Russian-American Artists in Tretyakov

In David Burliuk's "Hudson," a view of the New York City skyline seems to fly apart into ribbons of image and memory like a fleeting dream. But for Burliuk and the other Russian emigre artists featured in a new exhibition at The New Tretyakov Gallery, the United States was a tangible reality that strongly influenced the development of their art, as demonstrated by Burliuk's departure from his earlier work in "Hudson."

The traveling exhibition, titled "American Artists from the Russian Empire," includes 45 artists who left Russia or other parts of the Soviet Union for the United States at the start of the 20th century and is the first time such artists have been assembled.

"Some go together, some don't," said Yevgenia Petrova, the project's main creative force and deputy director of the State Russian Museum, where the exhibition was before arriving in Moscow. "It's a cross section of what went on in Russian-American art up to the middle of the 20th century."

This schizophrenic amalgam of paintings and sculptures runs the gamut from Neo-classicism to abstract art and includes several generations of artists, from Cubo-Futurist Max Weber to Alexander Liberman.

The idea came from a 2003 exhibition of Russians who emigrated to France.

The American-based Foundation for International Arts and Education organized the exhibition, drawing from museums, galleries and private collections in the United States. The show made its debut at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum at the University of Oklahoma this spring and will return to San Diego after its two-month run in Moscow.

"For the American public, the goal is to remind viewers that these artists had Russian roots, to point out what they brought from Russia to American art and what from American art influenced them," Petrova said.

In Russia, the exhibition aims to familiarize viewers with new art.

"For [these artists], showing in Russia was impossible because of the Iron Curtain; it wasn't patriotic to show such work," Petrova said.

American visitors will likely know artists like Mark Rothko, whose distinctive abstract style featuring solid blocks of color has made him an icon of American art. Russian art lovers, on the other hand, may know Boris Grigoryev, whose striking, slightly off-kilter portraits and depictions of peasant life have been extensively exhibited in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The first wave of Russian artists to move to America was mainly made up of Jews who left before the Bolshevik Revolution, seeking chances to exhibit and study art after enduring anti-Semitism in Russia.

"They left to obtain an education and gain freedom," Petrova said. Life in the Jewish Pale denied these artists a chance to show their work or communicate with kindred spirits on the international art scene, she explained.

After the Revolution, many artists fled in the face of violence, starvation and political persecution during the Civil War and under the Soviet regime.

"They left ... to avoid prison and stay alive but also to keep working; they didn't want to take part in Socialist realism," Petrova said.

Once in the United States, Russian artists were exposed to fluid, "contagious" new influences that profoundly affected their work, Petrova said.

"The Burliuk painting of New York is so unexpected for Burliuk -- it shows how strongly American art influenced these artists," she said.

At the same time, the Russian artists influenced their American counterparts and retained something distinctly Russian in their work.

"American Artists from the Russian Empire" runs at the New Tretyakov Gallery through Sept. 13. 10 Krymsky Val. Metro Oktyabrskaya, Park Kultury. Tretyakovgallery.ru.