Page 33 - Studio International - June 1974
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destroyed by perfection.') The theorist of Ego-
Futurism underlines the new need to 'go beyond
the limits' in which 'The Theatre', 'Painting',
and 'Literature' are enclosed (the inverted
commas are Ignatiev's). The new art, whose
advent he awaits, like a prophet foretelling the
coming of the Messiah, is 'possible' and even
`inevitable' for 'the membrane of man is now
capable of calling and replying intuitively to the
calls of Unknown Countries'. Sharing a
common symbolist heritage with Malevich, he
glorifies intuition and comes to the point of the
joyous proclamation of this new art, embodied
by the symbol of the 'Zero' — 'if we want to
represent it graphically' and which 'will be like
Vassilisk Gnedov's last poem', this 'Poem of the
End' where with the help of 'Nothing' the poet
says 'everything'. This poem, in Ignatiev's eyes
achieving 'the spatial movement beyond the
word', was in fact silent, with only a title and no
text. It was 'recited' by Gnedov with a slow
movement of the hand which 'described a line,
the hand going from right to left and back
again', the opposing movements mutually
annihilating each other, 'like the mathematical
signs plus and minus', (Ignatiev, page 2). An
artist's gesture has rarely appeared more
significant for his time.
The iconological mirror
If we turn once more to Ouspenski's texts, we
are not surprised to find a rich development of
these themes during the same very decisive year
of 1913. In his book, 'The Inner Circle' (St
Petersburg, 1913) he combined two critical
essays concerning respectively Arcybachev's
novel 'The Final Limit' (1912) and the problem
of the 'Superman'. The juxtaposition of these
two texts in the same book has a result whose
logical order and philosophical resonance cannot
be ignored. If the second text takes an
ostensibly Nietzschian direction, and can be
considered as a conclusion and proposal for the
future, the first is the analytical stage,
specifically concentrated on the problem of
`limits', those of the real world where analytical Portrait of I. Kljan
over-excitement leads to suicide and that of Drawing 1913 questioned in our eyes. Matiouchine already
Private collection
conceptual impotence condemning men to the abundantly quoted Ouspenski in his article for
positivist limits of a materially 'objective' philosophical foundation of Russian Futurism, the third publication of the Union of Youth, to
condition. The first text, concentrated on the as shown in its trans-rational climax of the explain the ideas of Gleizes and Metzinger
criticism of Arcybachev's novel, concerns the autumn of 1913: the rejection of the old logic; found in 'Cubism'. We have also seen other
problem of suicide, which is the theme of this movement towards a new deductive logic texts by Matiouchine showing the undeniable
literary work. In contrast to Arcybachev, whose (therefore anti-naturalist), based on an influence of Ouspenski on his system of thought:
pessimism, leading all the characters in the intuitive intelligence; the movement beyond the an article on 'The meaning of the fourth
novel to suicide, is accused of 'positivist limit', limits of language, the arrival at the stage of the dimension' (winter 1912-1913), a text on 'The
Ouspenski insists on the creative possibilities of infinite (philosophical) best illustrated by the Sign' and another article on the `miraloid'
man, who must not stop at the stage of simple theory of the 'fourth dimension'. The quality of forms.17a Following his summertime
negation of the materialist order (sensorial non- importance of Ouspenski's ideas for the stay with Matiouchine, Alexei Krouchenykh
conceptualized perception) but must be capable evolution of Russian Futurism in 1913 seems published a theoretical manifesto on 'the new
of going beyond this limit and 'achieving the paramount, for this evolution, one of whose key paths of the word' in the collection Three
negation of negation', from whence stems the moments can be pin-pointed with the conception (Troe), published in September 1913.
possibility of affirming a 'new relationship with of Victory over the Sun in July 1913, This declaration of transrational language
life'. In this way we 'become aware of a new corresponds with an astonishing similarity to (zaoum) reproduces word for word
conception of the world', excluding the illusion the statement in Ouspenski's texts and those of certain passages of Tertium Organum 17b
of deceptive perceptions. This world of 'the Tertium Organum (1911) in particular. and thus establishes a further link between
superior reality' is defined by Ouspenski with Matiouchine's role in introducing Malevich and Futurism and Ouspenski's ideas. It is also
all the qualities which make up the Krouchenykh to Ouspenski's ideas cannot be useful to remember that this collection contains
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