AMSTERDAM (EJP)---From 19 October 2007 the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam will present the exhibition Modern Masterpieces from Moscow.

This is a unique opportunity to see a collection of paintings and drawings by influential and innovative Russian Jewish artists from the period 1910-1940.

The exhibition sketches the rise and fall of Jewish artists in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Most of the works have never been seen in the Netherlands before.

Amsterdam will play host to world-famous masters such as El Lissitzky and Isaak Brodsky but also to lesser-known artists such as Nathan Altman, Alexander Labas and Alexander Tyshler.

The exhibition will present Russian Jewish art in all its diversity: from the Cubist portraits of Robert Falk and the Suprematism of Ilya Chashnik to the Socialist Realism of Yevgeny Katzman and the non-conformist and banned oeuvre of Solomon Nikritin.

New Soviet art

The arts flourished in Russia after 1910. Jewish artists such as Lissitzky played a pioneering role in forging the new Soviet art and introduced Jewish art to a dynamic new phase in its history.

The Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum) is the only museum in Holland to focus on Jewish history, religion and culture.

However, in the course of the 1920s the Jewish cultural renaissance was crushed and artists were severely restricted in their choice of style and subject matter.

The State’s priority for propaganda and educating the masses ushered in the heyday of Socialist Realism. But there were nonetheless artists who prospered under the new communist patronage and developed their own style within Socialist Realism – openly or in secret.

The exhibition shows the great diversity of the art world in the Soviet Union and the wide-ranging contribution made by Jewish artists.

The works in the exhibition are on loan from the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum in Moscow.

The Jewish Historical Museum is the only museum in Holland to focus on Jewish history, religion and culture. The museum is located at the heart of the former Jewish quarter in the centre of Amsterdam.

Modern Masterpieces from Moscow. Russian Jewish Artists, 1910-1940 From 19 October 2007 until 10 February 2008. Jewish Historical Museum, Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 2-4, Amsterdam. For more information call: +31 (0)20 531 0370