Leonardo Mikhail Matyushin's Contribution to Synthetic Art Author(s): Bulat Galeyev Reviewed work(s): Source: Leonardo, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2005), pp. 151-154 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577795 . Accessed: 15/03/2012 09:27 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Leonardo. http://www.jstor.org HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Mikhail Matyushin's Contribution to Synthetic Art ABSTRACT The authorexplores the Bulat pioneeringideas and experi- Galeyev mentsthat the Russian musician andartist Mikhail Matyushin (1861-1934)contributed to thetheory and practice of syntheticart. Special emphasis is placedon light art, light music andMatyushin's reflections on 7 he great Russian poet Alexander Block wrote For Matyushiln, such a variety of analogiesbetween visual an id at the of the 20th "Russiais a coun- sensations, as wee11 as the to- performanceart and on syr ies- beginning century: young joining thesia.The article adduces and its culture is a culture." One of the gether of both raational and tionaland intuitiveintuite try synthetic leading somenew facts, taken mair nly trends of the time in the synthesis of arts involved the union cognition, woulld lead to "organic fromRussian sources not of music and visual images, primarily abstract painting. Most culture," the ch aracteristic feature readilyaccessible to Westelrn often it was combined.with the rejection of material paint in of which is the perceiving of the researchers.Although Matyl ushin favor of The Institute "Prometei" has for world as an ranicwhole." didnot make a significant "incorporeal light." "org contributionto the cause of conducted research into the Russian contribution But did ishin himself relate many years Matyu actuallight-musical synthesi s, to this particular trend in synthetic art. Together with the well- to synthetic art.s (or Gesamtkunst- hedid make interesting fore I. known names of Scriabin, Kandinsky and Tchiurlionis, we werk,to use the accepted German castsin this area, which stil think it also worth the names of such artists as W. term)? (Of cial interest to me havevalue for the modern mentioning spe, reader. Baranoff-Rossine and G. Gidoni. In this paper I discuss the cre- are those that involve music and ative work and ideas of another pioneer of lighting art- light.) Mostlikel ly,he did, including Mikhail Matyushin, whose name has become known in the light-music syntlhesis, having expe- West only in recent decades. rienced the first urge to do so in his Matyushin dedicated his "Memoirs of the Futurist" (known youth. Here is ]Matyushin's own description (written many also under the name "The Career of the Artist") to the "fol- years later) of irnpressions received during the favorite occu- lowing collective of art synthesis explorers" [1]. This intrigu- pation of his stuident days-regular attendance of Conserva- ing fact generates a question: What did he himself do in this tory Orchestra rrehearsals: area, to search for followers? First of it that even from a remember charm of sound and color synthesis, merged in all, appears purely biographical oneo extraordin:thr whole. I did not it of he so to a similar but I felt it ary comprehend completely, point view, was, speak, "synthetic" figure ehow, and enjoyed it, now discerning, nowjoin- to M.-K. Tchiurlionis or A. Schoenberg. A professional musi- cian who studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, he played violin in the Saint Petersburg Court Orchestra for many Fig. 1. K. Malevicbi, cartoon of the scenery for the opera years; at a mature age, after a period of amateur drawing, he A Victoryover the S gun, 1913. studied painting at an art school and in other studios; com- posed music [2]; experimented with quarter-tone soundings; " designed and made a violin; played on a stage; put forward a scientific concept of "organic culture"; studied the fourth di- ii mension of space and its display in art; and investigated prob- lems of harmonization of colors, colors and forms, and colors and sounds [3]. All this has given Matyushin's biographers grounds to com- pare him with the artists of the Renaissance epoch. He did not simply "collect" his versatile talents and interests but always considered them in obligatory correspondence. As he wrote: Does the painter (sculptor, architect) know how the writer works? L And what does the musician know about the work of the ^ painter ~ or the writer? There is a full or partial dissociation between them, . and full ignorance in another's creative process. I never with- . <* , drew into any special area, I appeared as a musician and as a painter, and alwaysliked and studied architecture ... It goes with- out saying that simultaneous reading of the wide range of sen- sations during perception expands and enriches any observation . and a creative image in art [4]. > ~ ~i . 4 Bulat Galeyev (physicist, producer, art theorist), Institute "Prometei," Kazan State' Technical University, Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan, Russia. E-mail: <galeyev@ prometey.kcn.ru>. - ?2005 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 151-154, 2005 151 school known as "theater of the painter." Then in 1921-1922, Matyushin and his % and ex- h m-- ;i - Dj L A friends disciples promoted an y. ~ ~ _ ~~~- -%Tt .- perimental staging of plays by Elena Guro and subsequent experiments by .-O , '- < other authors (Guro, former Lj7*1 <sj.1 ? , ' Matyushin's wife, had died shortly before that, and 0ttT the were carried out in her ^ ^^^ spectacles ^; memory) [8,9]. Matyushin wrote about one of these events: I On the eve of the New Year 1923, we made a small exhibition.Two guys,En- der and Sergey, invented a column (made of paper), from the floor to the ceilingand put a lightsource inside, run- ning up and down,creating the effectof rmwAAAIwt a sunbeam falling upon the column. Smalllanterns were movingall over the ceiling.I devisedthe foldedenvelopes ly- ing arounda column,which would sud- denlyrise, expandinginto the shapesof -,', - 6 cones, cubes and each with an .I_W--Jf' I II !I i X-ON-bmm..lM - spheres, - , on actor hidden inside. It was a very im- <.?* ; T-:v..-- ' --1 . ' . ... n- %f0 lbe. pressiveand weirdsight when the arisen shapes startedto move around the col- 4 '. ---^,/- e7--\ umn [10]. I i t A -1 - 1 7 7 TI g V7-. V I settled down in the center Jf - I LM.L F i:17 p-.- Spectators of a and the action r - Nfm-&,#-t*,- b-C.-,_ -- _ hall, developed around them. to MyauashMtotototo a According Matyushin, "The movement of forms ... advanced Fig. 2. M. Matyushin, fragment of the score to the opera A Victoryover the Sun, 1913. the purpose of putting an end to the domination of the actor on a stage," ex- panding the limits of the possible in dra- ing endlessly.I sat somewhere,noticed by frequent use ofsynesthetic metaphors matic art. by no one, and looked, listening at the to describe acoustic phenomena (for ex- Matyushin's words are confirmed by same time. I while lis- Especially liked, sounds"); it other in these to look out of the window,or at ample, "glassy, transparent participants spectacles. tening, manifested also in his with From the memoirs of a huge chandelierin the sky-lightopen- experiments O. Matyushina, ing. Extraordinarybeautiful colors-now painting, aimed at indirect, associative as- the second wife of the artist: "No actors orange, blue, now brightlyjolly green, similation of musical thinking, similar to were seen. Only paper models-cubes, in the facetsof the chan- flashing crystal those conducted and other on the stage. with the soundsof Schu- by Kandinsky spheres, pyramids-playing delier-merged series of can- Color and dominated.... I do re- bert's"Unfinished and I felt abstract artists. Matyushin's light Symphony," member reactions. I saw them unsurpassedbliss. And onlythere, where vases of 1918, known as "musical-painting spectators' thisjoyis soundingand shining,the bliss compositions," grew out of these experi- turning still, fascinated with music, with is comingupon us. It wasdifficult for me ments [6]. the game of light and color" [11]. Other when the musiccame to to leaveall that; came closest to the real as- for N. Kostrov, an end and the colorsfaded, contours of Matyushin eyewitnesses, example the windowsand columns assumed or- similation of the expressive potential of recalled the specially designed spatial phanedappearance. The firstexperience dynamic light in his scenic experiments. movement of the sounds: "Real and ab- of light and sound synthesis had been First of all should be mentioned his no- stract, transparent and opaque images- embedded in my mind. Later on I torious futuristic of 1913, A forms and in the of it much and made opera Victory moving revolving thought experi- cred- multi-texture sounds trav- ments. It seems to me that art willbe in- over the Sun, where Matyushin was playing light; was A. over the heads of the evitablysynthetic. Only such art can make ited as composer (the script by eling spectators- people really happy, joyfully taking and Kruchenyh and V. Khlebnikov, the scen- all this created fantastic pictures" [12]. giving in their creative work [emphasis ery by K. Malevich) [7] (Figs 1-3). I Matyushin's disciples and colleagues added] [5]. shall not describe this famous perform- describe in their memoirs his subsequent ance in detail here.