There seems to be a bigger buzz about this exhibition at the Royal Academy than any other art exhibition in the past few years. The picture that’s been grabbing the headlines is Matisse’s powerful and enormous ‘Dance II’, painted in 1912.

Frankly, it ‘s a bit modern for my conventional taste, which tends more towards the Pierre Bonnard ‘Summer Dance’ facing it. But if that’s what drags you into the exhibition, get dragged by all means, because the place is a treasure trove, and the Matisse is unquestionably a masterpiece. Masters of French post-impressionism, rarely if ever seen out of Russia before, are combined with contemporary Russian paintings which I found enchanting. Critics have dismissed the Russian canvases as derivative daubs, but they were bursting with life and fascination. Contrast Valantin Serov’s monochrome ‘Ida Rubinstein’ next to Alexandr Golovin’s Klimtian ‘Chaliapin as Boris Godunov’. Marvellous stuff.

Aforesaid critics hurried past the Russian cabbages to get at the French charcuterie, but I’m a meat and two veg man. It’s like eternally watching Rugby Sevens, or drinking nothing but champagne; all very pleasant, but I need the roughage of a scrum, or a pint of bitter. The excellent Russian artists provide the necessary fare.

For me the highlight of the show was completely unexpected; I had no idea it was going to be there. It was a large model of Tatlin’s unbuilt ‘Monument to the Third International’, a gigantic project which would have erected a helical steel and glass tower a third as tall again as the Eiffel Tower in the middle of St. Petersburg. Breathtaking; a magnificent folly, even if it was never built. There’s a great 3D model of it on Google SketchUp., but it doesn’t hint at the enormity of the planned structure.
Credit:

From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg
26 January 2008 to 18 April 2008
Key. 58 / Cat. 0
Henri Matisse
The Dance, 1910
Oil on canvas
260 x 391 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, St Peterburg
Photo Archives Matisse, Paris
© Succession H. Matisse/DACS 2007

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