Introduction

Folklore is an integral part of all cultures, whether in Liechtenstein, Russia or any other place in the world. Although we do not always realise it, folk tales address serious issues and help prepare children for real life. The fight between good and evil is used to show children the right path and to help them along it.

Folk tales are popular in all cultures and they often share the same structure, which not only helps them to be passed on but also increases their popularity. This explains not least the success of modern stories such as ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’. That is why the film industry loves fairy tales.

Over the last fifty years, the world of folklore has once again been called into question when it comes to reading. This exhibition is our modest contribution to developing the reading culture. We want to help children, their mothers and fathers, and even grandmothers and grandfathers, to start telling stories if they aren’t already doing so. The exhibition aims to reawaken our guests’ interest in reading and help them rediscover their enjoyment of folk tales through these unique and beautiful sculptures.

In our history, there has already been a time when it seemed that fairy tales had seen their day. In the second half of the 18th century during the age of enlightenment, a new rational world was established of which fairy tales were not a part. The need for them was called into question: Who actually needs these fanciful stories?

The brothers Grimm were among those who wanted to save the story-telling culture and write down those that remained before they were lost forever. Did they understand that their collection not only preserved an ancient past for us but also gave fairy tales a new lease of life?

At around that time, Alexander Pushkin was writing his world famous tales, followed a few decades later by the stories of Count Leo Tolstoy, such as “Chudishche” and “Mishka”. In Russia from 1855–1863, Alexander Afanasiev, like the brothers Grimm, collected around 600 folk tales. From 1860–1862, Ivan Khudyakov also made a huge contribution to the collection of fairy tales.

Mainly due to the numerous publications of German and Russian folk tales, a new genre of fine art was established – book illustrations for fairy tales. This attracted the attention of many artists and the first pictures and sculptures of fairy tale characters appeared.

At around the same time in the 19th century, the art of stone carving flourished in the Urals because of its rich deposits of different types of stone. Skilled craftsmen carved cups, boxes, ornaments, sculptures and decorative architectural objects out of the Ural stone. When Carl Fabergé became the most eminent Russian jeweller in the second half of the 19th century, he studied the traditional Ural art of stone carving and used it for his famous Easter eggs, as well as for original stone sculptures, all of which were small masterpieces. His stone and precious metal compositions were highly valuable and remain so today.

The tradition of carving precious sculptures from all types of stone exists in the Urals to the present day; however, its future is under threat — as is the case with many traditional crafts. Despite this, we hope that with the help of patrons and collectors this art will not only continue but that it will thrive once more. All of the sculptures in the exhibition — and this deserves special mention — are made from natural stones with no additional colouring.

Thanks to the generosity of the collectors, I am delighted that we have the opportunity not only to exhibit these fantastic, unique stone sculptures based on folk tales, but to draw special attention to a wonderful traditional craft as well as to our rich folklore.

Prof. Dr. Rainer Vollkommer
Director of the Liechtenstein National Museum in Vaduz