Our Catalog Was Reviewed by the Director of the Museum of Palekh Art

A number of the icons in Oleg Kushnirskiy’s collection belong to the Palekh icon-painting tradition. We recently held a presentation of the collection’s catalog at the State Museum of Palekh Art. We are honored to share a review by the museum’s director, Olga Kolesova!

The book Russian Icons from the Mid-17th to the Early 20th Century. The Oleg Kushnirskiy Collection is an invaluable contribution to the study and popularization of late provincial Russian icon painting. Such collectors and connoisseurs as Oleg Kushnirskiy, who continued the work of collectors of the 19th—early 20th century N. M. Postnikov, N. P. Likhachev, and others, made it possible for the art samples of the once mass rural craft not to be irretrievably lost, but to enrich state museum and private collections.

The State Museum of Palekh Art also keeps unique icons by local masters. The publication of icons from the collection of Oleg Kushnirskiy expands the opportunities to study the development of icon painting in Palekh more deeply and extensively. Local icon painters often worked far away from their native places, and their icons were widely distributed throughout the country. The museum collection does not fully reflect this particular feature of the craft. With the help of private collectors who open their collections to the public, the understanding of late Russian religious painting is becoming more complete and objective.

My special gratitude goes to Ilya Kushnirskiy and his associates, who professionally presented the collection and prepared this publication.

                                                                                            Olga Kolesova
  Director of the State Museum of Palekh Art