An exhibition from a cycle Seasons “Summer impression”

The exhibition “Impression of Summer” was opened at the Museum Centre of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on 30th June. This was the third exhibition of the Art Gallery’s “Seasons” project (the series will continue with a winter exhibition towards the end of the year).

The function was organized jointly by the Gallery of the Museum Centre, the Department of Fine Art of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan. Over 200 works, by more than 50 artists, were presented for display. Among them were artistic canvases, graphical works, sculptures and installations.

Liana Vezirova, director of the Museum Centre, lyrically defined the deep intent and the overall concept of the exhibition “Impression of Summer”: “What impressions do we receive from summer and what are their further influences on the Earth and the Universe? Participants in the exhibition were set the task to answer this broad philosophical question, which is especially topical for our country, as summer in our land is quite an interesting guest, with a particular desire to stay for a long time. Summer is the time of holidays; summer is the beach, sea and flowers... Besides, it is a special mood: on the one hand, when the number of sunny days increases, one wants to be wildly active but, on the other hand there is a great desire to dedicate yourself to doing nothing. Otherwise, summer is no doubt a time of love, not a love of the moment, tender and young as in spring. It is the time for a bright, mature, expressive and very colourful love. It is no coincidence that such a large number of the works in our viewing are dedicated to this eternal topic. And even this is not all! Because summer also means memorable holidays, which may include cocktails and dances. This is just the relaxation that we plan to offer our audience during the exhibition: as they view the works, they can also participate in a cocktail party and enjoy ballroom dancing”.

Still the main point of the exhibition is the art itself. The audience had the chance to view art displaying various techniques and genres. Of course, paintings are most prominent in terms of the number of exhibits. Of course, the more people, the more opinions there are, especially when it comes to such an infinitely variable topic as summer. However, each guest of this viewing was certainly able to find a piece of their own, arousing feelings in his heart that only he was aware of.

Short synopsis: the keynote of the exposition was the splash of feelings, splash of the colours of nature and, of course, sacramental views of Absheron. When else can we show this part of the world in all its glory? Another interesting feature was that purely realistic genres, such as landscape and still life, were much less apparent – the absolute majority of creators, who had to comply with the given concept, finely interpreted the impressions of this hot period in their own inimitable manner. Some “enlivened” the gifts of nature and gave them human passions, some embroidered a woman’s portrait from flowers and butterflies, some created mugham in the language of colour, and some (most of them chose this path) tried to deliver the mood of this sunny season, not only in the topic, but also through colour.

As this large-scale exhibition had numerous participants, an even larger number of works and the topic itself was rather broad, we can extrapolate what we have seen to a general view of national contemporary arts, specifically of painting. This gives theorists a great deal of food for thought and analysis, and practitioners (gallery experts, artists and art-managers) an orientation towards the world of ideas of Azerbaijani artists, which will allow them to develop a course for future activity. And this was the main value of such a large-scale project as “Seasons” in the gallery of the Museum Centre.

Sponsors: Restaurants - “Kill Bill” and “Pizza Gusto”

56 artists took part in the exhibition.