Porcelain, ceramics and Pushkin's Moscow. A guide to September exhibitions

The Ostankino and Kuskovo Museum-Reserve invites everyone to its ceramics exhibition, as Pushkin Museum will present tea traditions, and the Museum of Tropinin and Moscow Artists of His Time will display a sketch that eventually turned into the famous robe portrait of Alexander Pushkin.  Read here on mos.ru to learn about these and other exhibitions to start in Moscow in September.

The Ceramic Kingdom at Ostankino and Kuskovo Museum and Reserve

When: September 4, 2024 — September 7, 2025

Where: 2/7 Yunosti Street

Age rating: 6+

The Ceramic Kingdom will be the debut project in the history of the Ostankino and Kuskovo Museum-Reserve, which unveils the evolution of artistic ceramics during the USSR and post-Soviet era. Visitors will learn how the Soviet ceramics industry emerged and what played a particularly important role in its development. The exhibition will also invite to explore handmade ceramics, a unique phenomenon of Soviet applied art of the 20th century,

with special sections highlighting ceramics traditions in the Baltic republics, Leningrad and Moscow, and the original work of ceramic artists.

Pushkin’s Moscow at Pushkin Museum

When: September 5 – December 31

Where: 12/2 Prechistenka Street

Age rating: 6+

The new Pushkin Museum exhibition will focus on the Moscow of Pushkin’s time, the poet’s home city where he lived as an infant. At the age of 12, he entered the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and had to forget about Moscow for a while. He returned to his hometown in 1826 and lived some very happy years; he married Natalia Goncharova, spent time with numerous friends and shone at social receptions.

Multimedia content will help visitors better understand the atmosphere in the city that Pushkin loved.

High-Five at Kuzminki-Lyublino Museum Reserve

When: September 5, 2024 — January 31, 2025

Where: 1/1 Letnyaya Street

Age rating: 0+

The Durasov Palace invites to see designer and antique teddy bears,  each telling own story; for example, one teddy bear is already 100 years old, another “saw” the 1980 Olympics. The section dedicated to miniature bears features exhibits that are no more than eight centimeters tall. Those who will choose to stop by will gain insight into exclusive patterns that were used to sew teddy bears in the 1940s.

The Fabulous Town at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art

When: September 6 – October 20

Where: 10/2 Gogolevsky Boulevard

Age rating: 18+

The Fabulous Town is a project of contemporary Russian photographers Sergei Borisov and Mikhail Rozanov, who apply two completely different photography approaches.

More than a hundred of their photographs that will be on display are dedicated to Moscow. In his works, which he created over a decade, Mikhail Rozanov has emphasized its architectural beauty, whereas Sergei Borisov, from 1987 to the present, has reflected historical periods and events, capturing people living in the capital.

Together, the artists convey a multifaceted image of Moscow that will give viewers the opportunity to look at it from a fresh perspective.

The Disciples of Roubaud: Masters of Panoramas and Dioramas at the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum

When: September 7 – December 10

Where: 38/1 Kutuzovsky Prospekt

Age rating: 12+

The Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum invites Muscovites and tourists to an exhibition of the art of panoramas and dioramas displaying works by disciples of prominent battle artist Franz Roubaud. In 1890, he created his first panorama, Storming the Aul of Akhulgo, for which he received the title of professor at the Bavarian Academy of Arts. It was followed by Defense of Sevastopol and Borodino; the latter was set in a pavilion that was specially built on Chistye Prudy in 1912. Roubaud also involved his students, who attended his battle class at the Imperial Academy of Arts, in creating panorama paintings.

After the October Revolution, Roubaud's student Mitrofan Grekov proposed opening a bureau of diorama (panorama) teams to create works dedicated to the Civil War. The new government agreed, realizing the role that monumental art could play in propaganda. The Storm of Perekop, which was supposed to consist of a panorama and four dioramas reconstructing the events of the Perekop-Chongar operation (1920), was one the largest projects as the artists were painting sketches and drafts for almost ten years; however, when the Great Patriotic War broke out, they had to stop working. The models, sketches and drafts that were stored in Simferopol were destroyed in 1941.

Tea Stories at Pushkin Museum

When: September 12 – October 13

Where: 12/2 Prechistenka Street

Age rating: 6+

The Garden Pavilion of the Pushkin Museum will offer a display of exhibits related to tea drinking, including tea sets, tea pairs, products from Russian and Western European porcelain factories, 19th-century cookbooks with dessert recipes, etc.

Tea was brought to Russia in the 17th century for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich as a gift. Gradually, tea replaced other drinks that had been popular in Rus', such as spicy brews, sbiten (honey drink), kvass (ancient Russian beer) and berry water, and people especially enjoyed tea with all sorts of treats and always in a pleasant company.

Inside the Falcon’s Nest at Darwin Museum

When: September 14 – December 1

Where: 57 Vavilov Street

Age rating: 6+

The Darwin Museum invites to visit to an exhibition displaying a collection of works by sculptor Alexey Sotnikov whose 120th anniversary is celebrated this year.

A graduate of the ceramics department at the Higher Art and Technical Institute (VKHUTEIN), Sotnikov dedicated his life to porcelain. At the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory that he joined in 1934, he created The Lamb, The Chicken, and The Constitution vessel, which were presented at the World Exhibition in Paris. The artist won a gold medal, and the Dulyovo plant was awarded the Grand Prix and worldwide recognition.

Alexey Sotnikov’s works are about love to his home country. He also created animalistic sculptures and designs of the Taganskaya metro station (Circle Line) and took part in the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958. In 1962, his Falcon became the emblem, logo and brand of the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory.

In addition to Sotnikov’s works, the museum will feature sculptures by his colleagues, including Evgenia Gatilova, Pavel Kozhin, Asta Brzhezitskaya, Nina Malysheva, and Vladimir Yasnetsov.

Winged life. Taking a closer look at the legendary 'Falcon' by Alexei Sotnikov

Pushkin at Tropinin’s at the Museum of Tropinin and Moscow Artists of His Time

When: September 24 – December 22

Where: 10/1 Shchetininsky Pereulok

Age rating: 6+

Alexander Pushkin and Vasily Tropinin met in 1827 in Moscow; Tropinin made a sketch from life in his workshop, which later turned into the famous robe portrait of Alexander Pushkin. The encyclopedic magazine Moscow Telegraph wrote:

“The Russian artist Tropinin recently completed a portrait of Pushkin; wearing a dressing gown, Pushkin is depicted en trois quarts, sitting near a table. The similarity of the portrait to the original is striking, although it seems to us that the artist failed to completely capture the quickness of the gaze and the lively expression on the poet’s face.”

The portrait was painted for Sergei Sobolevsky, a friend of Pushkin’s. When he was leaving for another country, he left it with other friends for safekeeping, but when he returned, he did not find it there. Discovered only in the mid-1850s, today it is kept in the National Pushkin Museum in Saint Petersburg. But the sketch that gave start to the portrait never disappeared as Tropinin kept it all his life. Now it belongs to the same museum.

In September, the sketch and the pencil drawing for the famous portrait will arrive from Saint Petersburg to Moscow for the first time as the Tropinin Museum made them the central exhibits of its exhibition telling the story of Pushkin's portrait.  The poet's robe is indeed more of a symbol, the free clothing of a free man, the meaning that was important in those years for both — for the poet who had returned from exile and for the artist who had received his freedom.