Vosdanig Anouk Adoian, Leah Berlyavskaya, and Markus Rotkevich are internationally famous artists from your art history books who are better known respectively as Arshile Gorky, Louise Nevelson, and Mark Rothko. These influential artists originally emigrated to America from Russia to make new lives for themselves and in turn contributed significantly to the history of art. Artworks by the three as well as by many other major Russian émigré artists—such as Alexander Archipenko, Jacques Lipchitz, and Ben Shahn—are now on view in the new exhibition American Artists from the Russian Empire at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

Drawing from the wealth of significant Russian expatriates who became important artists inAmerica, this exhibition showcases a broad sampling covering virtually every major artistic style from the 20^th century, which ensures that virtually everyone who views it will find something to appreciate. From among successive waves of Russian immigrants, the curators, Yevgenia Petrova and Joseph Kibilitsky, have assembled works that include very good examples of cubism, surrealism, and mid-century modernism, as well as social and academic realism. Having originated in Russia, the exhibition is touring here because several important artworks included in the display are from the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art.

_{Max Weber; "Interior of the Fourth Dimension,"}

1913. Courtesy the National Gallery of Art.

Several of the included artists either came to America via Europe or returned there to be exposed to the very latest avant-garde styles firsthand from such masters as Henri Matisse and Fernand Leger. They then brought their new knowledge of the modern European styles to America. A perfect example is the painter Max Weber, who studied in Paris where he absorbed cubism. Back in America, Weber became an important art teacher to later influential artists on the American scene, including Mark Rothko. An early cubist work that Weber painted upon his return from Paris is the canvas “Interior of the Fourth Dimension” (1913), which shows a palette of blues, browns, and blacks that describes a shallow, analytically fragmented architectural surface. A second canvas in the exhibition by Weber is a later, more Matisse-like, narrow flower painting entitled “Gaillardias” (1933). The attractive painting shows several of the yellow and orange blossoms commonly known as Blanket Flowers, in an arrangement combined with pink gladiolas, purple campanulas, and white oats in a shallow, violet-grey-brown space.

Cubist sculpture is well represented by several artworks of Alexander Archipenko and Jacques Lipchitz. A particularly fine example is Archipenko’s small, refined “Leda and the Swan” (1938), which elegantly illustrates the artist’s signature use of solids and voids.

Surrealism is keenly embodied by Boris Margo’s two canvases: “Matrix of the Underworld” (1935) and “Thermal Forces” (1947). Margo’s imaginary yet complex paintings have deep space that is filled with convincingly rendered biomorphic shapes set in fantastic, strange landscapes. The canvases even feature the favored surrealist technique known as decalcomania, where wadded-up paper is dipped in paint and then pressed onto areas of the canvas. The resulting impression of the crumpled paper creates a texture akin to wood’s figural grain.

_{Mark Rothko; Untitled, 1947.}

_{Courtesy the Brooklyn Museum.}

Mark Rothko is an archetypal mid-century modernist. He is represented by two of his classic color field paintings and by three other early works. Rothko’s two classic 1950s color field canvases are infused with saturated luminous color. His classic untitled orange and white canvas from 1955 is as luscious as a 50-50 Creamsicle® for sale by an ice cream vender on a hot day. Rothko’s 1957 classic color field painting entitled “No. 7 (Orange and Chocolate)” is difficult to see clearly because it is encased under ultraviolet protective glass that causes distracting violet reflections from the lights within the gallery, but the three other earlier paintings by Rothko are a rare treat to see. Painted a decade prior to his color field works, his “Olympian Play” (1943-44), which includes surrealistic biomorphic shapes, is from a series of works featuring images from classical Greek myth. Another early painting by Rothko is a transitional work from 1947 with multiple grey, blue, and rust-red abstract shapes, which foretells the artist’s technique of diluting normally glossy oil paint with solvent to create areas of rich matte surface that will characterize his later more famous color field works.

Another prime mid-century work is Louise Nevelson’s sculpture entitled “Classic Column” (1967). It is a fun wood construction that looks like a fireplace that has been fused with a cello, entirely painted a deep matte-black. An open box with curvaceous shaped panels front an interior of upright boards that have been bundled together. Rising from it like a chimney is a hand-hewn rectangular column. The sculpture has a unique presence that is elegant and ungainly at the same time.

For viewers craving less abstract imagery, there is also a large assortment of representational paintings in the exhibition. Several Great Depression era works in the social realist style depict the unemployed toiling in their Hoovervilles. Many other artists in the exhibit were inspired by the French Academic, Impressionist, and Symbolist traditions. Nicolai Fechin trained in Russia, under realist painter Ilya Repin, and is known for his figurative works painted with colorful strokes applied with a palette-knife. One of Fechin’s best known works, “Portrait of Miss Sapojnikoff” (1908) appears in this exhibition and belongs to the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art. After being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1927, Fechin settled in New Mexico and began painting images of the local tribal people. Two other paintings by Fechin each feature a local tribal girl rendered in candy-like colors. Each young girl is rendered with large doe-eyes and looks overly vulnerable. The two paintings might be interpreted by contemporary viewers as being a bit predatory and creepy.

_{Nicolai Fechin; "Girl in Purple}

Dress," n.d.Courtesy the _Fred

Jones Jr. Museum of Art (Univ. of OK).

There are other intriguing realist works in this exhibition, such as Ben Shahn’s “Renascence” (1946), with its Vladimir Tatlin-like architectural construction appearing mangled by the post-Hiroshima nuclear nightmare. Another captivating painting is “Pig’s Feet and Vinegar” (1927) by Peter Blume, which is rendered in a style that looks like Grandma Moses fused with Marc Chagall.

While the repressive Stalinist era restricted what could be produced at home, Russians abroad made major contributions to the arts, including the fields of music and the budding movie industry. The exhibition American Artists from the Russian Empire honorably displays the remarkable contribution made by Russian immigrants to visual culture and features even more styles of art and many more artists than can be listed here. The exhibition is a splendid temporary supplement to the museum’s permanent collection.