Exhibition “Two Natalias. The Return to Abramtsevo»

Dear friends!

We invite you to the exhibition “Two Natalias. The Return to Abramtsevo”, which will be held from April 29 to August 31, 2023 at the Fachwerk Exhibition Hall. The exhibition will feature works from the collections of the Polenovo and Abramtsevo museum-reserves.

The exhibition is a large inter-museum project and will be held consecutively at two venues: at the Fachwerk exhibition hall in Polenovo and at the Polenov’s Dacha in Abramtsevo. This project is the first major joint work of two museum-estate.

The exhibition will allow visitors to get acquainted with bright, talented artists involved in the history of both the Polenov estate and Abramtsevo: Natalia Vasilievna Polenova (born Yakunchikova), the wife of Vassily Polenov, and Natalya Vasilievna Polenova, the youngest daughter of Natalia and  Vassily Polenovs.
Natalya Vasilievna, the wife of the artist, is the author of three books that have played a significant role in the history of Russian art: “Abramtsevo” – about the Abramtsevo circle, where she was an active participant, in the books “E.D. Polenov” (1902) and “M.V. Yakunchikov” (1902) she told about two very gifted, but, unfortunately, early passed away artists.

The life path of Natalia Vasilievna, the daughter of the Polenovs, turned out to be firmly connected with painting and art. She was a student of avant-garde artists Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Lyubov Popova and studied at VKHUTEMAS. Since the 1930s, she worked as an artist in Moscow clubs. During the WWII she served as a stage designer at the mobile theater at the Moscow Regional Philharmonic, which gave performances in hospitals. Since 1950, she began working at the estate, where she created a theater group and a puppet theater for children from the local area.

The exhibition is an art-documentary with wide range of art works – painting, graphics, applied art and archival materials – photographs,  autographs, books, magazines, letters, etc.

Tickets are purchased on site or on the museum’s website.