Reflecting upon the laws of light and sight Larionov came to the experiment of viewing as an independent “entity” the angle that connected the ray emanating from the eye of the observer with the ray emanating from the object under observation. In analysing this third “entity” Larionov came to the conclusion that it must exist between objects in their correlation, and he experimented in this direction. Thus in his picture painted in 1911 he analysed the relationship between the mackerel and the sausage. Wo find that the rays emanating from the mackerel meet in the distance with the rays emanating from the sausage and form in the “angle” at which they cross — a picturesque and radiant “entity”.
Larionov subsequently began to investigate the relationship not only of individual objects, but of ever increasing groups of objects. The angle of crossed rays was growing more and more complex. This “entity” is not chaos, for chaos in dim, whereas here we have clear “pure painting”, a reality which is felt only through colour and expressed in the shade of the paint and in the manner in which paint is applied. Larionov impressed this “entity” by these two attributes of pure painting, quite limitless and independent from outline or shape.
Larionov’s work is a close connection between life and idealism. He remains true to the sources of all culture, i. e. to universality. His atelier is planted above the narrow rue de Seine like a church towor from which the artist can watch the grandiose city. The dazzling light of the large windows floods the backs of his canvasses, his books lying about in disorder, empty bottles, newspapers .... In this scramble of objects, Larionov’s soul is ever bent on meditation.
The spires of the towers and the chimneys move in the artist’s vision as easily as draughts. Everything depends upon the method of treating the coloured surface .... If you built three Eiffel towers of equal height and paint one of them blue, the other red and the third yellow, they would seem of different shape .... Colour changes shape .... Colour has a psychology of its own .... Heretofore the artists who studied colours did not really know any of them .... they were dillettanti ....
These ideas haunt him. He continues to meditate, to work and to advance ....
G. I. Issarlov.
The Russian “Cabaret” is making a triumphant march all over the world. Its striking, stimulating placards can be seen every
where — in somewhat dull Berlin, in the blinding brilliance of Paris, in the opal fog of London and in the city of sky-scrapers, from Warsaw to Madrid and from Christiania to Constantinople. Even in the Antipodes, the gay, brilliant Russian colours can be seen on the walls of dingy cellars, and the Russian tunes, some
times sad and pathetic, sometimes fitfully joyful, are heard in those distant lands.
The Russian “Cabaret” originated with the Moscow “Bat” and the “Stray Dog” of Petrograd. Theatrical memory is short, and few people remember this at present, but all those who are wandering all over the world now under the name of Russian Cabaret artists and provoking the admiration of foreigners are
but repeating, with a certain measure of success, variations of the things that were said for the first time by the “Bat” and the “Stray Dog”.
People forget or pretend to forget the painter — Soodeikin — who was one of the few creators of the artistic settings of the Cabaret, and of the designs for costumes. This painter never
theless occupies a prominent place among the Russian artists of the 20-th century.
Soodeikin joined the “Cabaret” as a Revolutionary in the truest artistic sense, not only in Russia, but in Europe and in America, where the part he has played was even more important, albeit taken over by his followers and imitators. Russia has spoken a new word in the domain of the “Small Stage”, “Kleine Bühne”, as the Germans call it. True Art has replaced trained animals and scantily attired women. Russian art did not fear the small stage, because it knew that greatness can be reflected in a small mirror. In studying the evolution of the theatrical art of the present day — especially in Russia — one cannot fail to realise that from the decorative point of view the “Cabaret” has influenced the “Grand theatre”.
The distinguishing traits of Soodeikin’s decorative art are its originality, freshness and novelty. The artist never hesitates to make the boldest experiments, the most unexpected combinations,
or to borrow from the queerest sources. He uses the primitive popular Russian cartoons and ancient porcelain, the show booth
and Gobelain tapestries, wood and lace. He waves his magic hand, and the Russian naive cartoons, attractive in their crudeness,
are followed by haunting the graceful, silhouettes and masks of the Italian “Comedia dell’arte”. His wondrous brush reveals
to us the replete, redfaced, dark-eyebrowed brides from Moscow, alongside with the affected powdered French “Marquises”. From the settings of a Carnival show booth he passes to a setting in the style of Watteau. He never loses his own individuality — it is always Soodeikin. He has escaped Scylla and Charybdis — dry and tedious adherence to ethnographical lines, as well as the inartistic mixture of French and Russian. The style of Soodeikin’s settings is always pure.
Soodeikin knows and loves Russia. His art is another proof of the immense variety of Russian aspects. In his understanding of Russia he is kindred to Alexander Benois and Dobujinski, and to a certain extent to Kustodiev. Like the first two painters, he sees Russia through the prism of Europe. His Russia is the Russia of the townsfolk, the petty bourgeois, the tradesmen, the Russia of the Central provinces, of the outskirts of Moscow and Petrograd. Even his peasants are rather like serfs as seen through the Parisian lorgnette of a benevolent landlord. What a contrast with the genuine, rough, earth-smelling Russia of Grigoriev!
The decors and costumes of Soodeikin seem to laugh the healthy childlike laugh of Russia. They recall the joyous popular Russian dance or the naive “polka”. Everything lives and gam
bols, even the stout, sturdy father of “Katinka”, in a blue loose coat with a medal on his chest, even the monumental beauties of the environs of Moscow.
Soodeikin’s Cabaret has much in common with Stravinski’s balletmusic. They are both enamoured with the combination of different elementsmusic and movement, movement and colour. Stravinski’s harmonies and Soodeikin’s colours are also kindred —
spontaneous, rich, sonorous, well-blended, varied. There is in both a mixture of the primitive and the complex modernist tendencies.
The most striking feature of Soodeikin’s art in the “Cabaret” is that even on the tiny boards of the “Small Stage” he has remained a great and serious artist. His light, playful settings will be remembered as important artistic achievements.
VI. Tatarinov.
Larionov subsequently began to investigate the relationship not only of individual objects, but of ever increasing groups of objects. The angle of crossed rays was growing more and more complex. This “entity” is not chaos, for chaos in dim, whereas here we have clear “pure painting”, a reality which is felt only through colour and expressed in the shade of the paint and in the manner in which paint is applied. Larionov impressed this “entity” by these two attributes of pure painting, quite limitless and independent from outline or shape.
Larionov’s work is a close connection between life and idealism. He remains true to the sources of all culture, i. e. to universality. His atelier is planted above the narrow rue de Seine like a church towor from which the artist can watch the grandiose city. The dazzling light of the large windows floods the backs of his canvasses, his books lying about in disorder, empty bottles, newspapers .... In this scramble of objects, Larionov’s soul is ever bent on meditation.
The spires of the towers and the chimneys move in the artist’s vision as easily as draughts. Everything depends upon the method of treating the coloured surface .... If you built three Eiffel towers of equal height and paint one of them blue, the other red and the third yellow, they would seem of different shape .... Colour changes shape .... Colour has a psychology of its own .... Heretofore the artists who studied colours did not really know any of them .... they were dillettanti ....
These ideas haunt him. He continues to meditate, to work and to advance ....
G. I. Issarlov.
SOODEIKIN AT THE CABARET.
The Russian “Cabaret” is making a triumphant march all over the world. Its striking, stimulating placards can be seen every
where — in somewhat dull Berlin, in the blinding brilliance of Paris, in the opal fog of London and in the city of sky-scrapers, from Warsaw to Madrid and from Christiania to Constantinople. Even in the Antipodes, the gay, brilliant Russian colours can be seen on the walls of dingy cellars, and the Russian tunes, some
times sad and pathetic, sometimes fitfully joyful, are heard in those distant lands.
The Russian “Cabaret” originated with the Moscow “Bat” and the “Stray Dog” of Petrograd. Theatrical memory is short, and few people remember this at present, but all those who are wandering all over the world now under the name of Russian Cabaret artists and provoking the admiration of foreigners are
but repeating, with a certain measure of success, variations of the things that were said for the first time by the “Bat” and the “Stray Dog”.
People forget or pretend to forget the painter — Soodeikin — who was one of the few creators of the artistic settings of the Cabaret, and of the designs for costumes. This painter never
theless occupies a prominent place among the Russian artists of the 20-th century.
Soodeikin joined the “Cabaret” as a Revolutionary in the truest artistic sense, not only in Russia, but in Europe and in America, where the part he has played was even more important, albeit taken over by his followers and imitators. Russia has spoken a new word in the domain of the “Small Stage”, “Kleine Bühne”, as the Germans call it. True Art has replaced trained animals and scantily attired women. Russian art did not fear the small stage, because it knew that greatness can be reflected in a small mirror. In studying the evolution of the theatrical art of the present day — especially in Russia — one cannot fail to realise that from the decorative point of view the “Cabaret” has influenced the “Grand theatre”.
The distinguishing traits of Soodeikin’s decorative art are its originality, freshness and novelty. The artist never hesitates to make the boldest experiments, the most unexpected combinations,
or to borrow from the queerest sources. He uses the primitive popular Russian cartoons and ancient porcelain, the show booth
and Gobelain tapestries, wood and lace. He waves his magic hand, and the Russian naive cartoons, attractive in their crudeness,
are followed by haunting the graceful, silhouettes and masks of the Italian “Comedia dell’arte”. His wondrous brush reveals
to us the replete, redfaced, dark-eyebrowed brides from Moscow, alongside with the affected powdered French “Marquises”. From the settings of a Carnival show booth he passes to a setting in the style of Watteau. He never loses his own individuality — it is always Soodeikin. He has escaped Scylla and Charybdis — dry and tedious adherence to ethnographical lines, as well as the inartistic mixture of French and Russian. The style of Soodeikin’s settings is always pure.
Soodeikin knows and loves Russia. His art is another proof of the immense variety of Russian aspects. In his understanding of Russia he is kindred to Alexander Benois and Dobujinski, and to a certain extent to Kustodiev. Like the first two painters, he sees Russia through the prism of Europe. His Russia is the Russia of the townsfolk, the petty bourgeois, the tradesmen, the Russia of the Central provinces, of the outskirts of Moscow and Petrograd. Even his peasants are rather like serfs as seen through the Parisian lorgnette of a benevolent landlord. What a contrast with the genuine, rough, earth-smelling Russia of Grigoriev!
The decors and costumes of Soodeikin seem to laugh the healthy childlike laugh of Russia. They recall the joyous popular Russian dance or the naive “polka”. Everything lives and gam
bols, even the stout, sturdy father of “Katinka”, in a blue loose coat with a medal on his chest, even the monumental beauties of the environs of Moscow.
Soodeikin’s Cabaret has much in common with Stravinski’s balletmusic. They are both enamoured with the combination of different elementsmusic and movement, movement and colour. Stravinski’s harmonies and Soodeikin’s colours are also kindred —
spontaneous, rich, sonorous, well-blended, varied. There is in both a mixture of the primitive and the complex modernist tendencies.
The most striking feature of Soodeikin’s art in the “Cabaret” is that even on the tiny boards of the “Small Stage” he has remained a great and serious artist. His light, playful settings will be remembered as important artistic achievements.
VI. Tatarinov.