Paris Exhibition Research Articles

Н.И. Воробьев и Центральный музей Татарской республики (1923–1930 гг.)

N.I. Vorobyev headed the TASSR Central Museum during the formation period of the new museum practices, when the right decisions came with experience and the main task was to develop a new structure of the institution. As the museum director, the young scholar dealt with a large number of administrative issues and difficulties, from budget and personnel shortage to elimination of external threats caused by the low level of security of museum collections. The acute shortage of funds was reflected in everything: the museum could not occupy all the areas allocated by the state, there were no more than three people in the staff of departments, the tasks of purchasing exhibits and planned acquisitions were barely fulfilled. However, at the same time, as part of preparation for exhibitions, ethnographic expeditions to many cantons of the republic were organised under the leadership of N. Vorobyev. During the expeditions, significant materials that document the culture and traditions of the peoples of the region, household items and crafts were collected, as well as a large number of photographs were taken. As a result of this work, the museum was able to adequately represent the Tatar Republic at large-scale All-Union exhibitions in Moscow in 1923 and 1927 and at the international exhibition in Paris in 1925. The public warmly welcomed the Tatrepublic sections at the exhibitions; upon the exhibitions closure, the objects replenished the museum funds. In conditions of limited funding, lack of space capacity and limited number of staff, under Vorobyev’s leadership, the museum laid down the functioning principles, which would serve as the basis of its work in the following decades. Combining museum work with his academic career, Nikolay Vorobyev left the museum during the period when full supervision of the state was being established over the institution. He left not just a museum, but also an academic institution where research work was constantly carried out.

Raisins and Nationalism: Revisiting the Greek Vision of Modernization through World's Fairs (1893–1915)

Abstract: World's fairs organized at the turn of the twentieth century offered glimpses into humanity's aspirations for the future. Since they were primarily a place to promote progress and industrialization, one would expect Greek participation in these exhibitions to follow a similar approach. But the country's presence in the international exhibitions in Chicago (1893), Paris (1900), Brussels (1910), and San Francisco (1915) proves that the groups of prominent academics, technocrats, and business leaders who undertook the organization of Greek participation viewed world's fairs less as platforms to demonstrate industrial advancements and more as sites to promote and reinforce their nationalistic ideals. By exhibiting ancient Greek and Byzantine artifacts, Greece's pavilions sought to connect the modern state with its glorious past and reaffirm its European identity. The organizers' alternative viewpoint on what can represent modernity challenges our understanding of the Greek interpretation of modernization. Contrary to the prevailing notions in Greek historiography that linked modernity exclusively with industrialization, the exhibits displayed by the country abroad prompt a reconsideration of our interpretation of Greek progress, highlighting the influence of the irredentist concept of the Great Idea.

Orient Assemblage (Made in Austria): Colonial Typologies, Trade Relations, and the Politics of Architecture at the Vienna World’s Fair 1873

In contrast to the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1867 and in London in 1862, both of which were directed towards the portrayal of scientific and technological innovations, the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair exhibition concept concentrated on trade relations. One of the most prestigious sections of the exhibition grounds was the Oriental Quarter, which featured numerous collections of oriental art, marking the climax of a prevailing late 19th-century trend. This nexus of colonial and economic interests becomes legible not only in the specific ways the Orient was represented in the larger organization of the fair but also in Josef von Schwegel’s curatorial program, through which the designs of the orientalist buildings were developed, realized, and presented to visitors. In this context, we understand the European representation of the Orient to be a social construction that relies on architectural terms and practice, and we identify a new spatial type that offered visitors an experience of the Orient by enacting alleged oriental forms of architecture. The architectural enactments of the Oriental Quarter perform two main functions: first, to foster trade relationships with the Orient and second, to put on display the Austrian monarchy’s own industrial performance and artistic production. As a ‘living museum’, the Vienna World’s Fair marked the beginning of the monarchy’s complex collection history of oriental exhibits through which it continued to appropriate oriental forms for commerce-related reasons long after the fair officially closed.

The Young Naturalist by Henry Weekes: intermediality, industry and international exhibitions

The Young Naturalist by Henry Weekes (1807–77) was first presented in plaster at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1854. Beginning as an object located firmly in the domain of the fine arts through its modes of production and sites of display, the sculpture encountered industry through a series of international exhibitions in Paris, London and Manchester during the 1850s and 1860s. Not only was the work in proximity to industrial objects, processes and collectors, it was fundamentally transformed by them, resulting in a collaboration between Weekes and the Birmingham-based manufacturer Elkington & Co. This article charts the changing status of sculpture and labour in the second half of the nineteenth century, with its increasing visibility and availability to new markets through both emerging and established technologies of reproduction.

Silmo part deux

Optician continues its report from the halls of the eyewear exhibition in Paris

Ondes Martenot at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937

The purpose of the study is to reveal the figurative, semantic and symbolic specificity of the interpretation of the timbre of "Ondes Martenot" in line with the musical, cultural, and socio-political guidelines of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. Research methodology. Cultural-historical, interdisciplinary historical-cultural, as well as analytical-musicological methods were essential for this work. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it introduces for the first time into the circulation of art historians the materials related to the musical component of the artistic events of the Paris World Exhibition of 1937, voiced, including with the help of the timbralness of the "Ondes Martenot", which became the personification of the union of art and technology as a leading symbol of its shares. Conclusions. Interwar France, being at the edge of a difficult socio-political and cultural situation, grasped at the saving idea for it – the holding of another "World's Fair" in 1937, the slogan of which was chosen as the thesis – "Art and technology in modern life". Achieving the set goals and demonstrating to the whole world the high-tech side of France's existence became possible thanks to the musical part of the exhibition, namely "concert-performances" and night shows on the banks of the Seine – "Holidays of sound, water and light". An important component of most of these presentations is the electronic musical instrument "Ondes Martenot". As a result, the popularity of "concert-performances" and night extravaganzas "Saint of Light", the essential component of which were the spiritual and mysterious timbral features of the "Ondes Martenot", stimulated the aesthetic preferences of modernist composers. It was during this period that a significant part of the musical repertoire was created for this instrument, which was always connected precisely with the sphere of the Sacred and the Cosmic. This also marked the leading spiritual, social, and aesthetic guidelines of the World Exhibition of 1937, which, in the most difficult political situation on the eve of the Second World War, tried, including through the diverse involvement of the timbrality of the "Ondes Martenot" involved in the mysterious spectacular actions of this project, unite the human community and avoid global catastrophe.
 Keywords: World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, "Feasts of sound, water and light", "concerts-spectacles", Ondes Martenot.

Austria and Hungary at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair: A Hint of the End

Abstract This article examines the Austrian participation at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, focusing particularly on the display of art. Spread across two venues, the Austrian Pavilion and the Palace of Fine Arts, the display, with contributions from the Mánes Association of Fine Artists, Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka,” the Hagenbund, and the Vienna Künstlergenossenschaft illustrates the changes taking place in Cisleithanian art at the time, with the emergence and increased recognition of nationally organized art societies, whose very existence questioned the long-standing supremacy of Vienna art institutions. A further contrast is made with the Hungarian art exhibition at the same fair. Unlike the Austrian exhibit, housed in its own free-standing exhibition space, the much more modest Hungarian exhibit was divided in two. Fine arts were displayed in the Palace of Fine Arts, while decorative arts and crafts were displayed in a pavilion built inside of the exhibition hall. The author ends by contrasting the 1904 exhibition spaces with those of the 1900 Paris exhibition.

EUGENE LANCERAY’S EQUESTRIAN STATUES: THE ROYAL FALCONER OF THE 16TH CENTURY AND KYRGYZ WITH A GOLDEN EAGLE

The article systematises scattered data on the reduplication of two chamber sculptures, The Royal Falconer of the 16th Century (1872) and Kyrgyz with a Golden Eagle (1876), by Eugene Lanceray in larger size. The earliest information about Lanceray’s work in the workshops to reduplicate chamber compositions of equestrian hunters in larger size can be found in the memoirs of his contemporaries, N. Shatilov (1916) and A. Benois (1944-1957). Information not previously mentioned in art criticism literature is given about the display of Lanceray’s equestrian statues, cast in bronze at the F. Chopin factory, at three exhibitions: the World Exhibition in Paris, where they were bought by “a noble Parisian” (1878), the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow (1882), Exhibition of Birds of Prey, Dogs and Hunting Accessories in St. Petersburg (1885). In the Nedelya newspaper in 1981, writer I. Kamenkovich reported about two sculptures of horse hunters with falcons, cast in bronze in full size and signed on the base: “Лепил Лансере 1876” (“Sculpted by Lanceray 1876”), located in the Baku Absheron sanatorium. Kamenkovich found out that the sculptures came from Leningrad - they were bought from the funds of the former royal palaces. In 2006, English researcher Geoffrey Walden Sudbury described Lanceray’s equestrian statues (in bronze) located in the French city of Menton, indicating the sizes and signatures: on the base of the sculptures - “Лепилъ Е. Лансере” (“Sculpted by Lanceray”), on pedestals - “Lanceray, fauconnier d’Ivan Grosney Don de Moncieu Maurice Malpart 1903” (“Lanceray, Falconer of Ivan the Terrible, gift of Monsieur Maurice Malpart, 1903”) on one, and “Don de Mme Maurice Malpart neé Mercier 1903” (“Gift of Madame Maurice Malpart, born Mercier, 1903”) on another. Historical information suggested that it was Maurice Malpart who was the noble Parisian who had bought the sculptures in 1878 at an exhibition in Paris; then in 1903, the sculptures were donated to Menton. According to the information received by the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art in Baku, there are two equestrian statues (in bronze) that came to the museum in 2000 - Falconry and Falconry (Kyrgyz) with the author’s signature and date on both: “лъпиль лансере 1876”. Archival materials of art historian N. Sobko allow us to clarify the century (16th) in the name of the sculpture of the royal falconer. The equestrian figures of falconers with birds of prey on their arms, made close to life size, are considered as a garden and park version of a monumental and decorative sculpture.

Traveling Images: On Carl Rasmussen’s “Greenland Paintings”

In 1870–71, the Danish painter Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen traveled to Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland). Not much is known about the visit, yet his travels to Nuuk and Maniitsoq provided the artist with visual material for his paintings for more than twenty years afterwards. One outcome of Rasmussen’s travel was the work Midnight Atmosphere by the Coast of Greenland. The Danish Royal Gallery acquired this painting, an idealized imagination of a colonial setting, in 1872, where the work came to represent the first collection of a “Greenlandic” motif. Subsequently, this artwork continued to travel in and out of other political settings, such as the 1931 colonial exhibition in Paris. This article follows the trajectory of Rasmussen’s Midnight Atmosphere through the archives and through its institutional settings in order to consider how images travel and how travels create images. It is argued that while the itinerary of the artist remained entangled within the colonial system, the trajectory in and through various institutions was similarly central to the colonial control of Kalaallit Nunaat as both place and image.

Г.Н. Потанин и В.И. Вернадский: опыт научного взаимодействия

For the first time in the research literature, the paper highlights the cooperation of the outstanding Russian investigators G.N. Potanin (1835-1920) and V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945). The basis of interaction between these scientists was determined by the fact that both of them were students of Natural Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Imperial St. Petersburg University. They carried the knowledge and interest in research gained at the university throughout their lives. Based on authentic sources, the authors revealed the role of A.A. Inostrantsev (1843-1919) as the organizer and ruler of the geological cabinet (museum) at St. Petersburg University, where G.N. Potanin acquired the necessary knowledge for his scientific expeditions to Central Asia in 1874. Under the influence of Dr. Inostrantsev, Potanin realized the importance of museums in geology and other branches. Besides, he supported V.V. Dokuchaev (1846-1903) in conducting soil science research in Russia. The paper emphasizes the participation of the university student Vladimir Vernadsky in Prof. Dokuchaev’s expeditions and in the preparation of a soil exposition at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. Following in the footsteps of his teachers and mentors, V.I. Vernadsky joined the museum science, became the curator of the Mineralogical Museum in Alma Mater, and then, some years later, in the Imperial Moscow University. Immediate communication between V.I. Vernadsky and G.N. Potanin occurred in the 1890s - 1900s, when they participated in discussions on ideological and political reorganization of Russia, pondered on the problems of regional self-government in the country. As a brief conclusion from this publication, the authors postulate free thought and scientific creativity, which related to Vernadsky and Potanin, as relevant ideas of our days.

Можно ли станцевать журналистику? Из истории британского балета XIX века

In 1898 the ballet titled The Press was staged at the Empire Theatre in London. Choreographer and producer Katti Lanner, composer Leopold Wenzel and costume designer C. Wilhelm made a nontrivial attempt to transfer the sphere of journalism into the space of dance. Austrian dancer, pedagogue and choreographer Katti Lanner went down in the history of ballet theatre not only as the first woman who made a career as a choreographer but as the inventor of a new genre — the ‘entertaining revue’. The choreographer’s productions were often based on modern plots. Besides the ballet The Press, Lanner’s artistic output included such ballets as The Sports of England, The Paris Exhibition and others. The music director of the Empire Theatre, Italian composer Leopold Wenzel was Lanner’s collaborator in a number of her productions. Wenzel was the composer of art songs, orchestral works, operas and music for ballet. Scenographer C. Wilhelm, who supplements this triumvirate, was one of the most successful and prolific theatre designers of that time. At the same time, most information about the creators and the production of the ballet The Press is almost absent in academic scholarly literature. This article examines the features of scenography and music of the ballet, its place and role in the history of the ballet theatre of Great Britain in the 19th century. The attempt is made to reconstruct some of the elements of the ballet. Of no small importance is the inverse response – critical materials of the main “protagonists” of the ballet on the pages of British newspapers from 1898 from archival sources, as well as rare pictures. The question of whether or not it is possible to recount about journalism in the language of dance is one of the most crucial questions raised in the article.

Present-day Importance of Krleža’s Interpretation of Artistic Motifs on Bosnian Medieval Tombstones

The present text provides an analysis of Krleža’s deliberations on medieval Bosnian art, which are most evidently reflected in his views about the tombstones – the stećci. Back in the 1950s, following Tito’s split with Stalin, Miroslav Krleža organized an exhibition in Paris, France, themed “Medieval Art of Yugoslav Peoples”, placing the tombstones in the center of attention. The reason for this lies in the fact that, in their appearance as monuments, he recognized the heretic efforts of the Bosnian Church, which was persecuted in the Middle Ages by Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Similarly, Tito’s Yugoslavia expressed its heretic character by standing up against the Western capitalist bloc – NATO, as well as Stalin’s dogmatism – the Warsaw Pact. The reason for the persecution of the members of the Bosnian Church back in the day was religious, whereas in the 1950s when Yugoslavia was fighting for its independent road towards further building socialism, the split was purely ideological. When the Berlin Wall fell and Yugoslavia was crushed by aggressive nationalist politics, many intellectuals found Krleža’s observations on the importance of the Bosnian medieval tombstones an expression of naïve romanticism, or an ideological construction hiding Tito’s absolute power, and his thirst for power and ethnic balancing. This text attempts to reaffirm Krleža’s deliberations on the tombstones, which, the author of these lines believes have not at all lost their importance, nor do they merely represent “an idealized past”.

Munich Exhibition of Oscar von Miller. Part 1. From Awards to Certificates (On the 140th anniversary of the Misbach-Munich Power Transmission of M. Depre)

After the International Electrical Exhibition in Paris in 1881, the world electrical industry development process speeded up significantly. A striking event of that time was the Munich Electric Exhibition of 1882, the ideological inspirer and organizer of which was the German engineer Oskar von Miller. A small budget, a small number of exhibits and participants forced the steering committee to look for non-trivial solutions that make it possible to distinguish the exhibition at the background of other similar events. A brilliant step was the decision to issue special certificates to all participants of the exhibition instead of medals, based on a thorough experimental study of each exhibit with the subsequent publication of the data obtained. To this end, a special commission was set up, which consisted of reputable scientists, engineers and industrialists. The Munich Exhibition was the forerunner of the Frankfurt Exhibition, which was also organized by Oskar von Miller according to his script in 1891 and the famous high-voltage three-phase power transmission for 175 km implemented by the Russian electrical engineer M.O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky.

The Book about Russian University of Transport (MIIT)

Always on the Move. – Moscow, Pan press publ., 2021, 554 p. − ISBN 978-5-9680-0301-0.The fundamental work is dedicated to the 125th anniversary of establishment of Russian University of Transport. The book contains the most interesting material, unique photographs, archival documents and historical essays on the main milestones in the history of the university, its main achievements and outstanding graduates.The anniversary publication dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Russian University of Transport tells about formation and development of the country’s leading transport university. Opened in 1896, Imperial Moscow Engineering School of the Department of Railways (IMEU) became alma mater for people who glorified themselves with the greatest transport facilities. These are the Great Siberian Railroad (Transsib) and the road from Siberia to Central Asia (Turksib), the bridge across the Yenisei, which received the Gold Medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, and the Baikal- Amur Mainline.The book includes a description of the glorious history of the university; biographical information about outstanding scientists who glorified not only the university but the whole country with their discoveries, as well as information about the latest successes and achievements of the university and its graduates.

Color Galore in the French Colonial Empire

Abstract Léon Busy (1874–1951) was an amateur photographer mostly known for his autochromes made in French Indochina for Albert Kahn’s multimedia collection “Les Archives de la planète” (Archives of the Planet). In addition to being an operator for Kahn, this article casts light on a less studied part of Busy’s life: his engagement with the French government of Indochina as of 1921. He exhibited his autochromes at the colonial exhibitions in Marseille (1922) and Paris (1931) and also served as head of the photographic section of the Office indochinois du Tourisme et de la Propagande (Indo-Chinese office of tourism and propaganda). This article provides an insight into my current research project and intends to demonstrate Busy’s instrumental role in producing colonial propaganda in color for the French government.

РУССКИЙ КУСТАРНЫЙ ОТДЕЛ НА ВСЕМИРНОЙ ВЫСТАВКЕ В ПАРИЖЕ И РОЛЬ В ЕГО СОЗДАНИИ АРХИТЕКТОРА И.Е. БОНДАРЕНКО

Russian Russian Handicraft Department at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris served as a vivid demonstration of both the traditional art of the Russian North and the emerging, including on the basis of its synthesis with Art Nouveau, artistic direction, later called the Neo-Russian style. In the text of his memoirs "Notes of an architect artist" I.E. Bondarenko included information about his own role in creating a pavilion for the Handicraft Department, about his relationship with his co-author, the famous Russian artist K.A. Korovin

European museology and colonial concord: Italy at the 1934 Expo du Sahara in Paris

AbstractThis article assesses Italy's participation in the Expo du Sahara in Paris in 1934, placing it within the framework of European colonial culture, exhibitions, and international relations during the 1930s. Hitherto, the Expo du Sahara has been largely ignored by historiography, but it offers important insights into Italo-French relations in the years immediately preceding Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, as well as the ways in which Fascist Italy sought national and international legitimacy through the medium of exhibitions. The Paris exhibition, staged by the European powers after years of clashes, was also a physical representation of the so-called ‘colonial concord’ and ‘peaceful’ partition of North Africa, processes in which Italy's role was fundamental.

The Collecting History of an Early Christian Lead Vessel: From Carthage to the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition

This article is based on research into the archaeological collections exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. In the course of that research, various documents were found relating to an Early Christian lead vessel, discovered in Carthage and since disappeared, that attracted the attention of many scholars at the time. This article aims to trace the history of the vase from its discovery to its exhibition in Paris through illustrations and published and unpublished documents. Archival data are drawn on to offer a description of the lost vase’s iconography that is as complete as possible.1

Exhibition activity of the Palekh lacquer miniature craft (1923-1939)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the exhibition activity of the masters of the Palekh lacquer miniature. The author has chosen as a chronological period the first fifteen years of the existence of this fishery – from its inception in the first half of the 1920s to the beginning of the Second World War. The subject of the study, therefore, is an analysis of the exhibition practices of the Palekh art craft of the pre-war period (1923-1939). The article shows the importance of the exhibition activity of the Palekh lacquer craft at all stages of this brief, but nevertheless extremely eventful period. The purpose of the article is to show the importance that the exhibition activity had for the success and public recognition of Palekh as a new and quickly became the most famous lacquer craft in Russia. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the fact that, using historical-typological and structural research methods, as well as a historical-systematic approach, the author analyzes the most important domestic and foreign shows of the 1920s - 1930s, at which the products of the Palekh lacquer miniature were exhibited. The author emphasizes an important circumstance: the very formation and strengthening of the Palekh lacquer miniature craft in the first half and mid-1920s was caused precisely by the success of the prototypes exhibited at the largest exhibitions of that time, such as the All-Russian Exhibition of 1923 in Moscow, as well as the International Exhibition in Paris of 1925. At the same time, it is shown that Palekh's products continued to be successful at the shows (the exhibition "10 years of October" in 1927, the Soviet Exhibition in New York in 1928, the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937 and many other exhibitions analyzed in the article). Thus, it is the justification of the success of the exhibition activity of the Palekh lacquer miniature craft as an important factor of its public recognition that is the main conclusion of the article.

Exhibition of “Dahomean Amazons” in Moscow in 1901: Between Colonial Arrogance and Provincial Vanity

The article deals with the history of the exhibiting of the “Dahomean Amazons” in Moscow in April—May 1901. Existing research about this exhibition is critically analyzed. On the basis of scientific and popular literature published in Russia at the end of the 19th century, the stereotypical image of the Dahomean Amazons is reconstructed, in which, however, variability is found. The French model of their description stands out, in which the emphasis is on the barbaric cruelty of the Dahomeans, as well as the German one, in which more attention is paid to their courage, militancy, and piety. There are also differences in the interpretation of the erotic attractiveness of the Amazons. Then it is investigated to what extent these stereotypical ideas were involved during the tour of the Dahomey Amazons in Moscow. It was found that the troupe came from Germany and the program of their performances corresponded to the German model, which created more opportunities for empathy towards the people on display. At the same time, for the perception of the exhibition, it was also important that the Dahomey Amazons were shown at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, and the Moscow tour, as it were, made it possible to become involved in this event. The significance of the Moscow show of the Amazons turned out to be twofold: it combined cultural arrogance towards less developed Africans with provincial admiration for a spectacle brought from the center of Europe.