THE THAW AT KGALLERY: FROM PICASSO TO BRODSKY

Until May 10th the exhibition "A Long Happy Life. Dedicated to the Sixties" is on display at the Gallery on Fontanka. It features art and archival materials from the second half of the 1950s and 1960s. The project's curators explore the Thaw through artistic imagery, meanings, and core values — sincerity, humanity, and openness. The exhibition's title is inspired by the film of the same name, directed by poet and screenwriter Gennady Shpalikov, who made history in Russian cinema with the cult films "Walking the Streets of Moscow" and "I'm 20 Years Old." The exhibition skillfully combines the mundane and the artistic. It opens with a total installation in the form of a communal apartment with an endless communal table. Incidentally, the stove once belonged to Joseph Brodsky. Specifically for this project, writer Yevgeny Vodolazkin created a lyrical hero, the Soviet youth Kolya Konkov. A young man who combines optimism, charm, and a certain naiveté, he attends cultural events and describes them in his diary, sharing his perspective on the events. The starting point is 1957, with the report "On Stalin's Personality Cult" and the move from a communal apartment to a Khrushchev-era apartment. Among the exhibition's iconic art objects is Pablo Picasso's graphic masterpiece "The Dove of Peace," which became a distinctive visual symbol of the 1960s. Special sections of the exhibition are dedicated to significant cultural events of that era in the city on the Neva — the Picasso exhibition at the Hermitage, a Yves Montand concert at the Electrosila plant, and the premiere of the play "The Idiot" at the Bolshoi Drama Theater with Innokenty Smoktunovsky as Prince Myshkin.