The project will allow tracing the evolution of Mashkov’s artwork – from radical experiments of Jack of Diamonds to later works of socialist realism, which still arouse heated discussions. Some critics consider them pictorial masterpieces equal to the art of old masters; others see them as banality and kitsch. The exposition will reveal the artist’s method on different stages from the late 1910s until the early 1940s and will provide an opportunity of understanding key tendencies in the Russian art development – from avantgarde to socialist realism.

The core of the exposition will be Mashkov’s works from 26 state museums as well as from private collections. The exposition is arranged as the comparison of works belonging to different genres and periods. The artist repeatedly returned to the same themes reconsidering those with an interval of five-ten years. Mashkov developed his pictorial perception on the basis of Paul Cezanne’s method and believed that this would enable him to enter classical tradition and start a new epoch of Renaissance in the modern age.

An illustrated catalog will be compiled for the exhibition; it will for the first time show photos and designs from Ilya Mashkov’s archives part of which is held by the Tretyakov Gallery’s manuscript department. Apart from the comparative analysis of pictorial works, this edition contains curator comments accompanied by drawings and archive materials as well as a publication of technological research outcomes.