Muralists

For the first time I ran into Mexican muralists thirty years ago, having come to visit Leo Losev, a wonderful poet and professor of the no less outstanding Dartmut College. Losev began examinations of the sights of the university town with the library. A terrible surprise was hidden inside her: the frescoes are orcoo. In the early 30s, the university’s trustees invited the library of one of the three whales of Mexican muralism. OROSKO, whose fellow countrymen was called by the frantic Hose, depicted "American civilization" in 24 panels. The gods, heroes and labor masses swirled on the wall of the Clean Library. OROSKO clearly turned the painting to the left of the center, especially where he got to the topics of education relevant for the university. A fragment of the "gods of the modern world" shows professors who take birth at the skeleton: stillborn knowledge locked in the walls of the campus. Mexican muralism was delighted and indignant at once. I liked the painting, manners - averted, ideology - even more so.

About how insoluble this contradiction turned out to be, says the fate of the muralists in the United States. On the one hand, it was considered obvious that only they are able to create truly the original art of the New World and introduce his painting into the family of the world avant -garde. On the other hand, the Americans were forced to accept the brilliant southern neighbors what they are. It is worse that the third, moreover, the International intervened in the relations of the two Americas - the North and Latin.

The exhibition "Rivera in New York" tells about this unlocked triangle, which was arranged by the Museum of Contemporary Art with a grand scale and unique details.

As well as in the program

"On top of the barriers. American hour":

Nice in the USA

Boris Paramonov. Activist individualism is the main feature of American psychology, and this is more important than any philosophy. Nietzsche, by the way, was the thinker who discovered the first importance of psychological attitudes even in knowledge, not to mention action. The author of the book "American Nietzsche" spent a lot of strength to link Nietzsche with democracy, not seeing that this is not the main thing in the topic. Democracy in the end is a political institution acting on the surface of social life. But there are deep attitudes of consciousness, common, by the way, not only to America, but to the whole West, Western activist culture. And they were unraveled and demonstrated by Nietzsche. In no case should he be reduced to German experience, he gave a picture of the only twentieth century, while still in the peaceful nineteenth. There is still a lot to say a lot, but you still can’t say everything. For the speed of understanding the topic, you can recommend not to read Nietzsche himself, but to read, say, the "heart of darkness" of Joseph Conrad. Or, even more entertaining, watching only the movie Coppola on this book: "Apocalypse Today."

"Extraordinary Americans" by Vladimir Morozov

Rabbi Boas Marmon. The service in Hebrew, probably, can push someone away. On the other hand, the prayer for Hebrew is of particular importance, because in it is our connection with our ancestors. This, so to speak, is a spiritual aspect. And now aesthetic. You know that not so many operas are performed in America in English. Usually they sing in Italian, they are in French, in Russian. But for the English -speaking listener, this adds some mystery and additional charm.