museum of Modern Art

Digital Museum. Museums during lockdown in Moscow and Vienna

Heimo Zobernig work and the architectural concept of the exhibition “Lydia Masterkova. An Enriched Retrospective” in Garage Museum

Open Call for applications for the LITERATURE SCHOLARSHIP “Grazer Stadtschreiber: in”

Digital Museum. Museums during lockdown in Moscow and Vienna

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