Landscape and the Arts in Imperial Russia

http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2004/landscape.html

9 - 11 September 2004
CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX

Conference supported by The British Academy

CRASSH (University of Cambridge)

The National Gallery

Convener:
Rosalind Polly Blakesley (University of Cambridge)
David Jackson (University of Leeds)

This conference will accompany the major exhibition of Russian landscape
painting at the National Gallery in London in 2004, the first major show if
its kind in the West. Encouraging interventions from social, political,
literary and philosophical thought, it will enable scholars from various
disciplines to expose, question and debate the complex and challenging
contribution which landscape has made to the Russian arts.

The landscape of Imperial Russia has long been a potent site of individual
and collective aspiration in shaping a national identity. Its celebration in
folklore, song and literature as symbol and metaphor for patriotic sentiment
and loyalist pride has been the subject of considerable research. In
contrast, its production and dissemination within the visual arts has been
largely unexplored. The exhibition at the National Gallery provides a timely
opportunity to redress this balance by examining different readings and
expressions of landscape in Imperial Russian culture.
Landscape has been assigned a variety of roles in the Russian arts: it has
carried the burden of representation, it has been promoted as a vehicle for
liberal-reformist aspiration, and it has been appropriated as an emblem of
conservative Slavophilia, to mention just three. At the same time the genre
has been a space of progressive stylistic experimentation; it has served as
the fulcrum for contentious debate concerning the worthiness of indigenous
subject matter, and the authenticity of the encounter with the "native"; and
it has been both a forum for national assertiveness, and a testing ground
for academic and progressive trends in Western European art. By focusing
exclusively on landscape or by taking it as a point of departure, this
conference aims to explore these and other ideas, shedding light on the many
ways in which representations of the land reflected and shaped intellectual
preoccupations which ranged from theocratic, aristocratic and democratic
interests to artistic and aesthetic debates.
The conference will begin in Cambridge, with the opening remarks and first
panel on Thursday 9 September 2004, followed by four panels, a drinks
reception and the conference dinner on Friday 10 September. On Saturday 11
September delegates will travel by bus to London, to view the exhibition and
attend the final panel in the National Gallery. The conference will conclude
with a drinks reception at 6pm.



Programme:
Please note this programme is provisional and subject to change.
9 September
13.15-13.45Registration & Coffee
13.45-14.00Opening Remarks
14.00-16.00Session One

The Landscape of Childhood
Professor Wendy Salmond, Chapman University

The Serf in the Landscape: Aleksandr Vershinin
Dr Karen L. Kettering, Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C.

Landscape in the Late Russian Icon
Dr Oleg Tarasov
16.00-16.30Tea
16.30-18.30Session Two

In Search of Ideal Beauty and the Beauty of a National Ideal
Dr Galina Andreeva, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Landscape at Abramtsevo
Dr Ella Paston, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Landscape beyond the Horizon. A Russian-Canadian Virtual Exhibition Natalia
Tostaia, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
19.30Cafeteria dinner
Pembroke College
10 September
8.30-9.15Breakfast
9.30-11.00Session Three

Landscape in Dostoevsky and Balzac: The Peasants and Notes from the House of
the Dead
Professor Tatyana Buzina, Russian State University for the Humanities,
Moscow

Chekhov, Levitan, Rachmaninov and the Lyricism of the Russian Landscape
Dr Rosamund Bartlett, University of Durham
11.00-11.30Coffee
11.30-13.00Session Four

Making Space Below the Fold: The Urban Landscape in the Reform-Era Russian
Feuilleton
Dr Christopher Ely, Wilkes Honors College, Jupiter, Florida

Townscape in Russian Futurist Art
Dr Ekaterina Vyazova, Russian State Institute for Studies in Art History,
Moscow
13.00-14.30Lunch
14.30-16.00Session Five

The Influence of Foreign Travel on Russian Landscapists in the Mid 19th
Century
Dr Elena Nesterova, Academy of Fine Arts and State Russian Museum, St
Petersburg

The Image of the Caucasus in Russian Landscape Painting in the 2nd Half of
the 19th Century
Dr Ekaterina V. Shilova, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
16.00-16.30Tea
16.30-18.00Session Six

On Nesterov's On the Hills: Russian Landscape and the Feminine in Russian
20th-Century Literature
Ellen Rutten, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Mythical/Mystical Geographies: 'Russia' as Idealized Otherworld in the
Landscapes of Nicholas Roerich
Dr John McCannon, University of Saskatchewan
18.30-19.30Drinks Reception
The Thomas Gray Room, Pembroke College
19.30Conference Dinner
The Old Library, Pembroke College
11 September
8.30-9.00Breakfast
9.30Coach leaves for the National Gallery
11.30-13.00Visit to Russian Landscape in the age of Tolstoy, Sainsbury Wing,
The National Gallery
You will have been provided in advance with a ticket for this exhibition
13.30-14.30Lunch (not provided)
14.30-16.30Session Seven
Large conference room, 1st Floor, Sainsbury Wing

The Natural History of National Identity in Russian Landscape Painting
Professor James West, University of Washington

The Romantic Trend in the Landscapes of Aleksei Savrasov, Fedor Vasiliev and
Arkhip Kuindzhi
Galina Churak, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The Point of Vision: Composition in Russian Landscape Art
Professor Alison Hilton, Georgetown University
16.30-17.45Closing Remarks
The National Gallery, Small conference room, 1st Floor, Sainsbury Wing



Registration
A registration form will be posted here shortly

There are 5 subsidised places for graduate students. If you are interested
please contact the conference convenor Rosalind Polly Blakesley explaining
why you wish to attend. The bursaries will be allocated on a first come,
first served basis.

For further details about this conference, please contact
[log in to unmask]