HERMITAGE 20/21 PROJECT
ANTONY GORMLEY
NEW SCULPTURES / OPENING 22ND SEPTEMBER 2011
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| Antony Gormley, the great British sculptor, returns to the Hermitage in September 2011 with a full scale exhibition of 18 new works - after making his debut with a single figure, ‘Clasp’ (pictured), in 2010. Gormley is famous for his human figures based on his own body; these will again be of human proportions but suggested by a series of almost cubist planes. They will again be shown among the classical Greek and Roman sculptures for which the Hermitage is famous. Gormley is anxious to demonstrate that classical marbles, his own sculptures and the living human visitors inhabit the same space and can converse with each other. In order to do this a false floor will be installed in the Dionysus Hall at the level of the plinths. The visitor will thus meet the sculptures at his own eye level. The Dionysus Hall contains the greatest Greek sculptures of the museum and notable Roman copies of Greek originals. The next gallery, the Roman Yard, will be entirely devoted to Gormley’s rusted iron figures, analysed into cubist rhythms, in various poses. Sponsorship is sought for the exhibition itself and also for new lighting in the Dionysus Hall. |
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At present it has three hanging lamps left over from the 1950s. Sophisticated spotlights are to be installed which will highlight the marbles with a warm light. The technique has already been tried in adjacent halls to wonderful effect.
Opportunities for sponsorship available.
Contact us on info@hermitagefriends.org
HENRY MOORE
SCULPTURES AND SHELTER DRAWINGS / OPENING 6TH MAY 2011
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The first ever exhibition of Henry Moore’s work at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, will open on 6 May 2011 and run for three months. It will be announced by three large sculptures in the Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace. On the thir floor, in galleries parallel to the great Picasso and Matisse displays, over 70 of his drawings will be shown, together with 6 small sculptures. The drawings will all be from the wartime period, mostly the so-called ‘Shelter’ series, sketches made in the unde ground when it was used as a bomb shelter during the war - brilliantly evocative of placid acceptance at a terrifying time.The exhibition is timed to open for Victory Day, celebrated in Russia on 9 May, in remembrance of the Second World War. This year will be the 70th anniversary of the ‘Siege of Leningrad’ which lasted for 900 days and saw almost one third of the population die of starvation. |
In the first winter the basement of the Hermitage was also used as a shelter; 2,000 people lived there, mainly drawn from the arts sector. A young architect, Mikhail Nikolsky, sketched their subterranean life. A cabinet of his drawings will be shown alongside Moore’s.
Exhibition in partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation and co-curated by the Foundation’s
Head of Collections and Exhibitions Anita Feldman.