Page 81 - Studio International - July/August 1967

selection of illustrations also reveals a rather uncriti·
Supplement summer 1967 cal attitude. Several insignificant sketches and draw­
ings, particularly in the first half of the book, detract
from the artist's image.
In Prague a Czech critic, Mr Jan Kriz has brought out
a book about another painter of the period, who also
worked in Leningrad, Pavel Nikolayevich Filonov
New and recent art books of styles and directions, held together by a fierce and
(1�1941). Fllonov's work presents a peculiar blend
stubborn mind. Very little has been published about
this artist, a,part from a hostile text in a catalogue of
1930 (of which the original preface was supressed)
and two articles in Danish Journals (1963). The new
book mainly describes Filonov's departure from post­
Four books on twentieth llshed on the Leningrad artist K. Petrov-Vodkin (1870- symbollsm, but It offers no solution to the questions of
1939) and Viktor Borlsov-Musatov (1870-1905). Borisov­
his later work. Filonov was severely attacked for for ma•
1
century Russian art Musatov Is probably the most interesting of the two. lism in 1930 and onwards, Although he Is known to
His Importance for Kandinsky's early works has been have worked as a painter till his death, no paintings
generally recognized. Two minor books that came out can be traced from after 1933. Mr Kriz gives no in­
shortly after his death both considered the main theme formation about this evidently tricky point. His text,
V. E. Borisov-Musatov. A. Rusakova: Moscow 1966. of his art to be the old country estates and parks, however, ls a valuable first Introduction to this ne­
177 pp. Ill. in black and white and colour. Bibliography, with beautiful women In old dresses-a kind of ideal­ glected artist. The paintings reproduced are mainly
list of works. ized 'Cherry Orchard' set up. The nature of his art found in a private collection In the USSR, but some
K. S. Peuov-Vodkin. V. I. Kostin: Moscow 1966. 162 was-In a somewhat crude manner-explained in of Fllonov's major works, still inacessible In the Soviet
pp. Ill. In black and white and colour. Bibliography, relation to a physical defect from which he suffered museums, are also reproduced.
list of works. since his childhood. The new book by Mrs Rusakova Finally another book should be mentioned, although
Pavel Nlko/ajevlc Fllonov. Jan Kriz: Prague 1966. 70 is without any vulgarisms of this or any other kind. not for Its merits. 'Ideological contradictions in the
pp. ill. in black and white and colour. Summaries in For a Western reader it contains interesting Informa­ aesthetics of Russian painting from the end of the
German and French. tion about Musatov's relations to Marianne Verevkina nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth'.
ldeynyye protivorechiya v estetike fusskoy zhivopisi and Kandlnsky In Munich, and about Musatov's exhi­ The author has had access to a vast amount of
kontsa 19-nachala 20 vv. L. F. D'yakonitsyn: Perm bitions In Europe. Paul Cassirer organized a show of material, he is well acquainted with the bibliography
1966, 258 pp. (No prices given.) his paintings In Germany In 1904, and the following and with archive documents. Drawing upon all this
year he participated In an exhibition In Paris. Mrs he cannot avoid handing out several facts of interest
For many years Soviet art history has only reluctantly Rusakova quotes a letter to Musatov from Andr� Gide, to scholars of the period (as for Instance a precise
treated certain aspects of late nineteenth and early written on this occasion. Unfortunately the pictorial date for the first exhibition of Tatlln's rellefs). How­
twentieth century art. Art nouveau, Cubism and other side of the book does not do justice to Musatov's very ever, his attitude towards the arrival of Russian avant­
modern movements were rejected as outlets of a soft manner of painting; the black and white Illustra­ garde art In this century is basically negative. His
doomed, bourgeois culture. This crisis in Soviet art tions are far too harsh. reasonably well documented approach to an artist
history is expressed by the fact that the 12-volume The monograph by Mr Kostln on Petrov-Vodkin Is like Malevlch comes to a sudden end with the abrupt
History of Russian Art Is now completed, except for better produce<;), but here the text does not come up statement that Malevich 'did not leave any pearls of
the volume dealing with 1890-1917. The problems to standard. Petrov-Vodkin has always been the most painting behind him'. What is worse, the book proves
connected with the preparation of this book were loved painter among young artists in Leningrad. This that the discussion of this subject has not yet reached
discussed in the journal 'lskusstvo' already in 1962; book, the first on him, apart from his two-volume the stage where It is considered Immoral to cut
the editors then criticized the general ambivalent autobiography from the thirties, aims at a 'rehabilita­ quotations In order to make the best out of them,
attitude towards European and Russian art from the tion' of the artist. Perhaps for this reason it fails to disregarding the original sense. There are several
turn of the century. As an effect of this attitude no describe Vodkln's relations to other artists. He Is examples of such distortions in the text. Yet the book
serious studies of a number of artists from the period presented as an independent figure, although it Is does to some extent reflect the present gradual
1890-1918 were published for almost 30 years. How­ obvious that his attempt to reconcile Cubist experi­ change In Russia in favour of a more sensitive dis­
ever, In the last couple of years a certain change has ences with a new classical outlook Is common to a cussion of modern art.
taken place. Recently monographs have been pub- number of European artists in the twenties. The Troels Andersen

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