Green Light: Boris Messerer exhibition opens in Moscow

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) has launched a large-scale solo exhibition of the National Artist of Russia Boris Messerer. More than 150 works demonstrating different aspects of the set designer, painter, graphic artist can be seen in the exhibition. The name "Kaleidoscope of Time" reflects both the nature and the essence of the presented works of the master. In the portrait gallery, you can see the artist's second wife, the poet Bella Akhmadulina. There is a series of paintings dedicated to ballerinas: Boris Asafovich's cousin is Maya Plisetskaya, and his brother is Azari Plisetsky, a choreographer at the Bolshoi Theater. Izvestia attended the opening.

Art in a bottle

Even before the grand opening of the Boris Messerer exhibition, distinguished guests began to arrive at the Museum of Modern Art at 10/1 Gogol Boulevard. The Presidium of the Academy of Arts arrived in almost full force with the newly elected head Vasily Tsereteli. Venerable members of the Union of Artists of Russia and its chairman Andrey Kovalchuk, the leadership of the Moscow Department of Culture, as well as theater and film stars, poets and fans of the national artist's work arrived.

The ten halls of the gallery feature works by the master, created between the late 1950s and the 2020s. Boris Messerer is a sought-after artist. He is appreciated and loved to exhibit, especially in Moscow. But this is the first time in many years that such a large—scale exhibition has been held.

"I'm happy that life is moving,— the 92-year-old artist confessed to Izvestia. — My book "Life turns into Memory" was recently published. An artist about an artist." And at this exhibition, I wanted to be represented in all visual genres. It's an art that I can control. Plus, there is some emphasis on early works. Even though I started drawing differently, they have value for me. I see flaws in them, but I don't touch them.

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A variety of creative methods are presented in mock-ups of theatrical productions, watercolors, etchings, paintings. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the giant installation "The Wind of Time", which resembles a windmill. As Boris Messerer says, the main character here is the movement itself, the wind. The artist made the blades of the mill from accounting accounts. Making a turn, the knuckles roll down the strings and knock. There are glass containers at the base of the windmill, and the dishes themselves surround the perimeter of the structure. Each bottle contains a burnt church candle.

The installation embodies the Brezhnev era of stagnation, and then the artist made it. Now the "Trend of the Times" is kept in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. When disassembled, it occupies several large boxes.

How Rina Zelenaya came to get salt

Boris Messerer's creative versatility was predetermined by his family and her circle: his father is choreographer Assaf Messerer, his mother Anel Sudakevich is a silent film actress, costume designer, and his cousin is ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. Among those who surrounded the future artist from childhood were people of theater and cinema. This had an impact on the formation of the artist's personality and vision, his way of displaying reality. He lived in a house that had a celebrity as its neighbor.

"Our apartment was on the sixth floor,— Boris Messerer recalls. — My friend Igor Kvasha, the actor of Sovremennik, lived on the eleventh floor. And on the seventh place is the People's Artist of the USSR Rina Zelenaya. There were a lot of funny things about her. She was humorous, and you could expect anything from her. I remember one morning when the doorbell rang. I open it, and there's Rina Zelenaya on her knees and, turning to my mom, says: "Anichka, don't you have some salt?"

And once little Borya went with a famous neighbor to the ice rink in the courtyard of the house at Petrovka 26. Her appearance caused universal delight, because she was good at snow maiden skating. Rina Zelenaya was very much loved by children, her heroines in the movies were so funny that everyone wanted to get to know the actress better.

In one of the halls, you can watch an interview with Boris Asafovich, where he recalls vivid events and fateful meetings. One of them was with Kir Bulychev.

— Did you know that this is a made-up name? In fact, the writer's name was Igor Mozheyko," says Boris Messerer. — When I saw almost 40 volumes of his books on the shelf in a bookstore, I was stunned that he had written so much, that he was such a great science fiction writer Kir Bulychev. For me, he was Igor Mozheyko. While we were sitting at his desk at home, he was tapping away at a typewriter. I didn't understand the extent of his seriousness as a writer. Interest in writing receded into the background before a friendly conversation. I ignored him then, but now I'm so jealous of him, I still haven't learned how to type. My wife Dasha helps me in this matter.

The exhibition features portraits of famous friends of Messerer: artists Lev Zbarsky, Artur Fonvizin, Evgeny Monin, ballerinas Susanna Zvyagina, Nina Chistova.

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Messerer's Ballet Family

One of the halls is dedicated to Boris Messerer's work in the theater. In the semi-darkness, mock-ups of scenery and canvases with scenes from productions are bright flashes to visitors. In the center is The Hunchback Horse, a ballet by Rodion Shchedrin. The production was performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1999. Shchedrin made a new version of the ballet for her, turning it into a dazzling Russian extravaganza, and choreographer Nikolai Androsov presented an interesting choreography. Boris Messerer "settled" ballet into a fairy tale.

Here you can also see models for the ballets Spartak by Khachaturian, The Bright Stream to the music of Shostakovich, Lefty by Alexandrov, sketches of scenery for Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky's one-act ballet, and, of course, for Shchedrin's Carmen Suite. The composer's wife Maya Plisetskaya shone in it.

The theme of the ballet is inextricably linked with the biography and work of Boris Asafovich. The series of paintings "Ballerinas" is presented in one of the largest halls of MMOMA. Dancers in different positions. And in the center of the hall is a red portrait of the artist's second wife, Bella Akhmadulina, executed in oil, with broad strokes, in the same manner as the images of ballerinas. Messerer's watercolors are in the next room. The artist learned this technique from his mentor, the painter Arthur Fonvizin. The portrait of Boris Asafovich's third wife, Daria, is painted in watercolor. She was with him at the opening of the exhibition.

Andrey Kovalchuk, Chairman of the Union of Artists of Russia, did not come to the opening day empty-handed. He awarded Boris Messerer the highest award of the USSR, the Alexander Ivanov Gold Medal.

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Paintings, set design, etchings are always executed in a complex color scheme, and abstractions are invariably polychrome: their very shape resembles colored glass, forming dynamic figures; profiles and outlines in still lifes are layered, double, forming rhythms and echoes.

The exhibition, as the curators suggest, has brought together the artist's long journey in one space and opens up to the general public the little-known, farthest from today, but extremely vivid and significant years of his creative path.

Boris Messerer's exhibition will last until August 31. And if you want to get acquainted with the master's graphics, you can also visit the Literary Museum. An exhibition dedicated to the design of literary works is being held in the House of I.S. Ostroukhov in Trubniki. It is open until June 29.