"The most famous Russian art in Spain is the religious one"

On the occasion of the Russia-Spain Dual Year, the Romantic Museum (Madrid, Spain) is hosting the exhibition Russian Romanticism at the time of Pushkin, a major exhibition that brings together a selection of works by leading Russian Romantic artists. Asunción Cardona, director of the Museum talks about the historical and cultural relations between Russia and Spain, and the development of the Russian interior paintings.

The exhibition is part of the Russia-Spain Dual Year, which highlights the cultural relations between both countries. How would you describe this cultural relationship? Is Russian art unknown in Spain?

The Spanish-Russian relationship, from a historical point of view, has been something quite specific. In the past, the connections between both countries arrived through different "types" of travelers, from adventurers to evangelists. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the great catalyst between both countries was the reason why they have been kept apart geographically: Europe, and above all, France. The Napoleonic invasion played an important role as a catalyst, as well as media or literature.

Regarding Spanish knowledge on Russian art, perhaps the best-known is religious art, which features icons and great Byzantine churches, avant-garde art from the twentieth century and soviet art. Between these movements lies the art of the nineteenth century, when Russian began to search for its own cultural identity. Unfortunately, this time is a crucial but unknown period.

The selection of artworks comes from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. What difficulties are involved in organizing a temporary exhibition like this one?

The difficulty is also one of its greatest charms, which is coordinating teams from different nationalities, cultural and geographical environments. In any case, the experience has been very positive.

The exhibition installation is characterized by the meeting between the artwork and the viewer in an ambiguous space, which is closely related to the mental image of Russia. Could you describe the characteristics of that mental image?

When we started talking to designers about the setting up, I told them that one of my wishes was to bring closer to the Spanish public a type of art that is largely unknown but, frighteningly close, perhaps because is very lyrical  and binds well with emotions.

With this idea of distance and communion, they suggested, as a backdrop for the exhibition, to get close to our collective imagination about Russia. So, the first part is presented with a great white carpet, which reminds us the snowy steppes of the Russian landscape. The golden walls refer to the domes that populate its cities and also to the background of the Russian icons.

The exhibition showcases the Russian genre of interiors which was underdeveloped in Spain. Why?

The Prussian influence had a special relevance in the cultural and artistic configuration of Russia at that time for various reasons. The interiors genre came from the nineteenth-century Germany and was welcomed by a Russian society characterized by a tendency towards intimacy, which was present in art. This genre was bourgeois and liked by the painters.

If Spain did not succeed in this genre was because the bourgeoisie was still focused on portrait, a genre that made bourgeoisie's image pass to posterity. Painters were mainly devoted to this genre as it was the most demanded but, in reality, they considered it a minor genre which caused disgust. Our painters longed to make compositions, historical or mythological paintings in order to display their skills and compositional virtuosity while demonstrating the intellectual background involved in their works.

Interiors were of no interest in a country that was more focused on the street. In fact, we have a number of urban and popular representations made by our Romantic painters

Orest Kiprensky, Alexander Sokolov or Piotr Sokolov are some of the artists whose works are on display.  Who is the most remarkable one?

It would be very difficult to choose just one. Each artist played a crucial role by using different techniques and genres. Kiprensky was the great introducer of Romanticism in Russia. His portraits in oil or pencil are outstanding examples of the genre. Sokolov focused on the softness and delicacy suggested by watercolor portraits, with a mastery that served as a reference to artists in what is called the second Romanticism in Russia. I would also highlight the figure of Aivazovski, a great artist obsessed with the brightness of the lights on the waves who marked the future of the Russian school of landscape painting.