The exhibition of Russian-speaking émigré artists at Taksim Military Barracks was the first major exhibition organised by the Union of Russian Painters in Constantinople. During the occupation of Istanbul, the Taksim Military Barracks was more commonly known by the name MacMahon, and that is also how the Russian émigrés referred to it. It was located in the grounds of today’s Gezi Park and also, partly, in Taksim Square.
The exhibition was held with the assistance of the third secretary of the American Embassy in Istanbul, Foster Waterman Stearns. The émigré artists Nikolai Kalmykoff, Nikolai Becker, Tatiana Alexinsky-Loukina, Wladimir Ivanoff, Nikolai Peroff, Dimitri İsmailovitch, Roman Bilinski, Nikolai Vasilieff, Vladimir Bobritsky, Georges Artemoff and Lydia Nikanorova were among the exhibitors. According to journalists at the time, it was organised for the benefit of starving artists in the former Russian Empire “despite extremely difficult economic conditions and a half-starved existence” of the Russian artists in Istanbul (Anonymous, “Vystavka Soyuza Russkih Hudojnikov”, 1922). About 500 works by approximately 60 members of the union were presented. Prince Mehmed Sabâhaddin, French Navy officer and writer Claude Farrère, and the highest ranks of foreign missions were invited to the exhibition preview (Anonymous, “Vystavka Russkih Hudojnikov v Pol’zu Golodayuschih Hudojnikov Rossii”, 1922). Critics later noted that the uniqueness of the exhibition was that it featured works from a variety of schools and movements of the time: masterpieces by Cubists and Futurists, along with works by Impressionists and portraits in the classical style. It is also interesting that journalists failed to make any reference to the brokenness of spirit and heaviness apparent in the refugees' work. On the contrary, according to them, scenes of the imperfect life in Galata were depicted with good humour, and canvases on the theme of the old city, with mosques and Byzantine monuments, were filled with light (L. de Knorring, “L’Exposition des Peintres russes à la Caserne Mac-Mahon”, 1922). Among other things, this exhibition was notable for the fact that, along with Russian artists and sculptors, members of the Artel of Russian Craftsmen (it is highly likely that Magda Nachman's friend, Natalya Grekova, was one of the members), which had opened in Misk (now Mis) Street in November 1921, were also involved. While in Istanbul, the artel adhered to the precepts of the Moscow Stroganov School for Technical Drawing/Moscow Stroganov Art Academy (where Leonid Skvirsky studied arts) and fashioned predominantly wood objects (frames, chests, caskets); at the exhibition, they presented 110 items ranging from famous carved woodpeckers to wooden busts.