CSAR Centro Studi sull'Arte Russa

Gely Korzhev. Back To Venice is an exhibition curated by Giuseppe Barbieri, Silvia Burini, Nadezhda Stepanova and Faina Balakhovskaya held from 10.05.2019 to 3.11.2019 at the exhibition spaces of Ca' Foscari University Venice.

The exhibition collects paintings from the Tret'jakov State Gallery in Moscow and the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg that trace the artistic activity of Gelij Koržev (1925-2012), one of the most important Soviet artists of the second half of the 20th century and representative of the 'severe style'. His artistic language was strongly influenced by the European cinema of the 60s and 70s: this can be seen in the close-ups of the characters captured during their daily life and in the unusual perspectives - in fact, cinematographic.

The protagonists of Koržev's works bear the tangible signs of pain, suffering, the trauma of war. The painted bodies are wounded, mutilated, even monstrous bodies and demonstrate the artist's desire to overcome the representation of a glossy reality.

The exhibition, as the title shows, was also an opportunity to bring back to Venice the artist's paintings that had been exhibited at the XXI International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia (1962). Archival materials were edited in a video by the Milanese studio camerAnebbia to build a journey through time and space at that time, in the pavilion of Soviet Russia.