Icons of Modern Art. The Shchukin Collection

Fondation Louis Vuitton presents the exhibition Icons of Modern Art. The Shchukin Collection from October 22, 2016, to February 20, 2017. This forms part of the official programme of the France-Russia year of cultural tourism 2016–17 and constitutes one of its most prominent events. It pays tribute to one of the greatest art patrons of the early 20th century, Sergei Shchukin, the visionary Russian collector of French modern art. 

From 1898, Sergei Shchukin, a leading Moscow industrialist, quickly became an integral member of the Parisian arts milieu of the era, forging relationships with modern art dealers Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard, and Berthe Weill, then Georges Bernheim and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. His friendship with celebrated artists such as Henri Matisse heavily influenced the formation of his collection, one of the most radical of its time.

Thanks to the generous participation of the State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, who participated in the conception of the project, Icons of Modern Art presents a significant ensemble of 127 major pieces by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and modern masters from the Shchukin collection, with a particular emphasis on the art of Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Rousseau, Derain, Matisse, and Picasso, alongside works from Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh. 

The exhibition also details the impact of the Shchukin collection on the formation of the Cubo-Futurist, Suprematist, and Constructivist movements presenting 30 works—28 paintings, collages, constructions, and reliefs, as well as 2 sculptures. The works are by major artists of the Russian avant-garde drawn from the Tretyakov State Gallery, the Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art, the Pushkin Museum, the Stedeljik Museum, and MoMA. Masterpieces by Malevich, Rodchenko, Larionov, Tatlin, Kliun, Goncharova, Popova, and Rozanova are also included.

The presentation also provides the opportunity for academic review and is accompanied by a catalogue. A symposium will be held in February 2017 which will bring together an international community of researchers who will examine the role of the great collectors of modern and contemporary art of the 19th and 20th century. A cultural programme of events focusing on dance and music will bear witness to the vitality of artistic exchanges between France and Russia from the early 20th century to today.

Icons of Modern Art and the related events were curated and planned by Anne Baldassari, who also edited the catalogue. The participation of Sergei Shchukin’s grandson, André-Marc Delocque Fourcaud, an expert in the work of his ancestor and historical advisor on the project, was crucial to its success, as was the collaboration of Marina D. Loshak, director of the Pushkin Museum, Mikhail B. Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage Museum, and finally Zelfira Tregulova, director of the Tretyakov State Gallery. 

On February 10, 2016 in Moscow, the project became part of an official partnership between the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the Hermitage Museum, and the Pushkin Museum. The exhibition marks a new step in the long-term, ongoing collaboration between the Fondation and the Hermitage Museum and Pushkin Museum, initiated in 2015 with the exhibition Keys to a Passion.

Media contacts at Fondation Louis Vuitton 
Isabella Capece Galeota, Communications Director, Fondation Louis Vuitton

Brunswick Arts
Andrea Azéma / Charlotte Sidwell 
fondationlouisvuitton [​at​] brunswickgroup.com / T + 33 7 76 80 75 03