A. CHUDETSKAYA: Absolutely correct.
K. LARINA: And we are going to the opening of the exhibition called "The Confessions of Harlequin". The guest of our studio is Anna Chudetskaya, the curator of the exhibition. Anna, good morning, good afternoon, welcome.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Good morning everyone.
K. LARINA: Leonid Feigin, Head of Direct Design. Hi, Leonid!
L. FEIGIN: Good afternoon.
K. LARINA: And we are talking about the artist Moses Feigin, who, as I understand it, is very famous, if only because he is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, right?
T. OLEVSKY: He was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest working artist, but, really, this is not the most important thing in society.
K. LARINA: But this says a lot to our listeners. You have propbably recognized the voice of Timur Olevsky, who is here with us in the studio today, since Anya Trefilova is on sick leave. But we will definitely hear the traditional report from Timur, who visited this exhibition. Let me remind you once again that the exhibition is being held within the Chereshnevy Les (Cherry Forrest) festival. Well, come on, where do we start? Maybe let's start with the artist after all? Let's give the floor to the curator.
L. FEIGIN: Famous in certain smaller circles, probably.
K. LARINA: Yes, yes. Anna? Go ahead.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Yes, I also reacted to the word "famous". The fact is that due to circumstances, Moses Feigin was not, well, he did not enjoy either special or official recognition, nor widespread popularity, fame, due to both subjective and objective reasons. This man was very finely tuned in to his inner creativity. His message was very important to him, which he put into the paintings, which we will see in our halls. We specifically focused on its late period. Considering that the artist has lived such a long life, it is an amazing thing that it was in the last decade of his life that his work was most fruitful, most vividly, when he created the most sonorous, expressive works.
K. LARINA: Why is it called “Confessions of Harlequin”?
A. CHUDETSKAYA: You know, it’s a long story. The fact is that the exhibition was prepared as a joint project of the Pushkin Museum and the Cherry Forrest festival. And the festival has its own priorities, they aim at such a bright, festive ...
K. LARINA: Theatrical.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Yes, perhaps theatrical life. It is no coincidence that one of the first projects was the Zefirelli exhibition project, which ...
K. LARINA: His costumes, right?
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Not even costumes, but paintings! We saw a completely unexpected facet of the director. Therefore, possibly here as well, they saw an initial so to say focus on the perception of the world as a theater in this artist. And for a long time we were looking for a name. Finally, the name was proposed by Leonid Feigin - "Confessions of Harlequin", and here it is somehow ...
K. LARINA: I did not mention it, by the way but Leonid is the artist's grandson.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Yes.
L. FEIGIN: It should be noted that the halls display a whole layer of works dedicated to Harlequin, these sad characters of deeply philosophical sound. That is, Harlequin is not in fact a character in the commedia dell'arte at all, but these are, it seems to me, the artist's contemporaries in this circus image who were thereby liberated and told everything about themselves, which was what the artist thought about them.
K. LARINA: By the way, we have catalogs, as far as I understand, right? How many catalogs do we have? How many prizes do we have?
L. FEIGIN: We have four catalogs and we have tickets to the exhibition. 4 sets of 2 tickets each.
K. LARINA: Great. That is, I can now read the questions for our listeners, the questions were provided by Anya Trefilova, and you can answer them by SMS: + 7-985-970-45-45 and by phone during our live broadcast a little later, too. This means that we have 4 catalogs and 5 ...
L. FEIGIN: 4 catalogs and 4 sets of tickets.
K. LARINA: 4 pairs of tickets.
L. FEIGIN: Yes.
K. LARINA: There are 8 prizes in total. So, attention, the first question is: what was the name of the performance that was played in the Karabas Barabas theater? An unexpected question. What was the name of the performance that was staged at the Karabas Barabas theater? The second question is: as you know, boilers were made on Kotelnicheskaya embankment. And where were the stands for these boilers made? Please remember the place in Moscow which kept it in its name. The next question is: in the early fifties, the painting by Vladimir Serov "Lenin Proclaims Soviet Power" was presented to Mao Zedong. A few years later, a postage stamp with a reproduction of the painting was issued in China in huge numbers. And then there was an embarrassment. It turned out that the stamp was clearly different from the picture. What was the matter with it? Let me remind you that we are talking about Serov's painting "Lenin Proclaims Soviet Power." And the last question, the fourth one is: in his "Lectures on "Don Quixote" Nabokov writes that the mind of the poor Hidalgo is characterized by alternation of eclipses and insights. To which subject does Nabokov compare this mind? Here are 4 questions, and let me remind you where to send your answers: + 7-985-970-45-45. And the studio phone number is 363-36-59. Leonid, well, you have the floor.
T. OLEVSKY: Well, tell us about the Harlequin.
K. LARINA: Let me look through the book for now.
L. FEIGIN: Yes, the fact is that my grandfather’s world of images developed in a peculiar way, primarily because of his life, which was quite full of both adventures and troubles. I cannot say what he meant by the word "Harlequin" was what we understood by it. For him, this clown outfit was, first of all, a clown. He lived under pressure all the time. And he got so used to it that his understanding was that without external pressure it is generally impossible to achieve internal pressure. That is why he said that in “fat times” artists become vulgar. Such vulgar art serves entertainment.
K. LARINA: What a wonderful and precise thought, my God.
L. FEIGIN: That is what he said that, well, there should be an explosion, there must be external pressure, he said that the best works of art are created in the worst times for an artist. And he thought that he was lucky, and he lived a bad enough life, and that he considered himself a good artist. And the Harlequin ...
K. LARINA: Not everyone would admit this!
L. FEIGIN: Well, there was pressure, there was always pressure, both financial and political. He, the Harlequin, in his works traces his ancestry from King Lear’s jester, who accompanied his master, even when he was rejected by everyone. And he laughed at him and offered the wisest advice possible. Therefore, he believed that in an era of pressure, one can only be wise under the guise of a jester. And his Harlequin is always kind of like an actor who must fulfill the role imposed on him, but under this external pressure he preserves the freedom of spirit - through irony, through jokes, through laughter. And this is how I saw myself, even when I was learning to paint, I often drew my grandfather. And this is the only object that I can now draw with my eyes closed in the dark using my left hand. I can always draw a portrait of my grandfather, because I painted it 10 thousand times. And when I was working, yes, I always drew him in the form of a Harlequin in a plaid suit. He enjoyed it very much, and he would say: "Let it be like this, this is how it should be."
T. OLEVSKY: But, look, he painted a lot of bright works in the years when he was already free. This is also interesting, when things became freer, after all, his creativity also progressed and developed. I wonder how he felt about it. Let us hear the answer to that after the news.
K. LARINA: Yes, right now we have the news, and then we will move on. Let me remind you that in today’s "Museum Chambers" hosted by Ksenia Larina and Timur Olevsky, our guests are Anna Chudetskaya, the curator of the exhibition "The Confessions of Harlequin" by Moises Feigin and the Head of Direct Design, the artist's grandson Leonid Feigin.
NEWS
K. LARINA: So, let me remind you that today we are talking about the exhibition of Moses Feigin "Confessions of Harlequin", which opened at the Museum of Private Collections and will last, according to the catalog here, until June 27, right? The exhibition is held within the framework of the Cherry Forrest art festival. And today we have in our studio of the "Museum Chambers" program the exhibition curator Anna Chudetskaya and the artist's grandson, an artist himself and Head of Direct Design Leonid Feigin. While we had the news and advertising on, I was leafing through the catalog made for this exhibition and it is absolutely wonderful. I understand that you can buy it there, in the museum, when you come to the exhibition. But here, in addition to reproductions, in addition to the works of Moses Feigin, you can also get acquainted in detail with the curvature of his biography, there are wonderful texts here, including copy from our today's guests. And a lot of documents have been published: various articles from newspapers, there are all sorts of references, there are all sorts of letters and, of course, a large number of wonderful photographs of Moses Feigin and his relatives. I am looking at the biography, Leonid, let's go through the biography a little.
L. FEIGIN: Well, there ...
K. LARINA: You were born in Warsaw, right?
L. FEIGIN: He was born in Warsaw, and his family is from the town of Rechitsa in Belarus. And then there was such a cascade of events. When he was little he went to see the revolution. He ran away from his mom and dad, took his younger brother and ...
K. LARINA: Is this already in Moscow?
L. FEIGIN: Yes, and so they went. They moved to Moscow during the First World War. Together with the gymnasium. And he watched the revolution, and he was in the Red Army. They forced him to serve in the cavalry - a city guy, an artist, with a newly born child, and he was drafted in the army and sent to the cavalry. He quickly learned and then commanded a squadron of Cossacks. They respected him as an excellent cavalryman. He was very athletic. So, then he returned to Moscow, and he was just beginning to live when he was sent to prison. What for? It turns out that he served in the army illegally, he had no right to do so. He got 10 years old, 10 years in the remote regions of the republic for illegally joining the ranks of the armed forces.
K. LARINA: What do you mean? What was he charged with?
L. FEIGIN: It turns out that he had no right to join the army. Like he needed it.
K. LARINA: Amazing.
L. FEIGIN: He was taken away by force, and then he was charged for this ... In short, he realized that the state is too young the way it behaves. Lawyers were hired, the whole family got involved, they spent all their money and managed to fight it off! Instead of 10 years, he was given 2 months of hard labor in remote regions. The whole family was celebrating, it was a holiday. He served 2 years in the army, in the cavalry, and then 2 months of hard labor at the Yaroslavl station with prisoners, with murderers for that. He said that this life experience was amazing, he had heard so many exciting stories there! And they are not all from the book, but they are on the site. The website is www.moiseyfeigin.ru. There are more memories there, including about these criminals - he’d tell hilarious stories about them.
K. LARINA: Did he write a book? With your help?
L. FEIGIN: It was only in oral form. Well, he is now writing it now, through me trying to literally restore everything, everything that he told us, and, here, on the website ...
K. LARINA: So you are preparing a book, right?
L. FEIGIN: Well, there is a website, but this book is ...
K. LARINA: Such an amazing fate. Here I see, again in this short list of events and chronology of the biography, that in 1932 his parents emigrated to France. How did this happen?
L. FEIGIN: They just made it in time. They managed to escape. There was such a thing then - intelligentsia trains. Lenin gave some kind of order to let the intelligentsia that do not want to live here go (abroad). There is an opinion that this way he was kind of saving the gene pool this way. And to this tune, my grandfather's parents left for Brest on the last train, literally the last train. And my grandfather was young then, still a small child, and he said: "I'll wait here, I'll go later, plus I have a job here, and that's it." The borders were closed literally right behind this train. Then they would come to my grandfather for a long time and look for letters from his parents, but they did not write a single letter to him.
K. LARINA: That is, the connection with them was practically broken.
L. FEIGIN: That's it, no, he doesn't know where they are buried, where they went.
K. LARINA: And has this somehow affected his fate - the emigration of his parents? On the whole, as I understand it, he was spared Stalinist repressions?
L. FEIGIN: Miraculously, miraculously. That is, he miraculously escaped the 1937 repressions; his grandmother took him to Feodosia to draw sketches. She brought him to Feodosia, but you can't paint or draw there, since there are warships stationed there. An artist cannot go out into the street with a sketchbook, since he might sketch the shape of a ship. And he spent 2 months in the yard, drawing a dusty corner and chickens. He returned angry as a dog, and his neighbors in a communal apartment met him with the words: "They had come for you at night." Just 2 months before that, right after they left. And they sat and waited with my grandmother for them to come. But no one did. And he said: "What a strange state it is - they came, did not find anyone and said to hell with it!" Well, they did take someone else!
T. OLEVSKY: Well, that is what Solzhenitsyn wrote about in the Archipelago. They didn’t search for a long time.
K. LARINA: As I understand Leonid, you are saying Leonid, that there was humor in his attitude.
L. FEIGIN: Well, you know, when you are 102 years old or 104, you can do have a humorous attitude. But then they did not sleep for half a year, for half a year he was always in his clothes with a bundle of things at the read. He was hoping to stay alive and for half a year he did not sleep. He would go to work, do his job, and then stay awake at night. They would sit and wait, dressed, with their bundle.
K. LARINA: He volunteered for the Second World War, right?
L. FEIGIN: There was a reservation (for those who are not drafted) for the Second World War, he was a member of the Union of Artists, he was already an adult, and they had to bring him a reservation. And the military commissar came and said: "Well, cowards?" implying that they were cowardly, sitting there, waiting for their reservation. And my grandfather was never the one to back down - he could do whatever you want, break through the wall or climb the Ostankino tower. “Who is a coward? I am going!" - and off he went.
K. LARINA: And he went through the whole war?
L. FEIGIN: He did not go through the war. He was lucky again, he was left in a reserve battalion not far from the front line. And he was getting ready to be sent off many times - it was called "dispatch", when there was a departure to the front, and no one returned. And they left him every time. He was somehow irreplaceable - an artist, a gymnast, and an athlete, he trained people there, painted. In general, he was lucky, he did not shoot. He served the entire war, but in a reserve regiment.
K. LARINA: That is, he had not been at the front line, right?
L. FEIGIN: No, he was not.
K. LARINA: Oh, let us do it this way - I propose to listen to you Timur, I mean, your report from the exhibition, which is already underway. And the people are already coming there. And then we will continue our conversation. Maybe we will add something what you say in the studio, and Anna, as the curator of the exhibition, will definitely want to add something as well, her impression. Let's do this. And we already have winners who have won our first prizes. We will also be sure to accept your answers by phone.
T. OLEVSKY: When someone is awarded the epithet of “a man of the 21st century”, it often means that he was subject to the main currents, wrote as is customary in this seeking century - refused the academic manner, developed the avant-garde or remained a Sezanist, like Alexander Osmerkin, a teacher who was not betrayed by one student. Celluloid-metal constructions, which are vainly analyzed are what we know about contemporary art. And it is not the case with Moses Feigin. He is a man of the century, if only because he walked his own path and expressed himself in his own language. To think and create till the last day, to stay on the cutting edge - this deserves respect, to say the least. Art critic Anna will tell us more:
ANNA: Look - he served in the ranks of the Red Army in the cavalry. Look at how many exhibitions he had - the Tretyakov Gallery, the Central House of Artists, and his parents emigrated to France, and even by nationality he is Jewish. The year was 1932, and they left for France. He volunteered for the front. A well regarded person, respected by me personally. A man who had lived for a century and participated in all events. He was a peer of the century, you can’t take that away from him, this is a person of the century, a person who had lived all the time with the country.
T. OLEVSKY: Once upon a time, modernists were called reborn romantics. Klimt and Mukha caused a big stir and gained at least a hundred followers. The realism and avant-garde of Moses Feigin are of a different kind, there is nothing festive in it, and therefore it is stronger than the tragedy of the century. They are inscribed in these everyday scenes in such a way that suddenly you can hear the sound of a taut string. There is no need to guess the plot in these paintings, it is simple to the point of chills, and as if everything is clear. Here is a boy with a saber in his hands, as was his grandfather once, only he is on a wooden horse. Everything else is emotions, the translator Natalya found.
NATALIA: From the very beginning he was looking for some forms that correspond not to a formal image, but to his sensations, his moods. Therefore, here is a completely realistic portrait, absolutely realistic. And, conventionally, I don’t know what to call this style, it’s not abstract art, it’s a very specific portrait. Simply, one might say, Chaplin's character, sick, old, and touching. And there it is cheerful, funny, with colors that are red, blue, bright, and a dog is next to him. And then there is a sailor, who seems to have already seen everything in the world and gone through everything. He comes from the feeling that he is close to the theater, for sure he knew this theater very well with Meyerhold. There is an inner theatricality. I really loved the watercolor called "Two". Harlequin woman and Harlequin man. You are a witness of this dialogue, and you can stand there for at least a hundred years and listen to their dialogue.
T. OLEVSKY: Young designer Irina gazed at the portrait with grandchildren, trying to discern the creative origin in the swaddled baby. And Feigin's own "Red Horse", his Russia have monopolized her attention for a long time.
IRINA: I liked the color, the transition from dark to bright. There is some kind of very dynamic emotion here. The approach is more abstract. The subjects are very classic, it seems to me, he just translates the classics into his own language. As for me. This is what his own language is like, it seems to me it is closer to abstraction. He is an optimist, but with a lot of life experience. A pessimist would not have lived that long. These emotions seem to have actually prolonged his life. 104 years …
T. OLEVSKY: And only Andrey came out upset. Without realizing it, he expressed the feeling of the era, which Moses Feigin painted sometimes layer by layer on the same canvases. During the day - portraits of Stalin and Lenin to feed the family, and at night - the forest and Don Quixote.
ANDREY: I didn't really like the contrast of such bright and dark tones. Too harsh. Maybe he had not been to the circus when he was little, although he really wanted to. And later it affected these Harlequins, the clown theme. Some kind of opposition, the complexity of the world, being.
T. OLEVSKY: I have in front of me is a photograph of a stubborn person with large brow ridges and a professionally tenacious, but not prickly, soft gaze. “The worse life is, the better the artists work, and vice versa - the better the conditions, the worse it is for creativity. Painting grows in struggle, resistance gives rise to anger, acuteness, pressure. When everything is smooth, it turns out sugary sweet,” Moses Feigin in his interview after turning 100.
K. LARINA: Did you see this artist for the first time, right?
T. OLEVSKY: Yes.
K. LARINA: Well, tell me about your impressions.
T. OLEVSKY: Eh, well, this is very, ah, yesterday I was struck by the fact that I saw a person who is not trying to screw with the viewer's head. He does not try to seem more complicated and more incomprehensible than he is, in order to seem, well, how do I even say, too, too great, too interesting, too "come on, try to understand me, I am such a misunderstood person." On the contrary, everything is very clear. Another matter is that the language, the way of expressing these subjects, these truly simple subjects, because there are a lot of everyday subjects, family ones, and there are allegorical ones, but they are all very easy to read. Another question is that the language, the way of depicting things is such that, here, you really get carried away by these pictures. Here is the avant-garde, if you can call it that, cubism, avant-garde, by the way, he loved Malevich very much and considered him one of the greatest artists. In this case it is not a reason, not a goal, but only a means. A tool that he perfectly mastered and developed, for example, there is a series of works "The Crucifixion" - crucified Harlequins, crucified [people], crucifixes of different colors. They express such a strong emotion and with such simple, simple strokes, not sparing the paint, however, they are depicted with such simple strokes that, indeed, you can stand by the works for hours. And think about what has been done. But not to think about what is drawn, but having analyzed the subject, just to think, to experience some, some of your thoughts. Yes, what did you think?
K. LARINA: Ann, so how do you like the review?
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Very good, I liked what Timur says. But I still want to argue that this romantic idea that the more pressure weighs down on the artist, the more opportunities he has to express himself - it is wrong.
T. OLEVSKY: I completely agree with you!
A. CHUDETSKAYA: It is fundamentally wrong, and the work of Moses Feigin speaks volumes on this. It was in his 56th year (these are his words quoted by his daughter), after having visited an exhibition of American art, not even art but an American exhibition in Sokolniki, he experienced this impulse, and his work was completely transformed. This impulse of free self-expression gave him the opportunity to understand that he can be free! Internally free, which is very important! And the fact that this middle-aged person, already close to being 60, began to work, to look for his own inner freedom - this is a very important moment. And I also want to say that Timur came very close, very close, but did not say the word, which is an art criticism term - existential art. This is not the art of Expressionism, it rather gravitates to what Giacometti did in the 60s. And I am very glad to hear the feedback from our visitors, and such an enthusiastic speech by Timur. It seems to me that in this joint project of ours we showed an artist who spoke outside the circumstances of his life, so to speak, who was able to speak in a free and contemporary artistic language.
K. LARINA: Leonid, speaking about the theatricality of the art of Moses Feigin, didn’t he have some kind of creative connection, creative contact with Meyerhold?
L. FEIGIN: He loved Meyerhold very much. Moreover, he, he was very fond of the Meyerhold theater and he was very fond of the actor Mikhoels. And he has the actor Mikhoels, who plays King Lear in the following chain: his beloved teacher Osmerkin, betrayed and exiled by everyone, in the pose of King Lear cursing his children, and King Lear as a character with a jester, and actor Mikhoels, who plays King Lear - everything somehow combined in his head, and this whole world is like a theater, like a scene that repeats itself endlessly, but the meaning is the same. As a result, he often painted the profile of Mikhoels as one of his characters. He had a pantheon, which included Don Quixote, which included Charlie Chaplin, a small white dog, well, there are quite a few, well, about 20 characters, each of which had its own meaning, and, by combining them he expressed different subtle thoughts. And Mikhoels was one of the characters. Like the man who actually played King Lear.
K. LARINA: And did he do anything in the theater as a painter?
L. FEIGIN: No, I think that at a time when he was still able to do something in the theater, it was forbidden for him. And I would like to add a remark - pressure is not the same as a prohibition. Of course, the prohibition stops creativity, but pressure, according to my grandfather, is good. Especially the pressures of life - when it’s hard, when you have little money.
K. LARINA: Was there a period of a complete ban?
L. FEIGIN: Well, at the time when he was not working in the expressionist genre, he called it like this: "I kept a spark of art." That is, for a long time he just worked during the day on portraits of political leaders, and in the early morning, at 4 am, he left to paint landscapes.
K. LARINA: These portraits of the leaders, this, as I understand it, was a strict necessity.
L. FEIGIN: Yes, just work.
K. LARINA: Were these orders, or was it done at his initiative?
L. FEIGIN: No, no, what initiative?! He just goes to works at the plant.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Work in the portrait workshop!
K. LARINA: Yes, I think that’s clear, right?
L. FEIGIN: Yes, they would give him an order, and moreover, he could choose. Lenin was 100 rubles, I believe, a large portrait, two meters high. And Stalin was 110. He would take the order for Stalin. 110 were given for Stalin since there were more orders, and the work was more difficult. Therefore, he was a Stalinist! He just worked to feed his family.
K. LARINA: Stalinist as a genre, we mean.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: This is the answer to Ksenia's question that he took a big part in a grandiose theater!
T. OLEVSKY: I think he painted the very famous portrait of Stalin that hung on the building, on the embankment, right?
L. FEIGIN: Yes, he and his team did the biggest portrait of Stalin in history. And then after they completed it, they could do without work for six months, but just paint. And he said that if he had not been painting in the mornings, he would not have retained that spark, which easily flared up when it became possible. He told me about an exhibition: “So I came there, I didn’t like a single piece, I didn’t like anything. But I remembered! " That is, this is an exhibition that ...
T. OLEVSKY: American Exhibition.
L. FEIGIN: Yes. It just woke him up! "I remember! I spat on everything, and began to remember again everything that I did in my early youth, when I studied at VKHUTEMAS." That is, the spark of art, preserved for a long time, for 40 years, it came to life, it lit up again, and he began to learn again.
T. OLEVSKY: By the way, I get a feeling - maybe it’s just in my head - that there is regret in his works, regret about the wasted time throughout his works ...
A. CHUDETSKAYA: Yes, yes. Exactly. This feeling of catching up ...
T. OLEVSKY: Catch up.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: ... and such perseverance, unusual, which is not expected from an elderly person, it ...
K. LARINA: Listen, but what about the Khrushchev Thaw, this whole story with the artists - it kind of passed him by?
L. FEIGIN: Well, he has always been out of society. He always lived quietly, he did. He didn't claim to be successful.
K. LARINA: That is, he did not take part in the show ring as an artist.
L. FEIGIN: No, and that is why he just “woke up” in 1966 and had worked since, never stopping.
K. LARINA: Uh-huh. Let us now, let me name the winners who won the first prizes by SMS, and then we will turn on the phone, and I will of course remind you the questions. So, our winners are Irina, phone no. 926-639, Lena, phone no. 916-644, Sasha, 906-031, Maria, 905-562. And I’m going to repeat the questions for you, so that you can get through to us by phone now.
What was the name of the performance that was staged at the Karabas Barabas theater? As you know, boilers were made on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. And where were the stands for these boilers made? Who wrote ... Have I asked this, or not? Or did I not ask this question? I already forgot myself. Oh, no! Here is the question: in the early fifties, the painting by Vladimir Serov "Lenin Proclaims Soviet power" was presented to Mao Zedong.
A few years later, a huge circulation of a postage stamp with a reproduction of the painting was issued in China, and to a big embarrassment. It turned out that the stamp was clearly different from the painting. What happened? And the last question: Nabokov in his "Lectures on Don Quixote" writes that the mind of the poor Hidalgo is characterized by an alternation of eclipses and insights. With what subject does Nabokov compare this mind? I bet no one knows the answer to this question. Leonid and Timur, get your headphones on as well. And let me remind you our phone number: 363-36-59 to try and answer these questions.
K. LARINA: Hello, hello. Hello?
Listener: Hello?
K. LARINA: Yes, please.
Listener: Hello!
K. LARINA: Hello.
Listener: I want to answer the question about the taganka, the stand for boilers. They did it on Taganka [neighborhood], and the streets were called that way. I wish you a good day, my name is Nelly.
K. LARINA: Nelly, thank you, dear, your phone number was recorded.
T. OLEVSKY: We did.
K. LARINA: Yes, thank you, next call. Hello, hello. Hello?
Listener: Hello!
K. LARINA: Yes, please.
Listener: The play was called "The Girl with Blue Hair or 33 Dope Slabs".
K. LARINA: Great! You know the repertoire of the Karabas Barabas theater well. And your name?
Listener: Galina.
K. LARINA: Galina, thank you, we wrote it down. Next call, hello, hello. Hello?
Listener: Hello, good afternoon, my name is Tatiana.
K. LARINA: Yes, Tatiana?
Listener: Perhaps Nabokov was referring to the wings of a butterfly that open and close.
K. LARINA: No, no, no, no, no, who else wants to try? 363-36-59, hello, hello! Hello?
Listener: Hello, Kirill from Moscow.
K. LARINA: Yes, Kirill?
Listener: I would like to answer the question about the stamp.
K. LARINA: Okay.
К. ЛАРИНА: Да, пожалуйста.
Listener: I believe, in the painting that remained in the Soviet Union, Stalin was blotted out.
K. LARINA: Yes!
Listener: After debunking the personality cult.
K. LARINA: Yes! Quite right! Well noted. And, Kirill, the answer is absolutely correct, thank you, your phone number was recorded. Well, we still have to find out with what Nabokov compared a series of insights to. Please, hello, hello! Hello?
Listener: Hello, hello!
K. LARINA: Yes, please.
Listener: Oh, I want to answer the fourth question.
K. LARINA: Yes, yes, yes! Go ahead.
Listener: Nabokov compared the mind ...
K. LARINA: of Hidalgo!
Listener: Don Quixote and a change of insights with a chessboard.
K. LARINA: Quite right! Correct answer. And your name is?
Listener: Julia.
K. LARINA: Julia, thank you, we wrote it down. Julia is also from Moscow. And that is it, we knocked them out of the park quickly.
T. OLEVSKY: I am good, I am watch the SMS feed and use the collective intelligence, so I answered all the questions a long time ago!
K. LARINA: Well then! We are nearing the finale, so let’s consider what should we pay attention to, if a person like Timur wants to get to know the work of Moses Feigin for the first time at this exhibition?
T. OLEVSKY: It occupies three floors!
K. LARINA: What to look for, what would you advise? Let us try. Anna, please.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: I believe that you just need to come at your leisure and being free, and being able to tune yourself to the wave of a free perception. I think none of the spectators will remain indifferent.
K. LARINA: That is, you won't mark a path for us, what’s worth hanging around?
A. CHUDETSKAYA: What is it worth to hang around for a while? I can only mention the structure of the exhibition. The first floor is dedicated to the most significant works of painting, the second floor has a lot of such documentary support. And there we placed the main self-portraits, and now ...
T. OLEVSKY: There were plenty of them.
A. CHUDETSKAYA: They can be compared, and it's interesting. And the third floor displays his famous cycles and graphics, and the third floor, of course, is where you want to spend the most of your time, I think.
T. OLEVSKY: Leonid, did your grandfather have any students? Well, other than you, I mean?
L. FEIGIN: No, there were no such people who would come to him on a regular basis, learning some skills, although there were a lot of powerful artists, well, there was Pavel Nikonov, who repeatedly told my grandfather that he was his teacher. But in a spiritual sense, as a leader. Can I say something about the exhibition?
K. LARINA: Of course.
L. FEIGIN: It’s just that if a person has never encountered the work of Moses Feigin, I suggest taking a look at how the characters move from painting to painting, and little by little there will be a feeling of the world where Chaplin meets Don Quixote, Don Quixote sends his regards to Sancho Panza, Harlequin, and Harlequin then meets with Chaplin. And this is such a strange world in which symbols are ... people all become symbols, become people. There is a lot of life there. This is not abstract art at all, these are lots of faces, eyes, fates, and very tragic ones. This is real theater, and each character has such a deep role, and it is very interesting to follow it all.
K. LARINA: You owe me a book, right?
L. FEIGIN: Yes, we owe you a book. It has memories in it and lots of interesting things.
K. LARINA: Thank you very much! So, our guests, Anna Chudetskaya, curator of the "Confessions of Arlecchino" Moses Feigin exhibition at the Museum of Private Collections, and Leonid Feigin, the artist's grandson, head of "Direct Design". Ksenia Larina and Timur Olevsky were your hosts today, and the exhibition will run until June 27. Let me remind you that this exhibition was opened within the Cherry Forrest art festival. Thank you.
T. OLEVSKY: Thank you!
