The Figure of a Mediator in Russian Exhibition Activities in the Late XIX – Early XX Century

As part of the study, the figure of the intermediary and his participation in the exhibition activities of Russian art are analyzed with the aim of a deeper understanding of the trends that existed in the world of Russian painting in the late XIX and early XX centuries. This is important due to the fact that it was during this period that Russian art was actively developed and modified. There is a transition from a realistic direction, which was popular throughout the second half of the 19th century, to modernism, which in Russia is represented primarily by the activities of the World of Art association. The article describes the main trends in the field of the art world of Russia, which were characteristic of this period. This is necessary in order to understand how the evolution of mediation between the viewer and the public took place. The mediator is interesting to study, because he often influenced how the public perceived a particular direction in art. Moreover, the image of the artistic direction, created by intermediaries, in some cases still exists and has an impact on the modern audience. The evolution in the world of Russian art is viewed through the prism of socio-political changes that have occurred in the Russian Empire. For this, not only historiography was involved, but also some legislative acts. A fairly obvious correlation was revealed between the development of social movements and the emergence of a realistic trend in the world of Russian painting. The study also traces the decline in the popularity of realistic painting and the active development of modernism, which was caused by a number of reasons, among which the reforms at the Academy of Arts, as well as Russia's desire to leave international isolation and rapprochement with France. The focus is also on the dealer-critic system, which has been studied fairly well in the context of the development of the Western European art world, but is rarely used in the study of the Russian world of painting. This is a significant omission due to the fact that this system not only existed, but also developed. And this is clearly seen by the way intermediaries and their functions changed. It is analyzed how different intermediaries evaluated their influence and their activities in the framework of the development of the art world. Attention is also paid to the identification and description of the main actors who participated in the exhibition processes. They were not only critics, whose influence is fairly easy to trace, but also art associations, government organizations, and a new type of mediator, which in its functions is what is called a curator in the modern world of art. Finally, the final part of the work discusses how the exhibition acted as an intermediary. The use by an intermediary of an exhibition is seen as a way to convey their own ideas about what art should be like. Thus, it should be said that the study includes a rather voluminous study of the activities of various types of intermediaries in the changing world of Russian art. All this is achieved by studying a number of rather different sources, as well as by placing trends from the world of art in a specific socio-political context. Studying the activities of an intermediary in the field of exhibition activities in Russia makes us look a little differently at the development of Russian art.