Exhibition by Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky and Benita Essen

An exhibition of two students of K.S. Petrov-Vodkin will open in the KGallery gallery: Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky and Benita Essen, whose names rightfully occupy an important place among the artists of the "Vodkin school". The exhibition, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky, will bring together works from private collections in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the State Russian Museum and the St. Petersburg Museum of Theater and Music.

Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky and Benita Essen met at the private art school of M.D. Bernshtein and L.V. Sherwood, where Alexander studied from 1913, and Benita from 1916 to 1917. The acquaintance grew into a life together and a creative union, within which each artist remained an individual, in his own way developed the foundations and method of working with material, color and form, learned in the lessons of Petrov-Vodkin. Both artists applied to Kuzma Sergeevich's studio at the Academy of Arts in 1918, and in the same year they were admitted: Lappo-Danilevsky did not manage to finish his studies due to his tragic death in 1920, Essen defended her thesis in 1922.

At the exhibition in KGallery, for the first time, the works of only two students of Petrov-Vodkin will be presented in large volume: the works of Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky cover the period from 1917 to 1919, Benita Essen - from 1918 to the 1950s. It is noteworthy that Lappo-Danilevsky is the only student to whom Petrov-Vodkin dedicated a text in a book published in memory of Alexander Alexandrovich in 1928 through the efforts of Benita Nikolaevna and the "Community of Artists". At the exhibition, Lappo-Danilevsky's original graphic skills will be appreciated by drawings in pencil, ink and watercolors, among them Around the Piano, Chopping Firewood, Peasant with a Cradle, Bathing, Male Rubbing in a Cap, as well as numerous magazine illustrations and theatrical sketches. Essen's early work will be represented by virtuoso drawings "Chopping wood" and "Fairy Tale", as well as a variety of printing techniques in which the artist worked in the 1930s-1940s, and late watercolors of the 1950s.

Traditionally, a catalog will be prepared for the exhibition with thematic articles and all the works shown in the exhibition.