TUQAY’S 125TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION OPENS IN MOSCOW

The exhibition “I’m rushing into Eternity” celebrating the 125^th  birth anniversary of Gabdullah Tuqay (1886 - 1913), a prominent Tatar poet and a publicist, opens at 15:00 on February 28, 2011 in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

 

This exhibition is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Plenipotentiary Representative Office of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, Cultural Department of Moscow, the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Regional Tatar Autonomy and the Mardjani Foundation.

 

This exhibition is the benchmark of the project of the same name, which started in the National Pushkin Museum in Saint-Petersburg in 2010. It highlights rarely displayed personal belongings, photos and original documents related to Gabdullah Tuqay from the fonds of the National Museum of Tatarstan. The special attention is given to poet’s privacy and lifetime publications. Among scanty and important objects survived are photos, taken at different age and items, concerned with his continuously unsettled life. For example, there are a faience casket, which Gabdullah Tuqay gifted to his sister Gazizah for his first author’s emoluments, a travelling basket, a black velvet tubatay as well as silver cufflinks, a gift from Ahmadgarey Hasani (1883 - 1934), a publisher and a writer, whom Tuqay shared most of his public ideas and views with. The exposition also includes a deathmask of the poet.

 

Among lifetime Tuqay’s publications presented are “Sennoi Bazaar or the New Kisekbash”, “What I remember of myself” and others. Pieces of paintings by Baqi Urmanche, Haris Yakupov, Faizrakhman Aminov and Zufar Gimaev enlarge the visual variety.

 

Children artworks after Tuqay’s lyrics from “Gabdulla Tuqay’s ABC” will be shown at the museum foyer on the first day.  “Gabdulla Tuqay’s ABC” is an open project, being held by the Mardjani Foundation in association with the State Museum of Fine Art of the Republic of  Tatarstan and the Center for aesthetic education for children and youth “Museion” under the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art to share Tuqay’s poetry with children not only from Tatarstan, but other places in Russia.

 

Known as a translator of Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolay Nekrasov, Tuqay was deeply influenced by the Russian literature. He carried his love and admiration for Alexander Pushkin through all his life. A legend says that in 1907, when he just moved to Qazan, among few belongings, he had in his travelling basket, was a volume of Pushkin. He had a plan to write his own variation for “Eugeny Onegin” using a national tincture, but left it due to his illness. This is why the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is chosen for commemoration.

 

A memorial ceremony will take place in Kazan in April, 2011.

 

“I’m rushing into Eternity” is a token event, which is aimed to develop and reinforce cultural bonds between major and local museums, to introduce national poetry and to give wide public access to museum treasures of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation.

 

At the vernisage are invited heads of the diplomatic missions, intellectuals and members of Moscow art, research and national communities.

 

At any question concerning a journalistic accreditation at the opening on February 28, 2011 please contact the press-center of the Plenipotentiary Representative Office of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation at:

tel. (495) 915 53 24,

e-mail adinaz@mail.ru

 

Exhibition dates: March 1, 2011 – March 27, 2011.

Opening hours:

Daily 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. (entrance till 6.00 p.m.)

Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.(entrance till 7.00 p.m.)

Closed - Monday and the last Friday of the month.

 

Address: The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art, Prechistenka, 12/2,

M. Kropotkinskaya.

 

Ticket price(s):

For adults, foreign tourists and students – 100 RUB 

 

For children of at the age of  7-17 years, full-time school students,  pensionaries,  parents of a large family and physically challenged persons with no right for no-charge entrance – 20 RUB.  

For physically challenged persons of the 1^st and 2^nd groups, veterans of the II World Was, war veterans, draftees, orphans, children with physical disability, children at the age of 0 – 6 years,  pensionaries from home of senior and disabled people,  full-time higher education students and museum staff – free of charge.

 

Museum administration:
tel. +7 (495) 6375674