DOCSLIB.ORG

Organica and the Non-Objective World of Nature in the Russian Avant-Garde"

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Organica and the Non-Objective World of Nature in the Russian Avant-Garde Experiment I 3KcnepuMeHT 6 (2000), 1-4 ALLA POVELIKHINA INTRODUCING THE CATALOG AND EXHIBITION "ORGANICA AND THE NON-OBJECTIVE WORLD OF NATURE IN THE RUSSIAN AVANT -GARDE" The idea of organtzing the exhibition "Organica and the Non-Objective World of Nature in the Russian Avant-Garde" was conceived and elaborated at the Galerie Gmurzynska (Cologne) in 1995. The works of the artists now represented at our exhibition provide an opportunity to broaden our under­ standing of the variety of movements within the Russian avant -garde. The material in the catalog and the exhibition reflects the conception according to which the exhibition was created. It brings together nine different artists whose works and theoretical writings reflect the community of their philosophical and esthetic ideas, attitudes and ultimately their world-views. The poet and artist Elena Guro ( 1877-1913 ), the musician, artist, composer and scholar Mikhail Matiushin (1861-1934), the artists Boris Ender (1893- 1960), MariiaEnder(1897-1942), KseniaEnder(l894-1955), Pavel Mansurov (1896-1983), PetrMiturich (1887-1956), Vladimir Sterligov (1904-1973) and Pavel Kondratiev (1902-1982) were all contemporaries and-with the exception of Guro, who died prematurely-knew each another well, despite the differences in their ages. The works in the exhibition do not reflect their creative evolution, of course. Emphasis falls on the 191 Os and 1920s or, in the case of Sterligov and Kondratiev, the 1960s and early 1970s. During these years they appeared as "inventors" (to use Khlebnikov's expression) of new artistic forms. As a whole, their creative work may be described as the "Organic" movement within the Russian avant-garde. Herein lies the fund­ amental conception of the exhibition. A direct, "living" observation of natural forms characterizes the artists of this movement. Close in their basic views of nature yet unique in their individual feeling and "contemplative vision," they created plastic forms of nature and new but still not exhausted interrelations between forms, color, sound and space within nature, thereby bringing us closer to an understanding of the unity and variety in the universe. The articles and theoretical writings by the artists in the catalog introduce and underscore their views of the world of nature, hence the main theme of the e~hibition: "The Artist and Nature." The article "World Unity and the Organic Movement in the Russian Avant-Garde of the Twentieth Century" outlines the 2 Experiment I 3KcnepHMeHT general conception of the exhibit. The article "On the Russian Avant-Garde" describes the Organic movement of the avant-garde as a phenomenon "belonging" entirely to the North {particularly to the northern capital of St. Petersburg). The catalog also includes an article on "Organic Culture and the Symbolist Heritage" which notes the community and continuity of ideas and problems (especially of Guro, Matiushin and his school) with the "rich tradition of the organic question in Russian culture" and with the heritage of Symbolism. There had to be a community of ideas, research and spiritual orientation among Symbolist artists and avant-garde artists of the Organic movement, of course, particularly during the 1900s, when they worked together simultaneously. In their early works, moreover, one can sense the influence of the Art Nouveau style. Yet there is a distinction of principle between them. Artists ofthe Organic movement made contact with nature on a different level, one which can be felt above all in their artistic language, in the new plasticity of their forms, in their means of organizing space. The non-objectivity which arose on the pictorial surface in the works of this movement resulted from their penetration into the life of form-color-medium, which lay deep and concealed from the simple eye. A deformation of objects occurs when their forms interact with one another in a luminous colored space. The works ofMatiushin, the Enders and Sterligov embody the interference and diffraction of color, as well as the colored "'linking" of an object to its environment when light passes, a natural phenomenon observable in a rainbow, crystal, etc. Their works carry delicate nuances of color, half-tones, light, purity, sonority, radiance and a feeling for nature. "Color," Miturich said, is "a wave of light in the hands of an artist." · Landscape-whether terrestrial or cosmic-occupies a central place in their work. Works by artists of the Organic movement are built on an organically curvilinear geometry characteristic of nature. Theirs is a new, living fractal geometry of nature whose additional element is curved geometry. On their pictorial surface arises a new Reality which has begun to discover its harmony. According to Matiushin' s definition, theirs is an "objective/non-objective truth" or "non-objective spatial realism." As Sterligov said, the object is an "ancient lady," and be it wood, stone or something else, it loses the image which has been established for it. This provided the grounds for naming the exhibition "The Non-Objective World ofNature." 1 A statement by artist Tatiana Glebova is interesting in this connection. Glebova was first a student of Pavel Filonov before she discovered her path in the pictorial system of Sterligov. In a written response to a philosopher of the Oberiu group Yakov Druskin (1902-80), Glebova wrote: "A non-objective painting may depict an object-non~ · 1. Art historian Elena Rakitina proposed the more precise title ofthe exhibition. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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]
  • Caffeina E Vodka Italia E Russia: Futurismi a Confronto Claudia Salaris
    Caffeina e vodka Italia e Russia: futurismi a confronto Claudia Salaris Il viaggio di Marinetti in Russia Negli anni eroici del futurismo il fondatore Filippo Tommaso Marinetti era noto con il soprannome di “Caffeina d’Europa” per l’energia con cui diffondeva la religione del futuro da un paese all’altro. Uno dei suoi viaggi memorabili è quello in Russia all’inizio del 1914 1. Invitato a tenere un ciclo di conferenze a Mosca e a Pietroburgo, Il poeta ha accettato con entusiasmo, pensando a un patto d’unità d’azione con i fratelli orientali. Infatti nella terra degli zar il futurismo è nato con caratteristiche proprie,ma è sempre un parente stretto del movimento marinettiano. Nelle realizzazioni dell’avanguardia russa non sono pochi gli echi delle teorie e invenzioni del futurismo marinettiano. Ma, al contrario degli italiani che formano una specie di partito d’artisti omogeneo, i russi sono sparsi in diversi gruppi. Nel 1910 è uscita a Pietroburgo l’antologia Il vivaio dei giudici , a cui hanno collaborato, tra gli altri, i fratelli David e Nikolaj Burljuk, Elena Guro, Vasilij Kamenskij, Viktor Chlebnikov. A costoro presto si sono uniti Vladimir Majakovskij, Benedikt Livshich, Alexandr Kruchënych e alla fine del 1912 il gruppo, che intanto ha assunto il nome di Gileja, pubblica il volume Schiaffo al gusto corrente , che nel titolo rivela la matrice marinettiana, ricalcando il “disprezzo del pubblico” promulgato dal poeta italiano. Il libro collettivo contiene un editoriale-manifesto in cui i gilejani, rifiutando il passato e le accademie, esortano i giovani a “gettare Pushkin, Dostoevskij, Tolstoj, ecc.
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian Avant-Garde 1912-1930" Has Been Directedby Magdalenadabrowski, Curatorial Assistant in the Departmentof Drawings
    Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art leV'' ST,?' T Chairm<ln ,he Boord;Ga,dner Cowles ViceChairman;David Rockefeller,Vice Chairman;Mrs. John D, Rockefeller3rd, President;Mrs. Bliss 'Ce!e,Slder";''i ITTT V P NealJ Farrel1Tfeasure Mrs. DouglasAuchincloss, Edward $''""'S-'ev C Burdl Tn ! u o J M ArmandP Bar,osGordonBunshaft Shi,| C. Burden,William A. M. Burden,Thomas S. Carroll,Frank T. Cary,Ivan Chermayeff, ai WniinT S S '* Gianlui Gabeltl,Paul Gottlieb, George Heard Hdmilton, Wal.aceK. Harrison, Mrs.Walter Hochschild,» Mrs. John R. Jakobson PhilipJohnson mM'S FrankY Larkin,Ronalds. Lauder,John L. Loeb,Ranald H. Macdanald,*Dondd B. Marron,Mrs. G. MaccullochMiller/ J. Irwin Miller/ S.I. Newhouse,Jr., RichardE Oldenburg,John ParkinsonIII, PeterG. Peterson,Gifford Phillips, Nelson A. Rockefeller* Mrs.Albrecht Saalfield, Mrs. Wolfgang Schoenborn/ MartinE. Segal,Mrs Bertram Smith,James Thrall Soby/ Mrs.Alfred R. Stern,Mrs. Donald B. Straus,Walter N um'dWard'9'* WhlTlWheeler/ Johni hTO Hay Whitney*u M M Warbur Mrs CliftonR. Wharton,Jr., Monroe * HonoraryTrustee Ex Officio 0'0'he "ri$°n' Ctty ot^New^or^ °' ' ^ °' "** H< J Goldin Comptrollerat the Copyright© 1978 by TheMuseum of ModernArt All rightsreserved ISBN0-87070-545-8 TheMuseum of ModernArt 11West 53 Street,New York, N.Y 10019 Printedin the UnitedStates of America Foreword Asa resultof the pioneeringinterest of its first Director,Alfred H. Barr,Jr., TheMuseum of ModernArt acquireda substantialand uniquecollection of paintings,sculpture, drawings,and printsthat illustratecrucial points in the Russianartistic evolution during the secondand third decadesof this century.These holdings have been considerably augmentedduring the pastfew years,most recently by TheLauder Foundation's gift of two watercolorsby VladimirTatlin, the only examplesof his work held in a public collectionin the West.
    [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]
  • Detki V Kletke: the Childlike Aesthetic in Soviet Children's Literature and Unofficial Poetry
    Detki v kletke: The Childlike Aesthetic in Soviet Children's Literature and Unofficial Poetry The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Morse, Ainsley. 2016. Detki v kletke: The Childlike Aesthetic in Soviet Children's Literature and Unofficial Poetry. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493521 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 Detki v kletke: The Childlike Aesthetic in Soviet Children’s Literature and Unofficial Poetry A dissertation presented by Ainsley Elizabeth Morse to The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Slavic Languages and Literatures Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April 2016 © 2016 – Ainsley Elizabeth Morse. All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Stephanie Sandler Ainsley Elizabeth Morse Detki v kletke: The Childlike Aesthetic in Soviet Children’s Literature and Unofficial Poetry Abstract Since its inception in 1918, Soviet children’s literature was acclaimed as innovative and exciting, often in contrast to other official Soviet literary production. Indeed, avant-garde artists worked in this genre for the entire Soviet period, although they had fallen out of official favor by the 1930s. This dissertation explores the relationship between the childlike aesthetic as expressed in Soviet children’s literature, the early Russian avant-garde and later post-war unofficial poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • Mariia Semashyna
    “It sometimes seems that I’m a mother to all things”: Gendering human/non-human distinctions in the texts of Elena Guro By Mariia Semashyna Submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in Gender Studies. Supervisor: Julia Hölzl CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 Abstract The thesis explores how human/non-human distinctions and human/non-human contact are gendered in the texts of Elena Guro (1877-1913), a pre-revolutionary Russian Futurist writer. The post-humanist approach, particularly works by Donna Haraway and Giorgio Agamben, is used to map how human/non-human boundaries are blurred and re-constituted in Guro’s project of an intimate and creative communication between the human, nature, and the objective world. The close reading of Guro’s short prose, poetry, and diaries demonstrates underlying gender dichotomies that organize Guro’s vision of the human/non-human communication. Guro imagines the ideal mode of human subject relating to the world as a version of heterosexual nuclear family of mother and son. Since the father figure is in most cases absent, this couple’s relationship is presented as devoid of sexuality, although certain erotic overtones of the mother-son communication are still identifiable. Donna Haraway’s conceptualization of the human/non-human encounters as becoming with one’s companion species helps to see how both the “mother’s” femininity and the “son’s” masculinity are constructed and performed through their interaction with non-human living and non-living beings. Multidirectionality of this becoming is particularly visible in the interpretation of Guro’s transrational poetry as a performance of motherhood and femininity and a performance of “poethood.” Becoming together for Guro involves the experience of being the other, where experimental Futurist transrational language stands as a voice of the non-human.
    [Show full text]
  • Mikhail Ma T/Ushin and His Dream
    Experiment/3KcnepHMeHT, 1 (1995), 229-33. ISABEL WONSCHE MIKHAIL MA T/USHIN AND HIS DREAM The violinist and composer Mikhail Matiushin (Figs. 70-76) began his second career as a visual artist in the 1890s. In 1903-05 he worked at Yan Tsionglinsky's studio in St. Petersburg, where he met Elena Guro, his future second wife, and in 1906 they enrolled in Elizaveta Zvantseva's private art school, also in St. Petersburg, where Mstislav Dobushinsky and Lev Bakst were the primary professors. In 1909 Guro and Matiushin founded the publishing house Zhuravl (Crane) which produced more than twenty publications by Pavel Filonov, Guro, Velimir Khlebnikov, Alexei Kruchenykh, Kazimir Malevich, and other representatives of the avant­ garde movement. ·In 1910 Guro and Matiushin became founding members of the Union of Youth which in 1913 consolidated with the poets' group known as Hylaea. Between 191 0 and 191 7 Matiushin was the practical organizer of many Cubo-Futurist events, contributing to the publications and exhibitions of the Union of Youth, to Nikolai Kulbin's exhibitions such as "Contemporary Trends in Art" in 1908 and "The Impressionists" in 1909, as well as to Vladimir lzdebsky's "International Salon" in Odessa and other towns in 1909-1 0 and the "Salon d'Au­ tomne" in Paris in 1913. Matiushin was also active as an art critic and as a composer, creating the music for "Victory Over the Sun" in 1913. Matiushin wrote the text of I Had a Dream between 1931 and 1933.1 It was one of his last essays, following earlier publications also concerned with the evolution of the avant-garde in Russia, 2 and it com­ plemented the chapter on the Cubo-Futurist movement in his unpublished 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Musica, Futurismo E a Trilha Sonora De Dziga Vertov
    UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE CAMPINAS INSTITUTO DE ARTES Musica, futurismo e a trilha sonora de Dziga Vertov Michelle Agnes Magalhaes Campinas 2005 UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE CAMPINAS INSTITUTO DE ARTES Mestrado em musica Musica, futurismo e a trilha sonora de Dziga Vertov Michelle Agnes Magalhaes Disserta9ao de mestrado apresentada ao Curso de Mestrado em Musica do lnstituto de Artes da UNICAMP como requisito parcial para a obten9ao do grau de Mestre em Musica sob a orienta9ao do Prof. ,------------_____, Dr. Claudiney Rodrigues Carrasco. Este exemplar e a reda~o final da Tese defendida pela Sre. Michelle Agnes Magalhles e aprovada pela Comissao Julgedo em 22/001121lM-~ Campinas - 2005 FICHA CATALOGRAFICA ELABORADA PELA BIBLIOTECA DO INSTITUTO DE ARTES DA UNICAMP Bibliotecario: Liliane Forner- CRB-8' I 6244 Magalhiies, Michelle Agnes. M27m Musica, futurismo e a trilha sonora de Dziga Vertov. I Michelle Agnes Magalhiies.- Campinas, SP: [s.n.], 2005. Orientador: Claudiney Rodrigues Carrasco. Disserta<;ao(mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Artes. 1. Musica. 2. Futurismo(Arte). 3. Instrumentos musicais. 4. Musica de cinema. 5. Dziga Vertov. 6. Cinema. I. Carrasco, Claudiney Rodrigues. II. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Artes. IlL Titulo. Titulo ern ingles: "Music, futurism and Vertov's sound track" Palavras-chave em ingles (Keywords): music- futurism( art)- musical instruments -film music- Dziga Vertov- film Titula<;ao: Mestrado em Musica Banca examinadora: Prof. Dr. Claudiney Rodrigues Carrasco Prof. Dr. Eduardo dos Santos Mendes Prof..Dr. Jose Roberto Zan Data da defesa: 22 de Setembro de 2005 . ' ,, Instituto de Artes Comissao de P6s-Gradua<;ao Defesa de Dissertac;;ao de Mestrado em Musica, apresentada pela Mestrando(a) Michelle Agnes Magalhaes - IV\ 971307, como parte dos requisitos para a obten<;ao do titulo de MESTRE EM MUSICA, apresentada perante a Banca Examinadora: ~ ! i l n/ ~~'-tlZO~J"?t> rr'' - Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Checklist of the Judith Rothschild Foundation Gift
    Checklist of The Judith This checklist is a comprehensive ascertained through research. When a For books and journals, dimensions Inscriptions that are of particular his- record of The Judith Rothschild place of publication or the publisher given are for the largest page and, in torical or literary interest on individual Rothschild Foundation Gift Foundation gift to The Museum of was neither printed in the book nor cases where the page sizes vary by books are noted. Modern Art in 2001. The cataloguing identified through research, the des- more than 1/4,” they are designated Coordinated by Harper Montgomery system reflects museum practice in ignation “n.s” (not stated) is used. irregular (“irreg.”). For the Related The Credit line, Gift of The Judith under the direction of Deborah Wye. general and the priorities of The Similarly, an edition size is some- Material, single-sheet dimensions in Rothschild Foundation, pertains to all Museum of Modern Art’s Department times given as “unknown” if the print which the height or width varies from items on this checklist. To save space Researched and compiled by of Prints and Illustrated Books in par- run could not be verified. City names one end to the other by more than and avoid redundancy, this line does Jared Ash, Sienna Brown, Starr ticular. Unlike most bibliographies are given as they appear printed in 1/4” are similarly designated irregular. not appear in the individual entries. Figura, Raimond Livasgani, Harper and library catalogues, it focuses on each book; in different books the An additional credit may appear in Montgomery, Jennifer Roberts, artists rather than authors, and pays same city may be listed, for example, Medium descriptions (focusing on parentheses near the end of certain Carol Smith, Sarah Suzuki, and special attention to mediums that as Petersburg, St.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Syllabus : Russian Avant-Garde and Radical Modernism : an Introductory Reader
    ———————————————————— Introduction ———————————————————— THE RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE AND RADICAL MODERNISM An Introductory Reader Edited by Dennis G. IOFFE and Frederick H. WHITE Boston 2012 — 3 — ——————————— RUSSIAN SUPREMATISM AND CONSTRUCTIVISM ——————————— 1. Kazimir Malevich: His Creative Path1 Evgenii Kovtun (1928-1996) Translated from the Russian by John E. Bowlt Te renewal of art in France dating from the rise of Impressionism extended over several decades, while in Russia this process was consoli- dated within a span of just ten to ffteen years. Malevich’s artistic devel- opment displays the same concentrated process. From the very begin- ning, his art showed distinctive, personal traits: a striking transmission of primal energy, a striving towards a preordained goal, and a veritable obsession with the art of painting. Remembering his youth, Malevich wrote to one of his students: “I worked as a draftsman... as soon as I got of work, I would run to my paints and start on a study straightaway. You grab your stuf and rush of to sketch. Tis feeling for art can attain huge, unbelievable proportions. It can make a man explode.”2 Transrational Realism From the early 1910s onwards, Malevich’s work served as an “experimen- tal polygon” in which he tested and sharpened his new found mastery of the art of painting. His quest involved various trends in art, but although Malevich firted with Cubism and Futurism, his greatest achievements at this time were made in the cycle of paintings he called “Alogism” or “Transrational Realism.” Cow and Violin, Aviator, Englishman in Moscow, Portrait of Ivan Kliun—these works manifest a new method in the spatial organization of the painting, something unknown to the French Cub- ists.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts and Contexts
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Works Swarthmore College Works Russian Faculty Works Russian 2015 Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts And Contexts Sibelan E. S. Forrester Swarthmore College, [email protected] M. Kelly Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian Part of the Slavic Languages and Societies Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Sibelan E. S. Forrester and M. Kelly. (2015). "Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts And Contexts". Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts And Contexts. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian/160 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Russian Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INTRODUCTION: POETRY OF THE RUSSIAN SILVER AGE Sibelan Forrester and Martha Kelly oetry is only one of the exciting cultural achievements of the Russian Pfin-de-siècle, which has come to be known as the Silver Age. Along with the Ballets russes, the music of Alexander Scriabin or Igor Stravinsky, the avant- garde painting of Kazimir Malevich or Marc Chagall, and the philosophical writings of Lev Shestov or Nikolai Berdyaev, poetry is one of the era’s most precious treasures. The Silver Age witnessed an unprecedented and fruitful interaction between Russian literature and the other arts, sometimes within the same person: several of the major poets were (or could have been) musi- cians and composers; others were painters, important literary critics, religious thinkers, scholars, or philosophers.
    [Show full text]
  • Carlstedt-Booklet-Engl-Screen
    Minna Henriksson: Art in the Service of the Nation - Or Why did Birgir Carlstedt abandon abstract art in the early 1930s? English translations from Finnish articles are my own and only for the purposes of the lecture performance ‘Art in the Service of the Nation’. Hello! The art of the beginning of the 19th Century in Finland had been domi- Today we are gathering here in the Art Museum for our art history les- nated by [hat on] Karelianism. Karelianism was a term coined by an in- son. The theme of our lesson is Birger Carlsted. Or more particularly, fluential art historian and art critic Onni Okkonen [write Onni Okkonen’s why did Carlstedt reject abstraction in early 1930s and go back to paint name] in 1949 when writing about Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The difference representational, largely expressionist or surrealist paintings, only to in Gallen-Kallela and his likes to previous generations of artists was that return to pure abstraction in 1950, or 1949? before 1890s artists had made travels to Karelia to collect topics, but Karelianists went to Karelia to hunt for material for “reality”. For this lesson, to understand the shifts in styles of Carlstedt, it is im- portant to know some background into what was going on in the art field, At that time, Kalevala, the Finnish national epic was assumed without internationally and in Finland. question as originating from Karelia, although it contained poems col- lected in other regions too. Due to this appropriation by the Karelianists, In early 1910s, around 1913 a truly abstract non-representational paint- Karelia was made the mythical place of the roots of Finnish nation.
    [Show full text]