Dobuzhinsky Collection, which has appeared in the collection of the gallery "In Lenivke" never exhibited either in Russia or in France, many years have kept the legacy of the artist. Leaving the pre-war Prague, Dobuzhinsky left most of the personal archive, which included drawings and photographs. It is these works the artist was trying so hard to return for decades kept them corresponding with Russian emigres, Valentin Bulgakov and Nikolai Zaretsky. But it could carry only a small number of small works. The history of this archive is closely connected with the formation of Russian Museum abroad. Art is its value primarily in that it consists of works created in the brightest period of the artist, the period of his membership of a union of "World of Art". It was at this time formed his language, and were created by renowned graphic cycles "White Nights", "Bronze Horseman" and others.
Entering the legendary association "World of Art" a little later its founders Alexandre Benois, Eugene Lancer and others, he became one of its main participants, and even the ideologues. Textbook of the artist from the Russian Museum and Tretyakov Gallery, - only a small part of his brilliant legacy. They are decorated with dozens of books and magazines ("The Bronze Horseman," Pushkin, "White Nights" Dostoevsky "Fairy Tales" by E.-TA-A.Gofmana, "Three Fat Men" Olesha and many others), countless performances in Russia, Europe and America, among them Sergei Diaghilev's productions and performances of the Moscow Art Theater. In recent years, the name was re-opened the Russian public through numerous exhibitions in museums and private galleries in Moscow.

The collection of "World of Art" Mstislav Dobuzhinsky presented at the "Family Album" at the Metropolitan Gallery, "On Lenivke," the artist is not as chilly esthete, as he is accustomed to thinking of as well as the author's warm and lyrical portraits of loved ones.
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It is from numberless Dobuzhinsky movements around the world related to the history of the collection, which is now exhibited in the gallery "In Lenivke." In 1936 the artist traveled to Prague to participate in the production of the opera "Eugene Onegin" in his set design. There he met with interest from the funds of the newly opened Russian cultural-historical museum, and friends with its founders, Valentin Bulgakov and Nikolai Zaretsky. Their trust has led to the fact that two years later, shortly before moving to America, Dobuzhinsky Prague asked friends to take on the temporary storage of their archives, which arrived from Kaunas.
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Archive safely survived the Second World War, but the return of its owner proved to be difficult. Zaretsky and Bulgakov Dobuzhinsky years corresponded with on this occasion, but a part of the collection (number of papers had to sacrifice the Prague museums, some of the other authorities of Czechoslovakia banned for export as having cultural and historical value) was the widow of a painter: he Mstislav Valerianovich up to this point has not lived . Selection of a few times and then changed owners and five years ago, was purchased at Christie's auction gallery owner "At Lenivke" Elena Voronina. The current show, in fact, is the premier.
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"Family Album" makes for a fresh look at the usual manner of Mstislav Valeriano. Moreover, the archive is quite unexpected, and conjures thoughts about today's art. The desire to paint every day, "just so", not for a particular project, alas, a thing of the past, if not already gone. A modern author, as a rule, do not bother to work, which does not entail a tactical or strategic advantage. In a similar pragmatism, of course, are their reasons, but some of the basic setup for this inevitable weathered. In the example Dobuzhinsky clearly seen that a hundred years ago and allegedly continued to draw aimless perceived not as a feat or a conceptual gesture, but as an integral part of the life of the artist. Abolish it for yourself this practice - and immediately washes the emptiness, the feeling of reject from the profession. Old-fashioned, stupid, no one today is not peculiar sensation.