10, Krymsky Val, halls 21-22
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Petr Miturich (1887-1956) was a perfect sketcher, one of the best russian graphic artists of the XX century

His art developed under the influence of avant-garde artists, poets and musicians but Miturich had never rejected traditional basis of depiction. The artist was surprisingly unreceptive to stylistic clichés in art in 1910-1920s. He concentrated on the search of his own artistic language.

Family Portrait. 1910-s

Petr Miturich was close with the poet Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922). The artist made a lot of works illustrating his friend’s poems. Miturich was trying to solve the problem of visual interpretation of poetry in his drawings. These works are the examples of “pure graphic”. They are composed on clear black and white rhythm. We can see the lines full of dynamical force; they visually break the flatness of paper’s surface.

One of the rare museum pieces, “Spatial painting”, is shown at the exhibition. It is a three-dimensional paper construction made from the combination of different multicolored forms. The “Spatial painting” is one of the few extant spatial objects of those years.

Miturich finished his experiments with an abstract form after the death of Velimir Velimir Khlebnikov in 1922. The drawings created that year can be combined to the “Santalovo’s cycle”. They show us how the artist endures the tragedy and uses the language of laconic dryish realism.

Portrait of Vera Khlebnikova. 1924

The following period in Petr Miturich’s life was more harmonious. The artist was surrounded with his friends and like-minded persons. He lectured at the Vkhutemas which was bringing him some comparative income. But after 1932 when Soviet art approved the trend to social realism, Miturich fell into the circle of the unofficial artists. Despite everything he stood by his ideas and continued working on the simple subjects – landscapes and intimate portraits. In 1940s Miturich’s creative work received a new wave of inspiration. The figures and objects depicted on his drawings come into being from vertical motions of crossing lines. Miturich’s last works, free and full of energy, took the lead over others and anticipated the art of the next decades.

The State Tretyakov Gallery shows the most complete and high-quality collection of P.Miturich’s works from the storages and gives an opportunity to see the drawings by one of the best native artists of the last century.