Friday 19 August 2016

Indigo Russian Textiles at the Russian Museum


It may be the "white nights" of St. Petersburg (the sun doesn't really set and it is light all night. ) playing with my head or perhaps the size of the palaces or the length of Russian novels.....something is exciting me enough to write a 700 page blog entry on two days spent at the Russian museum. 


Not far from the Hermitage is The State Russian Museum.  It is the largest depository of Russian fine art in St Petersburg. The museum was established in 1895 when Tsar Nicholas was enthroned. Its original collection was composed of artworks taken from the Hermitage Museum, Alexander Palace, and the Imperial Academy of Arts. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 many private collections were nationalised and relocated to the Russian Museum. 


The main purpose in visiting was to see the icon collection and headed straight there from the entrance.
 The radar was on the lookout for Russian traditional design motifs in icon paintings that could possibly be reproduced with Russian traditional wood block printing on cloth or even stencilled with Japanese stencil techniques. The museum was not busy so you could quietly take iPhone pictures  without annoying anyone.  






Of course there were beautiful wall tapestries.  The colours the Russians got from their indigo (woad sourced) and rose madder was interesting to see. The themes of the tapestries were not interesting but thinking of the plant-dye logistics triggers imaginations.  The red madder dyed horse was a bit surreal.



This Bible cover was warmly crafted with a Russian Orthodox Patriarch embellished in folk-like detail.




The Museum is too big.  It is a good idea to leave after a few hours to respect and protect from overloading.

 The second day's goal was to look at the Russian Folk Craft section. It was a little like Christmas Eve...no sleep and up early walking to the museum and getting here before it opened. The Pushkin statue keeps the early arrivals company.

The museum rooms have been restored to perfection. (Mr Putin in putting some of that oil revenue to good cause. )  Hundreds of years of Russian treasures on display. There are long hallways dedicated with photographs to what had been lost in the Revolution, the Nazi Terror and the Soviet Era. Agony. 

The Russian Folk Art area is breathtaking. With economic sanctions on right now it is a good time to visit Russia as prices are low. (The people of the Crimea would welcome your contribution to the Russian economy.) If you can get there it is a fascinating destination. It is only a matter of time before  these museums are going to be over run with tour buses. 

The woodwork, ceramics, metalwork bone carving were all interesting. 







The collection of Upper Volga Distaffs was well displayed. You could sense the pride they makers of the distaff had and the importance the place in the household these objects held. 

As a noun, a distaff (/ˈdɪstɑːf/, also called a rock) is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly used to hold flax, and sometimes wool, but can be used for any type of fiber.





One room was full of Russian wood block indigo dyed textiles....BINGO!












So beautiful. Textiles have so much information in them. More to share.... in a few days. 



15 comments:

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  2. the distaffs are stunning. and there it is, indigo block printed textiles...i sense a huge fountain of new inspiration... maybe after jetlag and harvest subsudes?

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    1. Velma.....it hurts....I want to dive on in and spend a few years there designing and dyeing.
      Ill go back this winter and spend some more time exploring and doing some small jobs....oh oh...is the KGB on to me??? Textile spy that I am???

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    2. there it is: your novel. TEXTILE SPY in russia!

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    3. Will I ever get another visa? I outed myself on Blogger....

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  3. Stunning. I loved St Petersburg . Unfortunately our time there was fairly structured and we didn't get any time to explore on our own. How I wish a visit here had been possible. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I roamed around until my legs needed a break. Such an interesting place.

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  4. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bryan. You are so generous to share all this. I will be looking at these posts for a long time.
    Claudia

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  5. Dear Claudia,
    Anna took such good care of me. I was humbled.
    I have a lot more pictures that will go to waste unless I show them to someone. I'll blog a few more. bryan

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  6. so much to absorb, so little time and centuries of inspiration.

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  7. Bryan these designs are so eloquent. I can imagine your indigo, persimmon, madder work will be gorgeous. I think we need you to write a book about indigo. I've been reading Catherine McKinley's book "Indigo" - I hadn't thought about parts of Africa being blue before. Looking at your block printed pics - especially the one with cutlery reminded me that she notices elements of modern desire - like mobile phones appearing on printed cloth in Ghana and Nigeria.
    Carolyn

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    1. Hi Carolyn,

      I started working on a book. It could take some time.... bryan

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  8. i was floored by the icons and the embroideries.the textiles gave me an insight of where matisse came from. all the odalisques and the colorful rooms! please post those picts!!

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    1. Neck..I have one thousand pictures of that trip. For the first time I feel like I want to post them. It is surprising how little we see of Russian art and culture. Just those heavenly long books.

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  9. These are Russian Textiles, so of course its good to go to Russia to learn from the master artists.

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