ART-PRESENTATION: Russian Avant-Garde Original & Fake

Mikhail Larionov Rayonism Red and Blue (Beach ) (detail signature), 1913, Museum Ludwig Cologne, ML 1333, Photo: Verena Franken/Russian Avantgarde Research Project After a long period in which it was taboo, an increasing number of museums are becoming more transparent about how they deal with inauthentic works and exchanging knowledge. With a studio exhibition on the Russian avant-garde, the Museum Ludwig is presenting research on the authenticity of works in its collection. In addition to Pop Art and Picasso, the Russian avant-garde is a core focus of the museum’s collection, with more than 600 works from the period between 1905 and 1930, including some 100 paintings.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Museum Ludwig Archive

For various reasons, works of questionable authorship have continually found their way into private and institutional collections. Works by Russian avant-garde artists were counterfeited particularly often (due to their delayed reception after Stalinism, for instance). Even recently, paintings from this era that have turned out to be inauthentic have been presented in museums. The Museum Ludwig is also affected and is currently systematically investigating its collection of paintings with the help of international scholars. This research represents an important contribution to the international discourse on the Russian avant-garde. One goal is to identify and distinguish incorrect attributions in the museum’s collection. The exhibition “Russian Avant-Garde at the Museum Ludwig: Original and Fake / Questions, Research, Explanations” presents the methods and findings. With 27 works by or formerly attributed to Liubov Popova, Kliment Redko, Nikolai Suetin, Nina Kogan, El Lissitzky, and other artists, it presents art-historical and technological methods for making artistic authorship and questionable attributions recognizable. In addition to works from the museum’s own holdings, Momus in Thessaloniki – home to the Collection of George Costakis – as well as Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid kindly provide loans of original works that served as templates for not-authentic pictures. Based on noticeable examples, visitors can look behind the scenes and gain an understanding of provenance research and various investigative techniques such as infrared and X-ray images, fabric tests, and material analyses. Certain pigments, such as titanium white, serve as markers that allow the dating of a painting to be verified. The exhibition presents different perspectives by researchers in restoration, art technology, and art history on the question of the authenticity of an artwork. Of the 100 paintings in the Russian avant-garde collection at the Museum Ludwig, half have undergone an art-historical and technological examination, most by Dr. Maria Kokkori, art historian and art technologist at the Art Institute of Chicago and a specialist in the Russian avant-garde, in collaboration with the painting restorer at the Museum Ludwig, Petra Mandt. 14 paintings by Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova were selected for a fundamental examination of the Russian Avant-Garde Art Project, which was conducted by Dr. Jilleen Nadolny from Art Analysis & Research Institute in London. A film by Con­s­tantin Lieb of­fers in­sight in­to the ex­ten­sive ex­am­i­na­tions and co­op­er­a­tions with dif­fer­ent sci­en­tists.

Info: Curators: Rita Kersting, Petra Mandt and Juliane Duft, Museum Ludwig, Heinrich-Böll-Platz, Cologne, Duration: 26/9/20-3/1/21, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.museum-ludwig.de

Mikhail Larionov Rayonism Red and Blue (Beach ) (detail paint application, microscopic photograph), 1913, Museum Ludwig Cologne, ML 1333, Photo: Verena Franken/Russian Avantgarde Research Project
Mikhail Larionov Rayonism Red and Blue (Beach ) (detail paint application, microscopic photograph), 1913, Museum Ludwig Cologne, ML 1333, Photo: Verena Franken/Russian Avantgarde Research Project

 

 

Earlier attribution: Liubov Popova, Painterly Architectonic, c.1920 (given), Oil on canvas, 57,5 x 44 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1308, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Köln
Earlier attribution: Liubov Popova, Painterly Architectonic, c.1920 (given), Oil on canvas, 57,5 x 44 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1308, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Köln

 

 

Liubov Popova, Painterly Architectonic, 1918, Oil on canvas, 45 x 53 cm, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Accession no.1976.17, Photo: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Liubov Popova, Painterly Architectonic, 1918, Oil on canvas, 45 x 53 cm, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Accession no.1976.17, Photo: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

 

 

Left: Olga Rozanowa, Man on the Street (Analysis of Volums), 1913, Oil on canvas 83x 61 cm, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Inv.-Nr. 1976.89, Photo: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza Right: Earlier attribution: Olga Rozanowa, Landscape (Decomposition of Forms), c. 1913 (given), Oil on canvas, 57 x 40 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1413, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Left: Olga Rozanowa, Man on the Street (Analysis of Volums), 1913, Oil on canvas, 83x 61 cm, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Inv.-Nr. 1976.89, Photo: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Right: Earlier attribution: Olga Rozanowa, Landscape (Decomposition of Forms), c. 1913 (given), Oil on canvas, 57 x 40 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1413, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne

 

 

Left: Kazimir Malevich Supremus No. 38, 1916, Oil on canvas, 102,5 x 67 cm, Museum Ludwig, Cologne ML 1294 Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne Right: Earlier attribution: El Lissitzky, Proun, 1923 (given), Tempera on paper, 61 x 40 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML/Z 2011/208, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Left: Kazimir Malevich Supremus No. 38, 1916, Oil on canvas, 102,5 x 67 cm, Museum Ludwig, Cologne ML 1294 Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Right: Earlier attribution: El Lissitzky, Proun, 1923 (given), Tempera on paper, 61 x 40 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML/Z 2011/208, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne

 

 

Left: Earlier attribution: Kliment Redko, Suprematism, 1921/22 (given), Oil on canvas, 69 x 49,5 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1411, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne Right: Kliment Redko, Suprematism, 1921, Oil on canvas, 71,2 x 53.2 cm, MOMus – Museum of Modern Art – Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki CC-0910, Photo: MOMus – Museum of Modern Art – Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki
Left: Earlier attribution: Kliment Redko, Suprematism, 1921/22 (given), Oil on canvas, 69 x 49,5 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1411, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Right: Kliment Redko, Suprematism, 1921, Oil on canvas, 71,2 x 53.2 cm, MOMus – Museum of Modern Art – Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki CC-0910, Photo: MOMus – Museum of Modern Art – Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki

 

 

Left: Earlier attribution: Liubov Popova, Still Life with Glas and Bottles, c.1914 (given), Oil, collage on canvas, 76 x 61 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1526, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne Right: Liubov Popova, Still Life, 1914, Oil on canvas, 88 x 57,5 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1377, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Left: Earlier attribution: Liubov Popova, Still Life with Glas and Bottles, c.1914 (given), Oil, collage on canvas, 76 x 61 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1526, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Right: Liubov Popova, Still Life, 1914, Oil on canvas, 88 x 57,5 cm, Museum Ludwig Cologne ML 1377, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne

 

 

Left: Liubov Popova, Portrait of a Woman (Relief), 1915, Oil on paper, cardboard, and wood, 66,3 x 48,5 cm Museum Ludwig, Cologne ML 1284 Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne Right: Natalia Goncharova, Orange Seller, 1916, Oil on canvas 131 x 97 cm Museum Ludwig, Cologne ML 1484 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne / Russian Avantgarde Research Project
Left: Liubov Popova, Portrait of a Woman (Relief), 1915, Oil on paper, cardboard, and wood, 66,3 x 48,5 cm Museum Ludwig, Cologne ML 1284 Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne
Right: Natalia Goncharova, Orange Seller, 1916, Oil on canvas 131 x 97 cm Museum Ludwig, Cologne ML 1484 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne / Russian Avantgarde Research Project