University of Richmond Museums- Lembersky exhibition

Hello-
At the request of Yelena Lembersky, I have attached a press release for the exhibition "Torn From Darkness: Works by Felix Lembersky" on view in the University of Richmond Museums, September 25 through December 2, 2012.

Heather Campbell

Curator of Museum Programs
University of Richmond Museums
University of Richmond, VA 23173
804-287-6324
Fax- 804-287-6467
[email protected]

museums.richmond.edu

News
University of Richmond Museums
Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art • Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center
Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature
Richmond, Virginia 23173
http://museums.richmond.edu

Contacts: Heather Campbell, Curator of Museum Programs, University Museums, 804-287-6324, [email protected] or Brian Eckert, Director of Media and Public Relations, 804-287-6659, [email protected]

For Immediate Release

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND MUSEUMS OPENS
TORN FROM DARKNESS: WORKS BY FELIX LEMBERSKY


The University of Richmond Museums presents Torn from Darkness: Works by Felix Lembersky at the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, September 25 through December 2, 2012. The exhibition features twenty paintings and works on paper created from 1942 to 1964 by the Russian-Soviet artist Felix Lembersky (1913-1970). He was an easel painter, theater stage designer, teacher, and cultural leader. Working in Soviet Russia at a distance from Western movements, the artist created a body of work that offers his own vision, a synthesis of Modernism, the Avant-Garde, and Realism through Russia’s historical circumstances and through his own particular conscious awareness of Russian and Eastern spiritual traditions.

Lembersky’s visual context is grounded in Eastern Europe – Poland, where he was born; Ukraine, where he was raised; Leningrad, where he lived; and the small towns of middle Russia and the Urals, where he traveled. He became a refugee at the onset of World War I, he grew up in the crucible of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War, witnessed pogroms, lived through the devastation of World War II, including the murder of his parents by Nazis.  In his work he approached many subjects forbidden in his day, such as Christianity, Judaism, the Holocaust, and totalitarianism. Some of his most poignant works are portraits of fellow citizens, including factory workers, children, and victims of Nazi brutality.

Lembersky began his artistic career as a student of the Kultur-Lige in Kiev (1927-1930) and in 1935 he enrolled at the Academy of Arts in Leningrad, defending his thesis in 1941. He developed as an artist under Stalin’s regime shortly after Soviet Socialist Realism was established. Departing from his training and reconnecting with his modernist roots, Lembersky wrote in his autobiographical notes of 1960 that “In my work, I strive not only to show the formal beauty of surrounding objects, but…I attempt to uncover hidden spirituality in nature and to present subject matter metaphorically.”

Highlights of the exhibition are Lembersky’s paintings devoted to World War II including Self-Portrait (1945), a dark and reflective image, created at the end of the war and as a tribute to his people — a sole, ghostly figure of an artist bound to life by his craft. Execution / Babi Yar, (1952), are two paintings in the exhibition created in response to Nazi atrocities. Also on view are Seamstress: The Siege of Leningrad (1963-1964) and A Woman in Recline: The Siege of Leningrad (1964) intimate and modernist representations of humanity’s endurance under siege.  The female figures in these paintings are complex and thought-provoking, distinctively revitalized, modernist images. They reflect on the unity and continuity of place and time, refracted through Russian and Jewish religious traditions.

The exhibition is organized by University of Richmond Museums and curated by Joseph Troncale, Associate Professor of Russian, Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures, University of Richmond; and Yelena Lembersky, architect, independent curator, and granddaughter of the artist; with Lourdes Figueroa, ’13, art history and Russian studies double major, University of Richmond.  The exhibition is made possible in part with funds from the University’s Cultural Affairs Committee and the National Endowment for the Humanities Fund of theDepartment of Modern Literatures and Cultures. A fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue, published by the University Museums, with essays by Joseph Troncale, Lourdes Figueroa, Alison Hilton, Wright Family Professor of Art History, and Director, Art and Museum Studies M. A. Program, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and Galina Lembersky, daughter of the artist, is available.

Programming
Monday, September 24, 2012, 6:30 to 9 p.m.
6:30 p.m., Symposium, Carole Weinstein International Center Commons
“Torn from Darkness: A Symposium on the Art of Felix Lembersky”
Yelena Lembersky, architect, independent curator, granddaughter of the artist, and co-curator of the exhibition
Joseph Troncale, Associate Professor of Russian, Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures, University of
   Richmond, and co-curator of the exhibition
Alison Hilton, Wright Family Professor of Art History, and Director, Art and Museum Studies M. A. Program,
   Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Lourdes Figueroa, ’13, art history and Russian studies double major, University of Richmond
Moderator: Erling Sjovold, Associate Professor of Art, Department of Art and Art History, University of Richmond
8 to 9 p.m., Reception and preview of the exhibition
Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University Museums

Friday, September 28, 2012, 2 to 2:30 p.m.
Gallery Talk, Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University Museums
“The Works and Artistic Identity of Felix Lembersky”
Lourdes Figueroa, ’13, art history and Russian studies double major, University of Richmond



Note: Images for press are available by contacting Heather Campbell, 804-287-6324 or [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>


University of Richmond Museums comprises the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, and the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature. Admission to allmuseums is free and open to the public.

For group visits and tours, please call Denisse De Leon 804-289-8237 at least two weeks prior to your visit for reservations.

Call 804-289-8276 for information and directions or visit our website at museums.richmond.edu

The Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art is located in the George M. Modlin Center for the Arts. Museum hours: Sunday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. Closed Fall Break (10/13-16), Thanksgiving Week(11/17-25), and Semester Break (12/15-1/13).

The Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center is also located in the George M. Modlin Center for the Arts. Museum hours: Sunday through Friday, 1 to 3 p.m., and by appointment (804-287-6424). Closed same schedule as above.

The Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature is located in a separate wing of the Boatwright Memorial Library with its entrance on Richmond Way. Museum hours: Sunday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. Closed Fall Break (10/13-16), Thanksgiving Week (11/17-25), and Semester Break (12/15-1/13).