Columbia Library columns (v.33(1983Nov-1984May))

(New York :  Friends of the Columbia Libraries.  )

Tools


 

Jump to page:

Table of Contents

  v.33,no.2(1984:Feb): Page 4  



4                                Snsan Cook Sumnter

observing the grand, aloof mien of tlie city's majestic architecture
as well as its Dostoevskian labyrinth of squalid alleyways.

Dobuzhinsky grew up during Russia's Silver Age, a period of
exhilarating, exuberant rejuvenation of the arts that lasted from
about 1890 to 1920. Not unlike Munich's Jugendstil and fiit-de-
siecle Paris, the aesthetic revolt carried over into all disciplines. It
was an effervescent, feverish era in which the ties between Russia
and the AA'cst were reestablished. Russia delved into its own tra¬
ditions of folk art and medieval iconography and rekindled an
interest in the traditions of the West and the Orient. Russian paint¬
ing and music dazzled Paris, and Moscow merchants patronized
Picasso and Matisse.

Before immersing liimself into this whirlwind of artistic activ¬
ity, Dobuzhinsky, curiously, earned a degree in law. (In fact, this
path ^^'as not uncommon; Stravinsky studied law, as did Meyer-
hold, though it is said he was a poor student.) Degree in hand,
Dobuzhinsky promptly abandoned jurisprudence and devoted his
full attention, and the rest of his life, to the fine arts. He received
formal training in St. Petersburg, traveled throughout France and
Italy, and proceeded to Munich where he studied at the studios of
Anton Azbe and Simon HoUosy, important mentors for not a few
Russian painters. Dobuzhinsky concentrated on drawing, estab¬
lished links with the Jzigend-SimpUcissinnis group, and admired
the poster designs of Toulouse-Lautrec and \'allotton. These pro¬
clivities were fundamental to his development as a graphic de¬
signer and illustrator.

Returning to St. Petersburg in 1901, Dobuzhinsky immediately
cultivated ties with the World of Art group whose brilliant the¬
oreticians, Sergei Diaghilev and Alexandre Benois, had an over¬
whelming affect on the evolution of the arts in Russia and the
West. Under the banner of "art for art's sake" and the slogan
epater le bourgeoisie, they repudiated the classicism of the Acad¬
emy, the realism of the Wanderers (the group that resigned en
masse from the Academy in 1863 to form tlie Society of Wander-
  v.33,no.2(1984:Feb): Page 4