the Artist, critic, ideologist of the “World of art”, he wrote in twenty-something daring history of Russian painting of the XIX century, which overturned the authority of the “Wanderers”, discovering the beauty of Venetsianov, was written in the tables of Russian art, the names of their peers. And in 1910, the war was already on “two fronts”: it is a constant art critic “Speech”, became the main target of fierce criticism of the Russian avant-garde artists. In a passionate debate with Benoit seem to have forged their critical swords all from Ilya Repin to David Burliuk and Kazimir Malevich; from Korney Chukovsky, rushing to the defense of Repin, to Nicholas Punina, who praised the new art and rebelled against the “dictatorship Benoit” in post-revolutionary 1918.
Passionately loving the theatre (“It is the most theatrical person I met in my life, no less theatrical than the first film than the film, but theatrical in the broadest and deepest meaning of the word”, – noticed about him Grabar”), Benoit became one of the main characters of the first seasons of Diaghilev’s enterprise in Paris.
the Ballet “Armida’s Pavilion” in design by Alexandre Benois (who had the intention “to show the French the Russian understanding of “most French” of the era – the eighteenth century”) opened the “Russian seasons” in 1909 in Paris. He wrote the libretto of the ballet “Petrushka”, which became as “the Firebird” and “Scheherazade”, the hallmark of the “Russian seasons”. Opera “the Nightingale” by Andersen’s fairy tale, the music for which, as “Parsley” Stravinsky wrote, also owes his stage appearance exactly Benoit. In its design it was staged in Diaghilev’s enterprise may 26, 1914.
Benoit also owns not only the scenery, but the musical idea of the ballet “the Kiss of the fairy” Stravinsky on themes of Tchaikovsky. It was staged in 1928 by IDA Rubinstein’s troupe in Paris. Svetlana Savenko brings a delightful letter Benois, written in December 1927, after the departure from the USSR: “I have long since had the desire to do something to the music of uncle Pete, not specifically ballet. In fact, uncle Peter all his life (he maybe is not aware of) and wrote “ballets” and all these treasures, causing the most exciting thoughts spectacular order, continue to lie under wraps and not getting his plastic realization”. If someone does not understand, “uncle Peter”, of course, Tchaikovsky. So with playful warmth, in my own way “miriskusniki” he called in his circle of Peter Ilich.
This sense of culture as his home is, of course, from childhood. No wonder he half-jokingly certified himself as “the product of an artistic family”. But it is not only in the “clan Benoit”. The case is still in the sense of art as a space of joy and play somewhere at the foot of the temple of Apollo. In April 1924, completing his book “the Emergence of “World of art”, he notices: “For the present generation of togdanie our dreams nothing more than a Mirage, a distant sentimental nonsense, “intelligentsia fin de siècle”. If we delve deeper in this last concluded the deposits of genuine idealism, persistence of the truth, the real possibilities and beneficial humanity.”
It was hard to find a worse time and place than Petrograd, 1924, for the unyielding reminders of the truths of the “good of humanity” and “genuine idealism”. But the aesthete, a fan of the Elizabethan era and Versailles of Louis XIV, was oriented in the labyrinth favorite eras, as in your own home, not in a hurry to renounce these “illusions” of his youth.
And, weird, but almost a hundred years later, these “Mirage” captivate still. Not only the memoir of Benoit, but his “Art of writing” to read extremely exciting. Yes, you can laugh at the “strangeness” of judgment, such as new Paris shopping Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin: “I don’t think panels Matisse ever acquired recognition ever found enthusiasts… It’s really two horrible failures, but I believe in their honesty, being completely convinced in this exceptional, first-rate talent of their author”. Yes, the “valuable spirit of subjectivism” for a long time is not regarded as the dignity of criticism. But here’s the thing – his defeat (and they are neatly listed by Abram Efros to old, 1922, the essay dedicated to Alexander Benois) are more important than other wins.
And the reason may be, as in that noticed Efros: “His real charm is not in leadership, not in slogans, not in the critics, and that poetic gold was all he touched. In the history of Russian culture is one of the most pure in its artistry and charming in the transparency of nature. In Benoit lives of great artistry. It is – allow me to say so – wonderful putkisto. This is the Pushkin of people over the many decades of Russian life”. And further: “Because of that Benoit and national – not in the same way, for he is not a genius, but in the same way, because he’s made from the same dough Pushkin”.
what is this Pushkin’s “batch” of the Silver age, why “barely audible rustle of steps,” “swarthy lad” a century later, became a touchstone of poetry and art?
part of the reason that the Pushkin era recognized not even going out, and just went kind, which do not know the father, but still remember some of the old people. In fact, love and attention to our national history, too, comes from the days of Karamzin and Pushkin. For example, Benoit, just as Pushkin once wrote of history Natalia Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya on century Catherine, sprinkles portrait of Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Hermitage, and before that, Director of the Imperial theatres, thanks to which Tchaikovsky was commissioned by music for b��Letov “Sleeping beauty” and “Nutcracker”. “Charming note “smorodinovaya”, some hidden sadness, disappointment, “mantegnesque” shade mixed with something Voltaire and Pushkin gave to all what was told I. A. Vsevolozhsky, special aroma” – describes in 1909 just a past Director of the Hermitage Benoit, the future custodian of the Hermitage picture gallery.
Great and the neighborhood names of Montaigne, Voltaire and Pushkin in this portrait. Vintage Russian gentleman here in a natural way is the enlightened European. And this line is fundamental for the “world of art”. Not by chance among the lectures, which, playing in the “society self”, arrange a noisy high-school students and students in the parents ‘ apartment Benoit sounded lectures on “Turgenev and his time.” The name of Turgenev here, of course, iconic. In the confrontation between Pushkinskaya and Gogol’s directions literature, Turgenev was on the side of the first. European in Russia, Turgenev in Europe was a Russian writer, which actually began opening in France of Russian literature. And that, in fact, is the line that continued with Sergei Diaghilev, who, as he put Remizov, “lucky” to ogrenet the world is Russia.”
not surprisingly, there was useful and theatrical experience of old Vsevolozhsk. “…As a joke I called Ivan Aleksandrovich spiritual father of the “World of art”, and Ivan was pretending to be offended by it (…). But I think that deep down inside him, the old man, it was nice to see in young people a continuation of the fact that he was the most expensive. Now “Onegin”, “Sleeping beauty”, “Queen of spades” dilapidated, enclosed so that it is difficult to see once the “new words”. But there is no doubt that the mood caused by these creatures, which belonged to Vsevolzhsk near Tchaikovsky, almost equal role, the mood and helped us to understand their inclinations and tastes, to create our art.”
This passage explains in part why the world of art movement from the magazine to exhibitions, from them to work in the theater was so natural. Not dry the tree of academic science, and the verdant tree of life, the free play was their benchmarks. Under the canopy of this tree were born and “ABC” Benoit, created for his son, and the ballet “Petrushka”. They will combine elements of theatre. “Petrushka, Russian Guignol no less than harlequin, was my friend since childhood. If I seslichat pour nasal cries of itinerant petrochemica… that to me was kind of a fit of impatience to see such a spectacle maslodelno – wrote Alexander Benois. – What was the personality of the Parsley, I immediately felt kind of “old debt of friendship” to perpetuate at this stage.”
Finally, the very understanding of the nature of art and Pushkin Benoit discoverAET a lot in common. The most interesting and has not lost relevance the controversy of Korney Chukovsky and Alexander Benois about painting Repin, Alexander N. note: “Planned as if the core issue of the dispute. That means beauty, which means genius and how to produce it? Deep disagreement between me and G. Chukovsky (and indeed, with a host of other art critics) is that I believe in the beginning of mystical beauty, in the depths of his trust in his material and even mechanical nature.” The “mysterious whisperings” that “always insists on the grace of art, and the mystical nature of art as gift and revelation,” writes about the Benoit, clearly discovers a rhyme, even if inaccurate, with Pushkin’s “Prophet.”
This idea of art almost clears the events of the twentieth century, but it’s amazing how accurate warning of the coming century (and current!) words of Benois: “…Every great artist is a miracle, and the miracle of izumitelnoe, the less it corresponds to the appearance of the situation. But it would be rash to artificially create this “inappropriate” situation in the hope that it will be a “miracle.” It would be absurd to bless this situation and see it as a source of beauty.”
