Museums: Exhibition in Moscow marks V.G. Belinsky’s 200th anniversary

April 1, 2011 the State Literary Museum in Moscow launched a jubilee exhibition timed to V.G. Belinsky’s 200th anniversary “The view on Russian literature”.

The exposition revives a modeled picture of Russian literature and represents Belinsky as a central figure of the “remarkable decade”, which brought together Russian intelligentsia, “people of the 40s”.

The exhibition is based on Belinsky’s favorite literary images – characters invented by Pushkin, Griboyedov, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev and Dostoyevsky in illustrations by outstanding artists of 19th – 20th cc.: P. Sokolov, P. Boklevsky, K. Korovin, B. Kustodiyev, N. Karazin, B. Grigoryev, L. Pasternak, N. Kuzmin.

The exposition releases first publications, articles of Belinsky of different years. There is a number of works about the critic himself, as well as graphic portraits of his acquaintances — writers and critics. In addition the exhibition unveils places related to the Belinsky’s biography – Chembar (today Belinsky), Penza, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pyatigorsk, Kharkov, Odessa, Dresden and Paris.

Exhibits include rarities: two portraits of Belinsky – a little-known watercolor by P. Boklevsky and an oil sketch by I. Astafyev, the author of critic’s best portraits. Visitors will have a chance to see a survived thing from the critic’s childhood – the textbook “The guide to mechanics” with an inscription to the gymnasium student Belinsky as he moved to 3rd form. There is a book originating from his library with the owner’s inscription, Lermontov’s poem “From beneath a mysterious and ice-cold half-mask”, rewritten by Belinsky, letters addressed to kith and kin, and family photographs.

The exhibition which kicked off at the State Literary Museum is just a beginning, a part of a multifaceted anniversary program. It will be then followed by conferences at the Gorky Institute of World Literature and Moscow State University, series of meetings and evenings dedicated to contemporary criticism and literature.