Maiakovskii and the Mobile Monument: Alternatives to Iconoclasm in Russian Culture (original) (raw)

Framing Russian Art: From Early Icons to Malevich, trans. by R. Milner-Gulland and A. Wood, London: Reaktion Books, 2011, 416 pp., 260 il., 77 in colour.

The notion of the frame in art can refer not only to a material frame bordering an image, but also to a conceptual frame. Both meanings are essential to how the work is perceived. In Framing Russian Art, I investigate the role of the frame in its literal function of demarcating a work of art and in its conceptual function affectingthe understanding of what is seen. The first part of the book is dedicated to the framework of the Russian icon. Here, I explore the historical and cultural meanings of the icon's, setting, and of the iconostasis. Then my study moves through Russian and European art from ancient times to the twentieth century, including abstract art and Suprematism. Along the way, I pay special attention to the Russian baroque period and the famous nineteenth century Russian battle painter Vasily Vereshchagin. This enlightening account of the cultural phenomenon of the frame and its ever-changing functions will appeal to students and scholars of Russian art history.

Revolution, Production, Representation: Iurii Rozhkov's Photomontages to Maiakovskii's Poem “To the Workers of Kursk”

Slavic Review , 2017

In 1924, the self-taught artist Iurii Nikolaevich Rozhkov created a series of photomontages inspired by Vladimir Maiakovskii's poem “To the Workers of Kursk” and the geological discovery of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (KMA). Rozhkov's series for Maiakovskii's ode to labor is both an example of the political propaganda of the reconstruction period of the NEP era and a polemical answer to all those who relentlessly attacked Maiakovskii and criticized avant-garde art as alien to the masses. The article introduces Rozhkov's less-known photomontage series as a new model of the avant-garde photopoetry book, which offers a sequential reading of Maiakovskii's poem and functions as a cinematic dispositive of the early Soviet agitprop apparatus (dispositif). Bošković argues that the photopoem itself converts into an idiosyncratic avant-garde de-mountable memorial to the working class: a dynamic cine-dispositive through which the the early agitprop apparatus is realized in lived experience, reproduced, and transformed, thus delineating its shift towards the new dispositif of the late 1920s—socialist realism.

Poets and the City: Locating the Political in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Poetry. Introduction

Russian Literature, 2017

This introductory essay summarizes the political and theoretical backgrounds of poetry of the twentieth century and provides an overview of the contributions to this special triple issue on Poetry and Politics. Taking the Platonic idiosyncrasy towards poetry and the State ('Republic') as its dialectical departure point, the substance and matter of the volume encompasses several characteristic case studies which appear to be highly relevant in this context. This special issue deals with the oeuvre of such iconic Russian poets as Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Maiakovskii, Daniil Kharms, Dmitrii Prigov, Arkadii Dragomoschenko and many others. Special attention is paid to the general issue of ideology and the Russian Avant-Garde pragmatics of shocking action related to Futurism and early Soviet culture.

From imitation to refutation: The canonisation and decanonisation of the metaphor of poetic monument in Russian literature

Shagi / Steps, 2018

From imitation to reFutation: the canonisation and decanonisation oF the metaphor oF a poetic monument in russian literature Аннотация. В статье анализируется метафора поэзии как нематериального памятника, увековечивающего заслуги поэта, на примере рецепции оды Горация 3.30 в русской литературе (от Державина и Пушкина до Брюсова, Маяковского, Ходасевича, Бродского, Заходера и Пурина, чьи стихотворения до сих пор, насколько известно, не привлекали внимания исследователей). Изучение поэзии, основанной на метафоре поэтического памятника, позволяет выделить ее характерные черты: интертекстуальность, выражающуюся в цитатах, аллюзиях, пародиях, бриколаже, пастише; доминирование мотива поэтической эгоцентричности; развертывание метафоры памятника во временнóй и пространственной перспективах. Метафора поэтического памятника становится фактом русской литературы благодаря Ломоносову и Державину, однако своей необыкновенной популярностью в России (несравнимой с ее судьбой ни в одной литературной традиции) ода Горация обязана стихотворению Пушкина, с которого начинается разрушение канонического осмысления метафоры поэзии как невербального памятника. Полемические отклики Брюсова и Маяковского направлены на стихотворение Пушкина, подтверждая постоянное присутствие метафоры поэтического памятника в коллективной памяти наций, говорящих на русском языке. Пародийное осмысление продолжает процесс деканонизации литературной традиции, показывая ее важность для современной культуры, которая подвергает рассматриваемую метафору «остранению» травестией, как в стихотворении Бродского, или иронией, как в стихах Ходасевича или Заходера, или бриколажем, как в «Памятнике» Пурина. Традиция, основанная на метафоре невербального памятника, трансформированная, но не уничтоженная пародией, представляет собой открытую систему, а потому ее пародийное (или каноническое) осмысление скорее всего обречено на продолжение в постмодернистской литературе.

"THE SOVIET CRITIQUE OF A LIBERATOR’S ART AND A POET’S OUTCRY: ZINOVII TOLKACHEV, PAVEL ANTOKOL’SKII AND THE ANTI-COSMOPOLITAN PERSECUTIONS OF THE LATE STALINIST PERIOD"

This thesis investigates Stalin’s post-WW2 anti-cosmopolitan campaign by comparing the lives of two Soviet-Jewish artists. Zinovii Tolkachev was a Ukrainian artist and Pavel Antokol’skii a Moscow poetry professor. Tolkachev drew both Jewish and Socialist themes, while Antokol’skii created no Jewish motifs until his son was killed in combat and he encountered Nazi concentration camps; Tolkachev was at the liberation of Majdanek and Auschwitz. Both men were excoriated during the “anti-cosmopolitan” campaign. Using primary sources, I examine their art and the balance between Judaic and Soviet references, the accusations made and the connections between the attacks, the Holocaust, and Soviet paranoias of that era. While anti-Semitism played a role, I highlight the authorities’ reaction to their style and content. This moment in cultural policy was part of a continuum of reactions to World War II and included themes that went beyond the native anti-Semitism of the period.