Page 62 - Studio International - February 1973

the Kurchatov Institute. There the concept of strict range of greys. Behind its unsentimental nothing important is happening outside it.
bio-kineticism was not a mere pretext for structure there lies an inner monumental Today there is no guide to Moscow so
distracting one's attention from reality in favour quality. Leafless trees with cracked jugs hanging self-sacrificing, informed and objective as the
of an inconsequential fiction, but was in them; broken twigs, shattered flower-pots; poet, painter and critic Mikhail Grobman, who
demonstrated in a direct way by a combination candles, old books, dead things : in these emigrated recently to Israel. An artist who grew
of three-dimensional and luminous structures, paintings ordinary objects change into spectres up in the Soviet Union, living in Israel or in
mime, lights, smells, poetry and concrete music: which in their rigorous silence hide a disquieting Western Europe - how can he live there, for
a dialogue of man and machine, in which man and painful significance. At one time what ? However parallel the artistic development
became mechanical in order to make the Krasnopyevcov employed colour in his in both parts of the world, the moral
machine human. At that time Lev Nusberg also paintings, and now it is slowly flowing back into co-ordinates of artistic existence there and here
spoke about his projects. The most audacious them again. It represents a new stage in his work. are quite different. And that is the second reason
of them (and what is more, technically feasible, The last person I visit has his studio in the why the Western critic in the Soviet Union can
though extremely difficult to realize) was his centre of old Moscow, on the Arbat : Vladimir fall into the trap of making simplistic
plan for a labyrinth, in which the shape and Weisberg. He too is almost fifty, and belongs to judgements. For example, not long ago I read
colour of the walls as well as the sound, light and the very first wave of artists who defied the this statement by an experienced French art
temperature would all react to people's strictures of the Academy in the name of critic: 'The Dvizhenie group is engaged in
movements, so that it would become a partner - Cézannesque construction and are known as the almost the only activity in the plastic arts which
like some kind of living being - for the man who Group of Seven. Besides Weisberg the other can be seen in the Soviet Union today.' In fact
entered it. Nusberg now tells me that they have members are Birger, Ivanov, Yegorshina, the strength of the new Soviet art lies in its range
developed since the time of their production in Mordovin and two brothers Nikonov. and the great number of individuals involved.
the Kurchatov Club : into the midst of the I find myself in a world of white. A white And then, finally, Moscow is not the Soviet
theatricalized kinetic elements they introduced name, a white studio, white furnishings, white Union. In my brief stay I have not even had
two or three dozen actor-dancers who integrated pictures. Steinberg also paints in white: it is a time to go to Leningrad; I have only heard
the spectators into the action by turning to them whiteness that radiates out into the surrounding about modern artists in Kiev and Tbilisi; and in
with questions. This of course was something space: his whiteness is light. Weisberg's Moscow itself I have only managed to visit a few
quite different from his futurological projects : it whiteness, on the other hand, is colour : it sinks studios in a few days. In my notebook there are
was a return to that futurist here and now, to deep into the painting, absorbs things into still the names of Voroshilov, Plavinsky, Infante,
immediate and forceful action. And once again itself, dissolves their contours and splits into an Bachurin, Smirnov, Chubarov, Miturich,
the underlying connections : in this Nusberg is infinity of semi-tones and quarter tones until Brusilovsky, Tselkov, Babin, Andronov,
following directly in the path of the futurists, hardly perceptible fractions of colour-values are Birger, Yegorshchina, Nyizvyestny, the painter
creating what Kruchonykh, in the memoirs I reached, in the end creating the impression of Oleg Vasilyev and the sculptor Juri Vasilyev,
quoted, calls 'publicist theatre'. Will Nusberg colours that are not present in the painting at all. Lam . . . nor did I even visit the widow of
come back to this great tradition, or remain no He reminds me of Reinhardt, translated into Sooster, who met such an untimely death.
more than an exhibition specialist ? white, except that Weisberg - a Cézannist — I would like to postpone my return to Prague,
But perhaps there is another point of view. I paints still-lifes, and paints them consistently but the tickets are sold out for days ahead. I
have seen only the projects, and have had no from reality, whether this means chinaware or don't want to say good-bye to my Moscow
chance to visit any of the exhibitions Nusberg or plaster models of geometric bodies or pieces of friends and the rich and lively art world they
Infante are actually setting up; more important, crumpled-up white paper. The painterly have created here. I should come back soon. q
I haven't mixed with the visitors to these structure of these works is almost unbelievable.
exhibitions. 'The most fascinating thing is to He says that he paints five hours a day, and that
observe the people - their reactions, how they one painting represents five or six weeks of work;
act in these surroundings — and to provoke them and the paintings are relatively small and rather 'The title is based on alliteration. V. Markov
into speaking out and expressing their own lightly painted, with a very sparse use of the translates it as 'A Trap for Judges' or 'A Hatchery
opinions', Infante tells me. Perhaps these pigment; the very delicacy of delicacy. of Judges' (Russian Futurism, 1968).
A quarter-tone piano was built in 1924 in
exhibition environments, with their new form, Weisberg is a highly cultivated and thoughtful Czechoslovakia for the composer Alois Hába.
are becoming the stage for a kinetic theatre, and artist who quotes easily from Kritik der 3Kruchonykh wrote his memoirs, Nash vykhod (Our
the visitors, quite unconsciously, its actors - Urtheilskraft in conversation; but, more Emergence), from which I am quoting, in 1940, and
particularly in the case of these Soviet visitors, important, he has a pure painterly intelligence of the manuscript is deposited in the Vladimir
Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow. Kruchonykh
who are not accustomed to hurrying through a rare order. He also shows me his drawings, a quotes Matyushin and Malevich's statement in the
galleries and exhibitions, or to being satisfied great many of them, all female nudes. They too St Petersburg newspaper Den. 'The intention of the
with superficial information. Even here the are sketched with unmistakable painterly opera is to shake one of the greatest artistic values — to
overthrow the rule of the sun, in this case . . . In the
points of view of a Western observer can lead to intelligence, and the visitor has the feeling that consciousness of people there exist certain mutual
mistaken conclusions. if Vladimir Weisberg translates them into his connections established by the human intellect. The
But there is no time to speak about this. Lev is white paintings, he will reach the very heart of futurists want to escape from this ordering of the
world into those connections which are really present
in a hurry: he has to return right away to the mystery of his art. in it. They want to return the world to chaos, tear
Leningrad - to Pityer', as he refers to it in the apart the traditional values and then from these
fragments create new values and at the same time
old fashion. I have time for two more studios. new generalizations, revealing new, unexpected and
The Nusbergites work on the very edge of the Firday, June 26th. invisible connections'. About the performance itself,
city, and I must return to the centre. Half way Kruchonykh writes, 'Aware that futurist theatre,
there, in Cheremushky, lives Dimitry The new Soviet art has already gone through a which clashed so totally with the usual entertainment
spectacles, could not be understood at once, we made
Krasnopyevcov. There can be no greater long development. But because of the lack of an attempt to get closer to the public and persuade
contrast to Nusberg's euphoric and extravagant exhibitions it has not been possible so far to them, and we began experimenting on this with the
ideas than his solitary, self-contained art. build up a complete picture of what is happening. publicist theatre, which of course was only in its
infancy. The actors in the main parts not only
Krasnopyevcov is nearing fifty, and more than The artists group themselves together in small, performed their roles in front of the audience, but
ten years-ago he developed his own style, which independent circles, and the stranger who faced them directly, like a speaker on a platform or an
has changed very little since then. The painting comes here for a short time can easily remain M.C. (When Mayakovsky came on in his role, he
had — unlike the other actors — no make-up on, and
has been simplified to an austere plasticity and a within a single circle and then assume that was wearing his own suit.)'
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