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Andrey Avinoff: In Pursuit of Beauty

Scaife Galleries Feb. 26–July 26, 2011
Andrey Avinoff's Tibet: Camp Scene in the Karakoram at the Foot of the Mountain (interior of tent) (recto); Studies of butterfly and moth wings (verso)
Andrey Avinoff, American, 1884–1949; Tibet: Camp Scene in the Karakoram at the Foot of the Mountain (interior of tent) (recto); Studies of butterfly and moth wings (verso), c. 1912; graphite and watercolor, Sheet 9 × 12 11/16 in 22.86 × 32.23 cm Mat 14 ¼ × 19 ¼ in 36.20 × 48.90 cm, Patrons Art Fund, 2008.12.1.A-.B, © artist or artist’s estate

If you had asked him, Andrey Avinoff would have said that his life’s work was hunting butterflies—in the wastes of Uzbekistan, the Himalayas and western Tibet, Jamaican jungles, and the arid deserts of Wyoming. He attended formal soirees with the elites of St. Petersburg, New York, and Pittsburgh with equal dedication and distinction. For most of his life, painting was a hobby or useful scientific skill, and for brief periods it provided financial support. His art for public consumption—botanical illustrations and stunning floral still lifes—is sophisticated, charming, and technically superb. However, in a series of truly great imaginative paintings executed over the course of his eventful life he also expressed private feelings—loyalty to Russian traditions, a deeply spiritual view of nature, and personal identification with an international gay subculture. These paintings link two important moments in the history of 20th-century Modernism: the Russian Silver Age preceding World War I, and the proliferation of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism in New York in the World War II era.

Avinoff was born in Tulchyn, Russia (now in Ukraine), in 1884. Trained in law, he entered the service of Czar Nicholas II in 1911. In 1917, as the Bolshevik Revolution threatened, he fled to New York to eke out a living as a commercial artist. Carnegie Museum (now Carnegie Museum of Natural History) invited him to join the Entomology Department in 1921, but he moved to Pittsburgh only when offered directorship of the Museum in 1926. In 1945, after a heart attack ended his distinguished scientific career, he returned to the New York area and resumed painting. He kept his homosexual life private until 1948–1949, when he collaborated with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey on a scientific study of sexuality and artistic creativity. Avinoff died in 1949 just as his multifaceted achievements were attracting the attention of Life magazine.

The epitaph on his tombstone is a quote from the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Beauty will save the world.”

Exhibition Images

Andrey Avinoff's Ship Deck
Andrey Avinoff, American, 1884–1949; Ship Deck, c. 1912; graphite and watercolor on paper, Mat 19 ¼ × 14 ¼ in 48.90 × 36.20 cm Sheet 9 ⅝ × 5 15/16 in 24.45 × 15.08 cm, Gift of Antonia Shoumatoff Foster, 2009.39.2, © artist or artist’s estate
Andrey Avinoff's Tibet: Camp Scene in the Karakoram at the Foot of the Mountain (interior of tent) (recto); Studies of butterfly and moth wings (verso)
Andrey Avinoff, American, 1884–1949; Tibet: Camp Scene in the Karakoram at the Foot of the Mountain (interior of tent) (recto); Studies of butterfly and moth wings (verso), c. 1912; graphite and watercolor, Sheet 9 × 12 11/16 in 22.86 × 32.23 cm Mat 14 ¼ × 19 ¼ in 36.20 × 48.90 cm, Patrons Art Fund, 2008.12.1.A-.B, © artist or artist’s estate
Andrey Avinoff's Tibet: Mountain with Camp Scene in the Karakoram
Andrey Avinoff, American, 1884–1949; Tibet: Mountain with Camp Scene in the Karakoram, 1912; Graphite and watercolor on paper, Carnegie Museum of Art, Patrons Art Fund, 2008.12.2 © artist or artist’s estate
Andrey Avinoff's The Bridge Below Honk Falls at Napanoch
Andrey Avinoff, American, 1884–1949; The Bridge Below Honk Falls at Napanoch, c. 1921; pastel on illustrator's board, Frame 20 ⅜ × 24 ½ × 1 ¾ in 51.75 × 62.23 × 4.45 cm, Second Century Acquisition Fund, 2007.47, © artist or artist’s estate
unknown Russian, The Mother of God Vladimirskaya
unknown Russian, Russian, 19th century in the style of 16th century, The Mother of God Vladimirskaya, tempera and gilt on gesso on wood panel, Work 34 × 24 ¾ in 86.36 × 62.87 cm Frame 36 ½ × 26 ½ × 1 in 92.71 × 67.31 × 2.54 cm Overall 36 ½ × 26 ½ × 5 in 92.71 × 67.31 × 12.70 cm, Gift of O. John Anderson in memory of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Hann, 80.63.1,

Support

Major support for Andrey Avinoff: In Pursuit of Beauty is provided by Dr. Richard and Priscilla Hunt, the Virginia Kaufman Fund, and the Beal Publication Fund. General operating support for Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by The Heinz Endowments and Allegheny Regional Asset District. Carnegie Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.