In yesterday’s post I looked at collages moving from the work of a young Russian artist. Let’s continue the thread today by exploring the State Museum of Vladimir Mayakovsky, a space filled with very different collages from the ones we saw yesterday, chaotic collages aimed at taking the reader onto a journey through the Russian poet and playwright’s life.
Mayakovsky was a representative of early-20th century Russian Futurism and studied sculpture and architecture at Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry, two aspects that I find particularly interesting. So, when Russian artist and designer Lisa Shahno, suggested to go and visit the museum with her I jumped at the prospect.
The Mayakovsky Museum opened in January 1974 in the house on 3/6 on Lubyanskiy Passage, where the poet lived from 1919 to 1930. Lisa explained me that reconstruction of the building was held in 1987-89.
The museum currently stores the Mayakovsky fund that includes thousands of documents, personal papers, books, paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters and adverts.
The best thing about it, though, is that the materials are not showcased in a traditional way, but they are trapped inside metal structures in bright colours such as red, yellow, blue and green, that integrate documents, suits, shoes, photographs and other assorted objects.
This is indeed a sort of chaotic environment, an allegory for Mayakovsky’s life, while the documents and photographs that are often encased in glass displays that seem to be shattering or bending are used to symbolise a distortion, a break or an interruption in the flow of time.
At the same time the chaotic displays also try to turn the style of Mayakovsky’s poetical compositions, the metaphors contained in his works and the rhythm of his poems into something real and tangible.
The spaces are therefore radically transformed through the work of different architects (Lisa helped me making a list: A. Bokov, E. Boudin, I. Ivanov and B. Chernov), set designers (Polyakov T.P.) and artists (Eugeny Abramovich Amaspyur).
As a visitor you instantly turn into an active participant, almost like an actor in a drama full of contradictions, rather than into a distant observer and that’s what makes this museum particularly intriguing.
The story starts from Mayakovsky's childhood when, after the death of his father in 1906, he moved with the rest of his family (his mother and two sisters) to Moscow.
In 1911 he joined the Moscow Art School and became acquainted with members of the Russian Futurist movement turning into the leading spokesman for the group Gileas (Гилея) and becoming a close friend of David Burlyuk.
His first poems were published in 1912 on the Futurist publication "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste" and he continued to write poems in the Futurist style until 1914 when he was expelled from the Art School for political activities.
In 1915 he wrote the poem “A Cloud in Trousers” inspired by different themes, including art, revolution, religion and love and symbolised in the museum by a green display featuring frames with empty spaces in the place of religious icons (seventh image in this post - the image on the right in the fifth block of pictures). In the same year he fell in love with Lilya Brik who at the time was married to publisher Osip Brik.
Between 1915 and 1917 Mayakovsky worked at the Petrograd Military Automobile School as a draftsman and witnessed the October Revolution from Smolny, Petrograd. When he moved back to Moscow he created quite a few satirical Agitprop posters, many of them included in the museum displays.
In 1919 he published the anthology of poems "Collected Works 1909-1919" and, between 1922 and 1928, he travelled to Latvia, Britain, Germany, the United States, Mexico and Cuba. In the museum his travels are symbolised by a globe-shaped structure (tenth imagein this post - the right one in the seventh block of images), while the Brooklyn Bridge is put in contrast with the unfinished "bridge to socialism".
Visitors interested in Russian Constructivism and fashion fans will definitely enjoy the crew of pilots - including Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova and Varvara Stepanova and their designs characterised by bold use of colour, geometric shapes and clashing and contrasting patterns - symbolising the ideal of art.
Disillusioned with the course the Soviet Union was taking under Stalin, Mayakovsky wrote satirical plays "The Bedbug" (Клоп, 1929) and "The Bathhouse" (Баня, 1930). The poet shot himself on 14th April 1930. Ten days after his death the criminal investigator of the case was also shot dead, fuelling suspicions about the poet’s suicide.
The heart of the museum is the tiny room where the poet lived and died, furnished with humble belongings that contrast with the chaotic and colourful displays outside it.
The following poem was found in his papers after his death; Mayakovsky used the middle section with just a few changes as the epilogue of his suicide notes:
Past one o’clock. You must have gone to bed.
The Milky Way streams silver through the night.
I’m in no hurry; with lightning telegrams
I have no cause to wake or trouble you.
And, as they say, the incident is closed.
Love’s boat has smashed against the daily grind.
Now you and I are quits. Why bother then
To balance mutual sorrows, pains, and hurts.
Behold what quiet settles on the world.
Night wraps the sky in tribute from the stars.
In hours like these, one rises to address
The ages, history, and all creation.
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