Date: 04.10.2018
On 4 October, the exhibition was opened ‘Alexander Fomin. Portrait of the Background of the Library’, which became a vivid illustration of the first day of the conference ‘The Theatre Book between the Past and the Future’, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the Russian State Art Library (RSAL).
At the opening of the exhibition, RSAL Director Ada Kolganova noted how important the figure of Alexander Fomin is for current employees of RSAL, as the vast sphere of his interests that became the basis of the rich collections of RSAL. Also mentioned was the unique systematisation system that Fomin developed, which had no analogue anywhere in the world in the early 20th century.
Tatyana Mordkovich, specialist of the Centre for Visual Information at RSAL, discussed in detail the documents presented at the exhibition, among them the photographs of Alexander Fomin, who was a Red Cross employee during the First World War, and the Turgenev archive brought by Fomin to Russia from Paris.
The majority of the exhibition was devoted to the creation of RSAL, how it grew out of the Maly Theatre. The exhibition featured rare documents, including those about the structure of the library, its first charter, a book of donations, and materials donated by Alexander Fomin.
