27 September 2024 – 19 January 2025
The Ukrainian Museum presents a landmark exhibition and publication celebrating the work of artist Alexandra Exter. Titled Alexandra Exter: The Stage Is a World, the exhibition opens on 27 September 2024, and runs through 19 January 2025. Marking the first solo showcase of her work in North America, it offers a comprehensive exploration of Exter’s pioneering career from 1913 to 1934. Featuring over sixty-six paintings and works on paper, the exhibition highlights her early abstractions and avant-garde theater contributions. Through collaboration with Ukrainian and U.S. museums, as well as international private collectors, this survey delves into Exter’s influential contributions to theater and cinema, presenting both rare and iconic pieces beloved by art lovers around the world.
Dubbed the “avant-garde Amazon,” Exter was a fixture in European artistic circles during the early twentieth century, traversing Kyiv, Odesa, Paris, and Venice. Her oeuvre spans a multitude of mediums, including painting, graphic arts, book design, fashion, theater, and cinema. Progressing through various artistic movements, from cubism to constructivism and art deco, Exter’s artistic evolution was marked by continual exploration.
Alexandra Exter’s legacy endured, albeit with periods of obscurity, until a posthumous exhibition in Paris in 1972 reignited interest in her pioneering oeuvre. Yet, her rightful place in the history of abstract painting remains to be fully recognized, as does her Ukrainian identity.
