School House of Peter I 1922

Editor: This is "School House of Peter I," a watercolor and print piece created in 1922 by Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva. I find it quite evocative; the industrial elements mixed with the architectural and natural ones give it a feeling of a specific time and place. What do you see in this work? Curator: I'm drawn to the visual language itself – the juxtaposition of decaying wood with those imposing chimneys, juxtaposed to historical buildings in the background. Wood symbolizes something archaic, as does the Peter's School; industry speaks of future aspirations. See how the artist positions them: are they in harmony, or at odds? Editor: I think there's definitely a contrast, a tension. It's like the old is being overshadowed by the new, but not completely erased. What does it mean for an artist to capture history like that in the 1920's? Curator: The Russian avant-garde was wrestling with rapid modernization, right after the revolution. Artists had to redefine the past as they were inventing the future, to either integrate or reject their shared culture. The Peter's School stands for history, legacy and continuity of Russian Empire. It provides familiar stability to an uncertain public and allows to process trauma, while smoke stacks stand for all novel aspirations of industrial age. Does the painting convey hope or regret, in your view? Editor: I'm leaning towards a bittersweet feeling. There is a recognition of progress, but a definite acknowledgement of loss too. The way that everything kind of fades into the sky feels elegiac. Curator: Precisely. Ostroumova-Lebedeva captures that sense of collective memory shifting, embedding it in the cityscape itself. She gives us the symbolic keys to navigate the changes she was witnessing, while inviting us to mourn what fades away with the change of era. Editor: That makes so much sense! It's a painting about a place, but also about time and how we remember things. Thanks!