Аннотация: Diaghilev. Marshal of the Russian art. A note on chapters 4-6 of book "Diaghilev: outrunning the time"
Diaghilev. Marshal of the Russian art. A note on chapters 4-6 of book "Diaghilev: outrunning the time"
The term 'marshal' (as we have already explained) is used to a greater extent in this case in the general civilian sense (person responsible for order; main, leading person; trustee).
During the period of Diaghilev's activity in Russia, the following accents are felt:
1) The desire to receive subsidies (from the state and from patrons) for cultural activities - to issue a magazine, to organize exhibitions ...
2) The desire to enlist the support of the emperor, members of the imperial family, government ...
The terms 'sharmer' ["charmer"] and 'charm' appear and develop (concerning Sergei Diaghilev) - from the word 'charm', "Charme". What is art, if not charm? Who is Sergei Diaghilev, if not a master of charm (sharmer) ["charmer"]?
Who can to negotiate, to deal - to charm?
In early 1897, Sergei Diaghilev for the first time organized an art exhibition - an exhibition of English and German watercolorists. The result of this exhibition does not disappoint him.
In the summer of 1897, Sergei Diaghilev took up the organization of an exhibition of Scandinavian artists in Russia. He visits Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark.
Following the trip, he publishes an article with a volume of twenty pages entitled "Contemporary Scandinavian artists." (The researcher, the thinker is visible in this work).
Organization of exhibitions is an excellent course of practical training, a source of valuable experience.
Diaghilev defines himself as a person of action (rather than contemplation), acquires the skills of the least painful way out of the ambiguous and scandalous situations that periodically arise during the interaction of the world of art and the world of finance, and becomes the leader in the Benois Circle.
The Benois Circle is replenished by the French cultural attaché ...
Diaghilev and his comrades have ideas: the creation of a new advanced society (the organization of cultural figures), the publication of a magazine devoted to issues of art.
As Sergei Diaghilev said, "I see the future [as if] through a magnifying glass."
De facto a non-government organization created. Diaghilev convinced a number of artists, owners of paintings, to transfer paintings to the exhibition.
1898 year. Diaghilev and his assistants seek financial assistance from philanthropists and begin to publish the World of Art magazine. The editors of the magazine hold regular exhibitions.
'This is how Alexandre Benois estimated the activity of his friend:' The only one among the group of artists [painters], he himself didn't do anything artistic, even completely abandoned his composition and his singing, but this did not stop us, the artists, from considering him completely the human of art. He did not paint, did not create productions, did not compose ballets and operas, and even very rarely acted as a critic on artistic issues. But Diaghilev ... was organizing everything ..., he was publishing books, edited the magazine, and subsequently was in charge of the difficult (often depressing) business of theatrical enterprises, which requiring contact with all kinds of social elements. The most distant area for us was advertising, publicity, the whole matter of propaganda, and just in this Diaghilev was amazing, as if by nature a gifted master. ' (The quote from the book by Natalya Chernyshova-Melnik "Diaghilev: outrunning the time").
Sergei Diaghilev intuitively feels some very deep processes - and acts in harmony with them.
So there's a marshal of art and an art researcher. (Vanity is probably felt in the biography of Sergei Diaghilev. Selfishness (love of money) is not noticeable in his biography. Presumably, Sergei Diaghilev, like Maxim Gorky, did not own real estate).
Diaghilev's apartment became the center of the editorial office of the magazine and the association of people of art.
Diaghilev mastered the art of representing himself as a Russian nobleman of high style. (It is important to occupy the correct cell in a large public matrix).
Part of Diaghilev's life (at that time), of the apartment, of the editorial office of the magazine was his nanny ... She accompanied him through life from the moment of the death of his mother. In the editorial office of the magazine, she was making and pouring tea.
(In the biography of Sergei Diaghilev from Chernyshova-Melnik, as the plot develops, there are less and less mentions about his father, mother, relatives, nanny ...).
The magazine initially caused great excitement in the public. Emotions were heated. Diaghilev visited the apartment of the 'adversary' (Viktor Burenin), expressed the own emotions to the journalist, who did not expect a visit, and slammed (clapped), using the cylinder, upon Burenin's face.
But gradually the passions subsided, Sergei Diaghilev began to publish materials in the magazine on a variety of topics of art.
There was an opinion about the "dictatorial manners" of Diaghilev.
In December 1904, the last issue of the World of Art magazine was published. This magazine went down in the history of Russian art.
The magazine is gone. Diaghilev, his knowledge, the experience accumulated by him - remained.
June 15, 2020
Translation from Russian into English: June 15, 2020 10:35.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Дягилев. Маршал русского искусства. Заметка о главах 4-6 книги Н.Д. Чернышовой-Мельник 'Дягилев: опередивший время''.