Date: 23.09.2014
September, 1st is the 115th anniversary of Andrei Platonov (1899-1951) – the most mysterious, “wrong” writer of the 20th century. Although his works passed unheeded among the brilliant and famous names in literature of that period, it was Platonov whose life so profoundly and truthfully reflected the national life of his country with all that tragedy and painfulness of the Russian people bereaved during the Revolution.
His works -“The Foundation Pit”, “Chevengur”, “The Sea of Youth”, short novels and essays, plays and articles – had been published long after his death. The collection of plays “Noah’s Ark” (2006) accompanied with a remarkable introductory note by Andrei Bitov, the most recent publication, became a real present for the readers and a new key to his major texts, more complicated and profound. Later his full biography written by the famous prose-wrier and historian Aleksey Varlamov had been published in 2011 in the frameworks of the series “Life of Outstanding People” (“ЖЗЛ”). Platonov’s work is also thoroughly studied by the German researcher Hans Günther whose book “On Both Sides of Utopia” (2012) placed special emphasis on Platonov’s position in the world genre of utopia and anti-utopia. Those three publications could be found during the September’s exhibition.
September 20th is the 80th anniversary of the most famous Italian actress, the star of the world cinema - Sophia Loran. One of the most beautiful women of the modern times, person of great talent and wits, she became a muse for the outstanding filmmaker Vittorio De Sica who represented the Italian neorealism. It was De Sica’s film “Two Women” where Sophia Loren starred with the young Belmondo and got her first Oscar together with twenty other awards. Loran won special popularity in the USSR after De Sica’s “Marriage Italian-Style” film where she starred with brilliant Marcello Mastroianni – her favorite film partner and a close family friend.
Vittorio De Sica, Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando, Marcello Mastroianni, Clark Gable, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Paul Newman, Adriano Celentano – all those celebrities worshiped her charm, talent and beauty and were her friends and work partners. The anniversary exhibition could have a name “Sophia Loran and her men” as it involves many memoirs of those men who stood close to the actress during her career. The exhibition includes more than 200 photographs of the famous actress and also her own quotations along with the quotes of her close friends and interesting facts from her biography.
September 21st is the 270th anniversary of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817), one of the three remarkable Italian architects who performed as the major builders of Saint-Petersburg. Giacomo Quarenghi was born in Bergamo in Italy but 38 years of his life were spent in Russia where he had lived and worked. He was invited by Catherine II who shared his passion for the architecture of the Ancient Rome and put a colossal task for him to change the whole style of Saint-Petersburg, the task that he had accomplished with success. His famous works were the English Palace of Peterhof, the building of Collegium of Foreign Affairs, Academy of Sciences, the building of the Assignation Bank, the Hermitage Theater, the Yusupov House, the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens.
However, unlike Petersburg that can be considered as a sort of a museum of Quarenghi’s monumental buildings, his motherland – Italy – keeps the richest collection of his graphic works. The beautifully published catalogue of the exhibition from Italy that took place in Saint-Petersburg “Harmony of Style in Architecture” includes the drawings and sketches by Quarenghi, a brilliant and poetic draughtsman. Our exhibition also presentes a book by Natan Eidelman and Yuri Krelin “The Italian Russia” that had been firstly published in Italy and then decades later published in this country. The chapter “Forward to Ancient” of the book deals with interesting stories and anecdotes from the life of the gifted Italian architect in Russia.
