Item #1380 [DEFENDING CUBISM] Voprosy zhivopisi: Krizis iskusstva i sovremennaya zhivopis’. Po povodu lektsii N. Berdyayeva [i.e. Issues of Painting: The Crisis of Art and Modern Painting. Apropos of N. Berdyaev’s Lecture]. A. Grischenko.
[DEFENDING CUBISM] Voprosy zhivopisi: Krizis iskusstva i sovremennaya zhivopis’. Po povodu lektsii N. Berdyayeva [i.e. Issues of Painting: The Crisis of Art and Modern Painting. Apropos of N. Berdyaev’s Lecture]

[DEFENDING CUBISM] Voprosy zhivopisi: Krizis iskusstva i sovremennaya zhivopis’. Po povodu lektsii N. Berdyayeva [i.e. Issues of Painting: The Crisis of Art and Modern Painting. Apropos of N. Berdyaev’s Lecture]

Moscow; Leningrad: Gorodskaya tipografiya, 1917. Item #1380

[2], 29, [1] pp. 25,5x16,5 cm. In original illustrated publisher’s wrappers. Some soiling of the covers, minor tears of the spine and front cover, otherwise very good and clean internally.

Scarce. First edition. The front wrapper shows a black and white reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s Man with a Clarinette. Inscription on the title page: “The income from the publication goes to the fund of the Moscow Art Atelier to help those artists who became victims of the war.”
Issue 4 of 4 published. First (1915), second (1915), and third issues (1917) were also written by Alexis Grischenko and were titled The Answer to Sergei Glagol, A. Lunacharsky, and YA. Tugendhold, How Painting Is Taught in Our Country and How It Should Be Perceived, and A Russian Icon as the Art of Painting.
Penned by the Ukrainian painter Alexis Grishchenko (1883- 1977) in 1927, this interesting book on the crisis of art was written in response to a lecture of the famous Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948).
After seeing Pablo Picasso’s cubist paintings hanging in the mansion of collector I. Shchukin, Berdyaev described the work of the artist as “cold, gloomy, and frightful!” Berdyaev’s reaction prompted an expulsive essay on Picasso that incriminated the artist in “decimating the foundations of the objective corporeal world” and causing a crisis of “dematerialization” and “disembodiment” in painting. In 1917, Berdyaev’s position was made widely known at a public lecture in Moscow. Titled Crisis of Art, the lecture was subsequently published as the lead article in a publication of Berdyaev’s writings (including his earlier derogatory comments on Picasso), which circulated in a city all abuzz with artists working through a new aesthetic for the new revolutionary era.
The views of the widely respected philosopher met considerable opposition from those who found artistic purpose in Cubism. Alexis Grishchenko, an enthusiast of modern art, and especially of Cubism, provided a sound grounding for defending the movement against Berdyaev’s recriminations. In 1917, the painter published one of his most famous works Crisis of Art and Modern Painting. In the book, the author criticized Berdyaev and his supporters for asserting that art had reached its crisis. Instead, Grishchenko suggested that art was developing in accordance with its natural laws, and the notion of a crisis of art was used by his contemporaries only to justify their personal crisis. Grishchenko singled out a number of specific problems of painting successfully resolved by Cubism, namely the issues of valères, texture, palette, the introduction of a new perspective into coloring, and finally, the problem of composition as a solid construction of the picture. Grishchenko’s work came to be viewed as the embodiment of the pre war Russian avant-garde, propagating the freedom and boundlessness of modern art.
Shortly after the October Revolution, both Grishchenko and his “opponent” Berdyaev emigrated abroad, never returning to Russia. In 1922, Berdyaev was expelled from the USSR for his strong religious beliefs. Alexis decided to leave the country on his own. From the early 1920s, both Alexis and Nikolai relocated to France where they continued pursuing their careers.
Alexis Grishchenko was a Ukrainian painter, art theorist, and enthusiast of modern art. Grishchenko studied philology and biology at the universities of Kyiv, St Petersburg, and Moscow before turning to art. He studied painting in Moscow and established close ties with the collectors Sergey Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. In 1911, he visited Paris where he became infatuated with modern art movements, especially Cubist painting. He published several books and articles and took part in contemporary discussions on various aspects of modern art. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Grishchenko became a professor at the Free Art Studios (Svomas) in Moscow and a member of the Commission for the Preservation of Historic Monuments. In 1919, he decided to emigrate to Europe, leaving all his paintings and other possessions behind in Moscow. After 1924, Grishchenko lived in southern France, making frequent trips to Spain, Portugal, etc. In 1937, a one-man exhibition of Grishtchenko’s works was held at the Museum of Ukrainian Art in Lviv.

Worldcat shows 2 copies at Princeton University and Getty Library.

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