There is no malice, hatred or aggression in this world. Instead there is only love, beauty and tenderness. There are magic animals and pink frogs living in an enchanted forest in which red women are lying on the banks of beautiful rivers. The most surprising thing of all about this is that this is how an artist understood Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century.

It is well known that most artists working at the time welcomed the revolutionary events of 1917, and those who didn't, had little choice but to keep quiet and paint workers and peasants. On the other hand, the artist Lev Bruny, being the spiritual son of Optinskys' elders, managed to survive, preserving his world through the use of a graceful thinness of lines, an extraordinary play of colors and an eastern refinement in composition.

Bruny spent a lot of time at Optina Pusten, a famous Russian monastery in a forest on the Oka river. The Optinskie landscapes are wonderful. Some of them are full of sunshine while some are full of the mystery of twilight, as is evident in his painting "Optina: landscape with red cross."

Nevertheless, in the course of time his style changes and this is particularly noticeable in two of his paintings. His "Golden Fish." painted in 1920 in blue, red and yellow colours, is almost playful and optimistic. At the same time, however, it manages to remain complex and deeply symbolic. By comparison the painting "Twilight: Golden Fish, " completed in 1926, demonstrates how the artist's perception has changed. The colors are dark, and black is predominant. The underlying theme is loneliness and the mood seems to be gloomy and hopeless. Clearly, the world in which the artist lived had dramatically changed and so had the artist.

The exhibition runs until Oct. I5.

Tretyakov Art Gallery
Krimskiy val, 10.
Metro: Oktyabrskaya
Tel.: 238-13-78
Hours: Closed Mon. 10 a.m. to 6-30 p.m.
Cover: 10-25 roubles.
Retrospective review of Lev Bruny (1894-1948)