Nicholas Roerich

The Tatarstan State Museum of ine Arts, Museum of the Art of Asian Peoples, Tretyakov Gallery, Nizhnegorod State Museum of Fine Arts, the Smolensk State Museum, and the Academy of Arts contributed works to this catalogue of an exhibition that publishes works from various periods of Roerich's half century of painting: scenes of ancient history, legend, and mythology; set, costume, and curtain design for theatrical works such as Borodin's Prince Igor, Stravinsky's Rites of Spring; and a recurrent theme of Roerich's art: Asia, its severe and beautiful landscape, harmonious settlements, and solemn shrines. As much of a philosopher as an artist, Roerich spent much of his life pursuing and expressing a higher ideal, which he saw in myths and legends and in the timeless landscapes of mountain peoples. At first glance his paintings can seem monotonous but upon closer look one sees the nuances of color and subtle ways in which Roerich interwove the human and the natural worlds. An appendix reprints articles by contemporaries and excerpts from Roerich's writings.