Каринберг Всеволод Карлович : другие произведения.

The Arbat

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    The Arbat... from dawn until dusk, a multinational torrent of people flows along this colorful Babylon. The globes of light are like buoys drifting on the waves of an endless stream. Just as it is impossible to imagine Paris without her Montmartre and Hew York without Broadway, so would the present face of Moscow be incomplete without the "New Old Arbat."
  The Arbat... from dawn until dusk, a multinational torrent of people flows along this colorful Babylon. The globes of light are like buoys drifting on the waves of an endless stream. Just as it is impossible to imagine Paris without her Montmartre and Hew York without Broadway, so would the present face of Moscow be incomplete without the "New Old Arbat."
  In the "Old Capital," the Arbat and the. now nonexistent Molchanovka, Povarskaya, Prechistenka and Vozdvizhenka were known as the locations of I noble estates, parks and gardens. Polyenov, the idyllic "Moscow Courtyard,"was crowded with turn-of-the-century "skyscrapers"- four- or five-storey luxury apartment buildings. To this day they define the architectural character of the Arbat streets.
  After the Bolshevik Revolution, Moscow again became the capital of Russia. New leaders embodied new ideas. Fortunately, most of these ideas remained only on papper, but nonetheless, much of Moscow was destroyed. The Arbat was rather lucky in comparison with many areas, although it, too, suffered its own tragedy- the road to one of Stalin's dachas was cut directly throught it. It became an "official street." The Generalissimo's armed motor escort swept through the Arbat, past frightened pedestrians who were driven out of sight into entrances and gateways. The locals whose windows looked out onto the street were evicted, and specially chosen tenants- people whose records were inspected three times for their "trustworthiness,"- were installed in their place. The "old-timers" were left to live out their lives in old Arbat communal houses. An historical paradox- the street where the most conservative people once lived is now the venue of the most radical views.
  As it happened, while perestroika was in its preliminary stages, the Arbat had already undergone its own "reconstruction," or rather, beautification, including new facades and imported cobblestones and streetlamps. In its first years as a pedestrian mall, and after the noise and action of International Festival of Youth and Students, the Arbat looked strange- and elegantly lit street with a few bored wanderers. Then one day a lonely figure with an easel and a bold sign-"I will draw all of humanity!"- appeared. The first idlers gathered round the artist with the curled moustache, and people commissioned their portraits for a very modest sum.
  The pioneer's name was Sergei Arto. Formerly working in the parks on the outskirts of the city? he was the first to bring free and unrestricted art into the neart or the capital. "ARBATER," the first independent association of young avant-garde artists, reinforced its stronghold outside the Praga restaurant, and soon all the walls, windows, and fences of the Arbat were covered with paintings of all tastes, from surrealism to sur-surrealism.
  Formerly persecuted abstractionists, purveyers of radical sots-art, daring caricaturists, and an army of former official artists of the Leninist school of monumental art as propaganda, now out of work, found a sympathetic audience and market on the Arbat. And people who not long ago churned out noble portraits of the members of the Politburo gladly began painting the faces of their own peers.
   Following the artists came musicians, bards and poets drawing inspiration from current events. The Arbat came alive- it spoke, sang, argued, and held demonstrations. A great many socio-political movements were born here. The concepts of multiparty democracy and freedom of thought were the new trademarks, and yet the demon of extremism never destroyed the Arbat's sense of humor. One sees more smiles per capita here than anywhere else in the joy-deficient Moscow. Democracy, freedom of speech, tolerance, market relations, creative freedom, people's diplomacy-hey all saw the light of day sooner on the Arbat than in the rest of Russia.
  From the Praga restaurant the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from dawn until dusk, the river of people from every corner of the Soviet Union and the world flows leisurely The Arbat has become a veritable hotel, creative workshop and an art studio under the open sky. It is an endless exhibit, a concert, an international festival of art.
   The Arbat's artists are becoming known abroad. The paintings shown here are representations of the different styles, themes, and genres which have arisen from the bright and colorful palette of the Old Arbat.
   Alexander Rubinin. Translation: L.Irwing.
  
  
  
  
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Новые книги авторов СИ, вышедшие из печати:
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