———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— The Russian Avant-Garde and Radical Modernism An Introductory Reader — 1 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— Cultural Syllabus Series Editor: Mark Lipovetsky (University of Colorado - Boulder) — 2 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— THE RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE AND RADICAL MODERNISM An Introductory Reader Edited by Dennis G. IOFFE and Frederick H. WHITE Boston 2012 — 3 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: A bibliographic record for this title is available from the Library of Congress. Copyright © 2012 Academic Studies Press All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-936235-29-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-936235-45-2 (paperback) Book design by Adell Medovoy Published by Academic Studies Press in 2012 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com — 4 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— Contents List of Illustrations 7 Note from the Editors 8 I. An Introduction to the Russian Avant-Garde and Radical Modernism by Dennis Ioffe and Frederick H. White 9 II. Russian Futurism and the Related Currents 1. Hylaea by Vladimir Markov 21 1a) Velimir Khlebnikov: A “Timid” Futurist by Willem G. Weststeijn 54 1b) Mayakovsky as Literary Critic by Willem G. Weststeijn 70 2. Russian Art of the Avant-Garde: Translated Texts: John E. Bowlt 85 Content and Form, 1910 — VASILII KANDINSKY 85 Preface to Catalogue of One-Man Exhibition, 1913 — NATALYA GONCHAROVA 89 Cubism (Surface-Plane), 1912 — DAVID BURLIUK 93 Cubism, I912 — NATALYA GONCHAROVA 101 Why We Paint Ourselves: A Futurist Manifesto, 1913 — ILYA ZDANEVICH and MIKHAIL LARIONOV 102 Rayonists and Futurists. A Manifesto, 1913 — MIKHAIL LARIONOV and NATALYA GONCHAROVA 105 Rayonist Painting, 1913 — MIKHAIL LARIONOV 109 Pictorial Rayonism, 1914 — MIKHAIL LARIONOV 118 From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism, 1915 — KAZIMIR MALEVICH 120 Suprematism in World Reconstruction, 1920 — EL LISSITZKY 140 Program Declaration, 1919 — KOMFUT 147 3. The Phenomenon of David Burliuk in the History of the Russian Avant-Garde Movement by Elena Basner 150 4. The Revolutionary Art of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov by Jane A. Sharp 170 III. Russian Suprematism and Constructivism 1. Kazimir Malevich: His Creative Path by Evgenii Kovtun 206 2. Constructivism and Productivism in the 1920s by Christina Lodder 227 3. The Birth of Socialist Realism from the Spirit of the Russian Avant-Garde by Boris Groys 250 4. Russian Art of the Avant-Garde: Translated Texts: John E. Bowlt 277 The Paths of Proletarian Creation, 1920 — ALEKSANDR BOGDANOV 277 — 5 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— Declaration: Comrades, Organizers of Life, 1923 — LEF 281 Constructivism [Extracts], 1922 — ALEKSEI GAN 284 IV. The OBERIU Circle (Daniil Kharms and His Associates) 1. OBERIU: Daniil Kharms and Aleksandr Vvedensky on/in Time and History by Evgeny Pavlov 296 2. Some Philosophical Positions in Some “OBERIU” Texts (Translator’s preface) by Eugene Ostashevsky 314 V. Russian Experimental Performance and Theater 1. Vsevolod Meyerhold by Alexander Burry 357 2. The Culture of Experiment in Russian Theatrical Modernism: the OBERIU Theater and the Biomechanics of Vsevolod Meyerhold by Michael Klebanov 385 VI. Avant-Garde Cinematography: Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov 1. Eisenstein: A Short Biography by Frederick H. White 407 2. Allegory and Accommodation: Vertov’s Three Songs of Lenin (1934) as a Stalinist Film by John MacKay 420 Concluding Addendum: The Tradition of Experimentation in Russian Culture and the Russian Avant-Garde by Dennis Ioffe 454 List of Contributors 468 Bibliography 472 — 6 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— List of Illustrations Image 1: The photo of the “seated Lenin” in the 1938 (and probably the 1934) 423 versions of the prologue to Three Songs Image 2: Peasant women dancing “in the round” (from Kino-Eye (1924)) 427 Image 3: The round faces of jubilant peasant women (Kino-Eye) 428 Image 4: The Pioneers arrive with rectilinearity (the sign reads, “Today is the 429 International Day of Cooperation”) (Kino-Eye) Image 5: Streaks of water, geometrical form and forward movement (Kino-Eye) 429 Image 6: A drunken man staggers to his feet in Enthusiasm (1930) 430 Image 7: The siren of industrial modernity (Enthusiasm) 431 Image 8: The Pioneers bringing (visual) order to chaos (Enthusiasm) 432 Image 9: The veil (Three Songs of Lenin (1934)) 432 Image 10: The “praying camera” in motion (Three Songs of Lenin) 434 Image 11: The activist making her notes, linking old and new (Three Songs of Lenin) 435 Image 12: The activist looks into the future (Three Songs of Lenin) 436 Image 13: Pioneers marching on the riverbank (Three Songs of Lenin) 437 Image 14: The immobile Kara-Kum desert, near the beginning of the third song (Three Songs of Lenin) 441 Image 15: The double-flow of marchers into the mausoleum (Three Songs of Lenin) 442 Image 16: The core image of the sequence: water (Three Songs of Lenin) 443 — 7 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— Note from the Editors This Reader is a collection of the most salient texts about the Russian avant-garde and radical modernism. The previously published texts, for the most part, remain the way in which they originally appeared in print. Therefore, you will note seeming inconsistencies in the transliterations of names and possibly in titles of some works. The transliteration systems employed in the volume vary between the (phonetically based) Library of Congress system of transliterating Russian Cyrillic and the International system (also called the scientific or the European system). The editors of this volume decided not to standardize these trans- literations as it might lead to further alterations, which would begin to impinge heavily upon the original text. — 8 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— I AN INtrODUctiON TO THE RUssiaN AVANT-garDE AND RADicaL MODerNism — 9 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— Introduction Modernism, as a concept, may be understood as the totality of numer- ous aesthetic theories that began to take shape during the second half of the nineteenth century and achieved a measure of aesthetic coher- ence already before the First World War. Despite the absence of an all- encompassing manifesto, modernism demonstrated several consistent aesthetic principles and methods of creation that resulted in a funda- mental revision of the universal values that had been previously cul- turally dominant. Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Imagism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism each represented an enthusiastic break with the positivist cultural heritage and humanistic beliefs of the nineteenth century. Although there existed within these movements in- trinsic contradictions, expressed in manifestoes and declarations, there was one common artistic attitude, as a result of the unprecedented ca- lamities of the era. All of these movements aimed to overthrow the basic aesthetics of classical Realism, which resulted in a radical opposition to these canons of realistic art that is now known as modernism. This volume is intended for a student audience and aims at provid- ing a general overview of the main currents that constituted the final stage of the modernist creative history—the Russian avant-garde de- scribed from a historical perspective. The collection features a number of original contributions commissioned specifically for the present vol- ume along with some scholarly classics devoted to the relevant topics. The texts presented in this reader were selected with the aim of bringing the most suitable and accessible information on the issues in question. They reflect both a high caliber of scholarly rigor and professional sub- stantiality along with an overall accessibility for students. Let us start with defining briefly the thematic issues that will be discussed in the following pages. Constantly challenging the principles of artistic representation, modernism rejected traditional realistic art and literature by denying life-imitating techniques in favor of irrationalism and absurdity. To a certain degree, modernism was an aesthetic reaction to what was per- — 10 — ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— ceived as a chaotic modern world, following the unprecedented death and destruction caused by severe social cataclysms. Art seemed to pre- sent itself as a possible salvation from mankind’s shattered reality that might create a new language, a new culture, a new actuality. Aesthetic movements of the time also exhibited radical elements such as the in- tense promotion of, or outright demand for, far-reaching social change and political reform. One view of modernism suggests that it should be perceived as a “me- ga-period” that encompassed mutually hostile movements such as Sym- bolism and the avant-garde. In this case, modernism followed Realism as a reaction against rationalist aesthetics. There was a certain parallel overlap in France with Charles Baudelaire and later with Paul Verlaine and Rimbaud who in a certain sense “appeared before their age,” thereby contributing to the early development of the modernist aesthetic even before it was formally conceived and defined. The central principles of modernist culture heralded a fundamental revision of most of the major philosophical doctrines that had dominated