A Legacy Regained: Niko and the Russian Avant-Garde

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A Legacy Regained: Niko and the Russian Avant-Garde A LEGACY REGAINED: NIKO AND THE RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE PALACE EDITIONS Contents 8 Foreword Evgeniia Petrova 9 Preface Job de Ruiter 10 Acknowledgements and Notes to the Reader John E. Bowlt and Mark Konecny 13 Introduction John E. Bowlt and Mark Konecny Part I. Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Russian Avant Garde Remembering Nikolai Khardzhiev 21 Nikolai Khardzhiev RudolfDuganov 24 The Future is Now! lra Vrubel-Golubkina 36 Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Suprematists Nina Suetina 43 Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Maiakovsky Museum, Moscow Gennadii Aigi 50 My Memoir of Nikolai Khardzhiev Vyacheslav Ivanov 53 Nikolai Khardzhiev and My Family Zoya Ender-Masetti 57 My Meetings with Nikolai Khardzhiev Galina Demosfenova 59 Nikolai Khardzhiev, Knight of the Avant-garde Jean-C1aude Marcade 63 A Sole Encounter Szymon Bojko 65 The Guardian of the Temple Andrei Nakov 69 A Prophet in the Wilderness John E. Bowlt 71 The Great Commentator, or Notes About the Mole of History Vasilii Rakitin Writings by Nikolai Khardzhiev Essays 75 Autobiography 76 Poetry and Painting:The Early Maiakovsky 81 Cubo-Futurism 83 Maiakovsky as Partisan 92 Painting and Poetry Profiles ofArtists and Writers 99 Elena Guro 101 Boris Ender 103 In Memory of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov 109 Vladimir Maiakovsky 122 Velimir Khlebnikov 131 Alexei Kruchenykh 135 VladimirTatlin 137 Alexander Rodchenko 139 EI Lissitzky Contents Texts Edited and Annotated by Nikolai Khardzhiev 147 Nikolai Khardzhiev Introductions to Kazimir Malevich's Autobiography (Parts 1 and 2) 157 Kazimir Malevieh Autobiography 172 Nikolai Khardzhiev Introduction to Mikhail Matiushin's The Russian Cubo-Futurists 173 Mikhail Matiushin The Russian Cubo-Futurists 183 Alexei Morgunov A Memoir 186 Nikolai Khardzhiev Introduction to Khlebnikov Is Everywhere! 187 Khlebnikov is Everywhere! Memoirs by Oavid Burliuk, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Amfian Reshetov, and on Osip Mandelshtam 190 Nikolai Khardzhiev Introduction to Lev Zhegin's Remembering Vasilii Chekrygin 192 Lev Zhegin Remembering Vasilii Chekrygin Part 11. Materials from the Archive of the Khardzhiev-Chaga Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam 204 Preamble John E. Bowltand Mark Konecny 205 Between Moscow and Amsterdam Geurt Imanse 205 Note from the Translator James Frank Goodwin 207 Letter to Nikolai Khardzhiev, 1940 Oaniil Kharms Cubo-Futurism 208 Alexei Kruchenykh Declaration of the Word as Such, 1913-17 209 Roman Jakobson Letters to Velimir Khlebnikov, Alexei Kruchenykh, and others, 1914 214 Natalia Goncharova Futurism, 1914 Album, 1914? (extracts) 217 Mikhail Larionov What Is Called Cubism, 1930s? My First Meeting with Igor Grabar, 1930s? Rayonism, 1913 220 Vladimir Tatlin Letter to Mikhail Larionov, 1911 Letters to Petr Miturich, 1926 Letters to Petr Miturich, 1927 222 Olga Rozanova Letters to Alexei Kruchenykh, 1915-17 225 Vasilii Chekrygin Letter to Nikolai Punin, 1922 228 Petr Miturich A People's Commissariat of Futurism, ca. 1921 6 Contents Suprematism 230 Kazimir Malevieh Cubism, undated The Formula of Suprematism, 1923 Greeting to the Suprematists, 1917 Declaration of Suprematists, 1918 Second Declaration of Suprematists, 1918 The First Principle, 1919 Scheme of Movement of Creative Units within Infinity, ca. 1923 Creativity Cannot Be Free, ca. 1923 Energy Exists, ca. 1923 241 Ivan Kliun Suprematism as an Art of Pure Form, ca. 1916 Cultured People, ca. 1916 244 EI Lissitzky Overcoming Art (extracts), 1921 Letter to Kazimir Malevich, 1922 248 Kazimir Malevieh Letter to EI Lissitzky, 1924 249 Nikolai Punin The Impasse of Suprematism (excerpts), 1923 251 Kazimir Malevieh Polemic with Nikolai Punin et al., 1923 253 Illustrations 363 Footnotes 388 Glossary 391 Selected Bibliography 394 Name Index Contents 7.
Recommended publications
  • Painting the Absolute
    ANDRÉI NAKOV MALEVICH painting the absolute An iconic figure in the history of modern art, the Russian painter Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) was the creator of Suprematism, best known for his emblematic Black Square (1915). Censored in Russia for many years, his revolutionary writings were only recognised at the end of the twentieth century, initially in Western Europe. Similarly, much of his work remained unknown until the fall of Communism; little studied, the life and work of this painter remain shrouded in an aura of mystery. Andréi Nakov’s monumental study of this prophetic artist is founded on many decades of research in Russia, Western Europe and the US. The author has uncovered many previously unknown documents, and sheds a new light on Malevich’s pivotal role in the development of modern art, offering a radically new interpretation of a • Andréi Nakov and Malevich’s daughter, Anna-Maria Uriman. fascinating artist. Andréi Nakov is the leading world expert on the work of Kazimir Malevich and the ‘The Essential 4-volume Reference Guide to Melevich’s Complete Oeuvre’ Russian avant garde. He is the author of the Malevich catalogue raisonné (2002), an extensive critical anthology of the writings of Malevich (1975), and L’Avant-garde • The most detailed and comprehensive analysis of Malevich’s complete œuvre available Russe (1984). Kazimir Malevich: Le Peintre Absolu (the French edition of the present • Based on over 30 years of research in Russia, Western Europe and the US book) was awarded a prize in 2007 by the Académie francaise des Beaux-Arts. Andréi • Andréi Nakov’s scrupulous research corrects previous errors, myths and Nakov has organised numerous exhibitions on Dada, Constructivism and abstract art, misinterpretations of Malevich’s work including the Tate Gallery’s Malevich exhibition in 1976.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Article
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 144 3rd International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2017) Social and Historical Environment of the Society of Moscow Artists Elena Lomova Moscow State Academic Art Institution named after V.I. Surikov Moscow, Russia Abstract—The article is concerned with the social and later became the first chairperson of the Society of Moscow historical conditions of forming the Society of Moscow Artists Artists (OMKh). Grabar shared similar vision of art as (OMKh), whose members had covered a long way from an painters from Mir Iskusstva, who popularized the epatage art group the Jack of Diamonds to the society standing individualism, the disengagement of art from political and at the origins of Socialist Realism. socials issues, and paid particular attention to the legacies of the past and especially to Russia‘s national cultural traditions. Keywords—OMKh; The Jack of Diamonds; futurists; The group‘s ‗leftists‘, where the ―Russian avant-garde‖ Socialist Realism; art societies in the 1920s and 1930s occupied a special place, had shaken even more the conventional assumptions about art, dramatically influencing I. INTRODUCTION further development of world art. th The first half of the 20 century was rich in the landmark Meantime, Russian art continued to shift away from the events that could not but influence art, one of the most reality to a non-figurative world, as if not wishing to reflect sensual areas of human activity, sensitive to the slightest horrors happening in the country. Whereas the artists from fluctuations in public life. We can trace their obvious Mir Iskusstva were dipping into the dreams of the past, the repercussions in art while considering the historical events of th avant-garde artists were generally anxious for the future and the early 20 century.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics and History of 20Th Century Europe Shifted Radically, Swinging Like a Pendulum in a Dramatic Cause and Effect Relationship
    Politics and history of 20th Century Europe shifted radically, swinging like a pendulum in a dramatic cause and effect relationship. I explored the correlation between art movements and revolutions, focusing specifically on Russian Constructivism and the Russian Revolution in the 1920s, as well as the Punk movement in East Germany that instigated the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I am fascinated by the structural similarities of these movements, and their shared desire of egalitarianism, which progressed with the support of opposing political ideologies. I chose fashion design because it was at the forefront of both Constructivism and Punk, and because it is what I hope to pursue as a career. After designing a full collection in 2D, I wanted to challenge myself by bringing one of my garments to life. The top is a plaster cast cut in half and shaped with epoxy and a lace up mechanism so that it can be worn. A paste made of plaster and paper pulp serves to attach the pieces of metal and create a rough texture that produces the illusion of a concrete wall. For the skirt, I created 11 spheres of various sizes by layering and stitching together different shades of white, cream, off-white, grey, and beige colored fabrics, with barbed wire and hardware cloth, that I then stuffed with Polyfil. The piece is wearable, and meant to constrict one’s freedom of movement - just like the German Democratic Party constricted freedom of speech in East Germany. The bottom portion is meant to suffocate the body in a different approach, with huge, outlandish, forms like the ones admired by the Constructivists.
    [Show full text]
  • The Futurist Moment : Avant-Garde, Avant Guerre, and the Language of Rupture
    MARJORIE PERLOFF Avant-Garde, Avant Guerre, and the Language of Rupture THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON FUTURIST Marjorie Perloff is professor of English and comparative literature at Stanford University. She is the author of many articles and books, including The Dance of the Intellect: Studies in the Poetry of the Pound Tradition and The Poetics of Indeterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage. Published with the assistance of the J. Paul Getty Trust Permission to quote from the following sources is gratefully acknowledged: Ezra Pound, Personae. Copyright 1926 by Ezra Pound. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Ezra Pound, Collected Early Poems. Copyright 1976 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust. All rights reserved. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Ezra Pound, The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Copyright 1934, 1948, 1956 by Ezra Pound. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Blaise Cendrars, Selected Writings. Copyright 1962, 1966 by Walter Albert. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1986 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1986 Printed in the United States of America 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 86 54321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perloff, Marjorie. The futurist moment. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Futurism. 2. Arts, Modern—20th century. I. Title. NX600.F8P46 1986 700'. 94 86-3147 ISBN 0-226-65731-0 For DAVID ANTIN CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xiii Preface xvii 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2004 Professor Caroline A. Jones Lecture Notes History, Theory and Criticism Section, Department of Architecture Week 9, Lecture 2
    MIT 4.602, Modern Art and Mass Culture (HASS-D) Spring 2004 Professor Caroline A. Jones Lecture Notes History, Theory and Criticism Section, Department of Architecture Week 9, Lecture 2 PHOTOGRAPHY, PROPAGANDA, MONTAGE: Soviet Avant-Garde “We are all primitives of the 20th century” – Ivan Kliun, 1916 UNOVIS members’ aims include the “study of the system of Suprematist projection and the designing of blueprints and plans in accordance with it; ruling off the earth’s expanse into squares, giving each energy cell its place in the overall scheme; organization and accommodation on the earth’s surface of all its intrinsic elements, charting those points and lines out of which the forms of Suprematism will ascend and slip into space.” — Ilya Chashnik , 1921 I. Making “Modern Man” A. Kasimir Malevich – Suprematism 1) Suprematism begins ca. 1913, influenced by Cubo-Futurism 2) Suprematism officially launched, 1915 – manifesto and exhibition titled “0.10 The Last Futurist Exhibition” in Petrograd. B. El (Elazar) Lissitzky 1) “Proun” as utopia 2) Types, and the new modern man C. Modern Woman? 1) Sonia Terk Delaunay in Paris a) “Orphism” or “organic Cubism” 1911 b) “Simultaneous” clothing, ceramics, textiles, cars 1913-20s 2) Natalia Goncharova, “Rayonism” 3) Lyubov Popova, Varvara Stepanova stage designs II. Monuments without Beards -- Vladimir Tatlin A. Constructivism (developed in parallel with Suprematism as sculptural variant) B. Productivism (the tweaking of “l’art pour l’art” to be more socialist) C. Monument to the Third International (Tatlin’s Tower), 1921 III. Collapse of the Avant-Garde? A. 1937 Paris Exposition, 1937 Entartete Kunst, 1939 Popular Front B.
    [Show full text]
  • Henryk Berlewi
    HENRYK BERLEWI HENRYK © 2019 Merrill C. Berman Collection © 2019 AGES IM CO U N R T IO E T S Y C E O L L F T HENRYK © O H C E M N 2019 A E R M R R I E L L B . C BERLEWI (1894-1967) HENRYK BERLEWI (1894-1967) Henryk Berlewi, Self-portrait,1922. Gouache on paper. Henryk Berlewi, Self-portrait, 1946. Pencil on paper. Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw Published by the Merrill C. Berman Collection Concept and essay by Alla Rosenfeld, Ph.D. Design and production by Jolie Simpson Edited by Dr. Karen Kettering, Independent Scholar, Seattle, USA Copy edited by Lisa Berman Photography by Joelle Jensen and Jolie Simpson Printed and bound by www.blurb.com Plates © 2019 the Merrill C. Berman Collection Images courtesy of the Merrill C. Berman Collection unless otherwise noted. © 2019 The Merrill C. Berman Collection, Rye, New York Cover image: Élément de la Mécano- Facture, 1923. Gouache on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 3/4” (55 x 45 cm) Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the staf of the Frick Collection Library and of the New York Public Library (Art and Architecture Division) for assisting with research for this publication. We would like to thank Sabina Potaczek-Jasionowicz and Julia Gutsch for assisting in editing the titles in Polish, French, and German languages, as well as Gershom Tzipris for transliteration of titles in Yiddish. We would also like to acknowledge Dr. Marek Bartelik, author of Early Polish Modern Art (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005) and Adrian Sudhalter, Research Curator of the Merrill C.
    [Show full text]
  • Museum of Pictorial Culture
    The Museum Of Pictorial Culture From Less-Known Russian Avant-garde series Lev Manovich and Julian Sunley, 2021 Although we usually assume think that first museum of The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 2019-2020, curated by Dr. modern art was MoMA (New York, 1929), an earlier museum Liubov Pchelkina. From the exhibition description: called Museum of Pictorial Culture was established in 1919 “2019 will mark 100 years since the implementation of the and run by most important Russian avant-garde artists until unique museum project of Soviet Russia – the creation of the its closing in 1929. Our essays discuss innovative museum Museum of Pictorial Culture, the first museum of contemporary concepts developed by these artists, and point out their art in our country… “The exhibition will present the history of the Museum of Pictorial Culture as an important stage in the history relevance to recent museum experiments in presenting their of Russian avant-garde and the history of the Tretyakov Gallery’s collections online using visualization methods. acquisitions. The exposition will reflect the unique structure of the museum. The exhibition will include more than 300 You can find our sources (including for images) and further paintings, drawings, sculptures from 18 Russian and 5 foreign reading at the bottom of the essay. The main source for this collections. For the first time, the audience will be presented essay is the the exhibition 'Museum of Pictorial Culture. To the with experimental analytical work of the museum. Unique 100th Anniversary of the First Museum of Contemporary Art’ at archival documents will be an important part of the exposition.” Room C at the original Museum of Pictorial Culture, containing works by Room C reconstructed at The Tretyakov Gallery, 2019.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Architecture of the Book": El Lissitzky's Works on Paper, 1919-1937
    "The Architecture of the Book": El Lissitzky's Works on Paper, 1919-1937 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Johnson, Samuel. 2015. "The Architecture of the Book": El Lissitzky's Works on Paper, 1919-1937. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17463124 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA “The Architecture of the Book”: El Lissitzky’s Works on Paper, 1919-1937 A dissertation presented by Samuel Johnson to The Department of History of Art and Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History of Art and Architecture Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2015 © 2015 Samuel Johnson All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Maria Gough Samuel Johnson “The Architecture of the Book”: El Lissitzky’s Works on Paper, 1919-1937 Abstract Although widely respected as an abstract painter, the Russian Jewish artist and architect El Lissitzky produced more works on paper than in any other medium during his twenty year career. Both a highly competent lithographer and a pioneer in the application of modernist principles to letterpress typography, Lissitzky advocated for works of art issued in “thousands of identical originals” even before the avant-garde embraced photography and film.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Book Kazimir Malevich
    KAZIMIR MALEVICH PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Achim Borchardt-Hume | 264 pages | 21 Apr 2015 | TATE PUBLISHING | 9781849761468 | English | London, United Kingdom Kazimir Malevich PDF Book From the beginning of the s, modern art was falling out of favor with the new government of Joseph Stalin. Red Cavalry Riding. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The movement did have a handful of supporters amongst the Russian avant garde but it was dwarfed by its sibling constructivism whose manifesto harmonized better with the ideological sentiments of the revolutionary communist government during the early days of Soviet Union. What's more, as the writers and abstract pundits were occupied with what constituted writing, Malevich came to be interested by the quest for workmanship's barest basics. Black Square. Woman Torso. The painting's quality has degraded considerably since it was drawn. Guggenheim —an early and passionate collector of the Russian avant-garde—was inspired by the same aesthetic ideals and spiritual quest that exemplified Malevich's art. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Use dmy dates from May All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from June Lyubov Popova - You might like Left Right. Harvard doctoral candidate Julia Bekman Chadaga writes: "In his later writings, Malevich defined the 'additional element' as the quality of any new visual environment bringing about a change in perception Retrieved 6 July A white cube decorated with a black square was placed on his tomb. It was one of the most radical improvements in dynamic workmanship. Landscape with a White House.
    [Show full text]
  • Pushkin and the Futurists
    1 A Stowaway on the Steamship of Modernity: Pushkin and the Futurists James Rann UCL Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2 Declaration I, James Rann, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 Acknowledgements I owe a great debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Robin Aizlewood, who has been an inspirational discussion partner and an assiduous reader. Any errors in interpretation, argumentation or presentation are, however, my own. Many thanks must also go to numerous people who have read parts of this thesis, in various incarnations, and offered generous and insightful commentary. They include: Julian Graffy, Pamela Davidson, Seth Graham, Andreas Schönle, Alexandra Smith and Mark D. Steinberg. I am grateful to Chris Tapp for his willingness to lead me through certain aspects of Biblical exegesis, and to Robert Chandler and Robin Milner-Gulland for sharing their insights into Khlebnikov’s ‘Odinokii litsedei’ with me. I would also like to thank Julia, for her inspiration, kindness and support, and my parents, for everything. 4 Note on Conventions I have used the Library of Congress system of transliteration throughout, with the exception of the names of tsars and the cities Moscow and St Petersburg. References have been cited in accordance with the latest guidelines of the Modern Humanities Research Association. In the relevant chapters specific works have been referenced within the body of the text. They are as follows: Chapter One—Vladimir Markov, ed., Manifesty i programmy russkikh futuristov; Chapter Two—Velimir Khlebnikov, Sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Vkhutemas Training Anna Bokov Vkhutemas Training Pavilion of the Russian Federation at the 14Th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia
    Pavilion of the Russian Federation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia VKhUTEMAS Training Anna Bokov VKhUTEMAS Training Pavilion of the Russian Federation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia Curated by Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Anton Kalgaev Brendan McGetrick Daria Paramonova Comissioner Semyon Mikhailovsky Text and Design Anna Bokov With Special Thanks to Sofia & Andrey Bokov Katerina Clark Jean-Louis Cohen Kurt W. Forster Kenneth Frampton Harvard Graduate School of Design Selim O. Khan-Magomedov Moscow Architectural Institute MARCHI Diploma Studios Moscow Schusev Museum of Architecture Eeva-Liisa Pelknonen Alexander G. Rappaport Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Larisa I. Veen Yury P. Volchok Yale School of Architecture VKhUTEMAS Training VKhUTEMAS, an acronym for Vysshie Khudozhestvenno Tekhnicheskie Masterskie, translated as Higher Artistic and Technical Studios, was conceived explicitly as “a specialized educational institution for ad- vanced artistic and technical training, created to produce highly quali- fied artist-practitioners for modern industry, as well as instructors and directors of professional and technical education” (Vladimir Lenin, 1920). VKhUTEMAS was a synthetic interdisciplinary school consisting of both art and industrial facilities. The school was comprised of eight art and production departments - Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Graphics, Textiles, Ceramics, Wood-, and Metalworking. The exchange
    [Show full text]
  • Cubo-Futurism
    Notes Cubo-Futurism Slap in theFace of Public Taste 1 . These two paragraphs are a caustic attack on the Symbolist movement in general, a frequent target of the Futurists, and on two of its representatives in particular: Konstantin Bal'mont (1867-1943), a poetwho enjoyed enormouspopu­ larityin Russia during thefirst decade of this century, was subsequentlyforgo tten, and died as an emigrein Paris;Valerii Briusov(18 73-1924), poetand scholar,leader of the Symbolist movement, editor of the Salles and literary editor of Russum Thought, who after the Revolution joined the Communist party and worked at Narkompros. 2. Leonid Andreev (1871-1919), a writer of short stories and a playwright, started in a realistic vein following Chekhov and Gorkii; later he displayed an interest in metaphysicsand a leaning toward Symbolism. He is at his bestin a few stories written in a realistic manner; his Symbolist works are pretentious and unconvincing. The use of the plural here implies that, in the Futurists' eyes, Andreev is just one of the numerousepigones. 3. Several disparate poets and prose writers are randomly assembled here, which stresses the radical positionof the signatories ofthis manifesto, who reject indiscriminately aU the literaturewritt en before them. The useof the plural, as in the previous paragraphs, is demeaning. Maksim Gorkii (pseud. of Aleksei Pesh­ kov, 1�1936), Aleksandr Kuprin (1870-1938), and Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) are writers of realist orientation, although there are substantial differences in their philosophical outlook, realistic style, and literary value. Bunin was the first Rus­ sianwriter to wina NobelPrize, in 1933.AJeksandr Biok (1880-1921)is possiblythe best, and certainlythe most popular, Symbolist poet.
    [Show full text]