Jacketti: When less, more

Pictures from the exhibition

Alexander Genis: Today, our traditional column will go to one of the most famous museums in New York, which most often falls on the pictures of tourists. This, of course, the New York Museum of Guggenheim. His famous spiral is an ideal place for a retrospective. It allows you to build the exposure chronologically and look around it - both from above and below. In these summer days, the entire museum is filled with the work of Alberto Jacketti, which give an exhaustive, if possible, an idea of evolution, techniques, creativity, life and thoughts of one of the most important masters of high modernism.

The exhibition begins with experiments. Like other Parisian avant -garde, such as Modigliani and Sutin, Jacketti studied at museums. Not so much in the Louvre as in anthropological. In his early works, traces of all non -Western art are visible: the Cycosa sculpture, Polynesian ritual objects, and the Fayum portraits. He was interested in humanoid forms, for example, spoons. Trying to find the limits of simplification, the young artist dismantled and gathered anew man again, not wanting how to get rid of him with abstractionists.

A short -term connection with the surrealists did not take him away from the bizarre, grotesque, even frightening, but still credibility. This period includes a well -known and terrible sculpture of 1932, “A Woman with a Cutted Throat”.

Jacketti in Guggenheim

Experimenting with space, Jacketti sculpted the figures of people as small as we had seen them from the window. Playing with the void, he portrayed his hands, emptiness, hands. Solving the problem of relations, the master created two talking people, but, thoroughly thinking, removed the second interlocutor, leaving the first to conduct a dialogue with a shadow.

Critics, including such as Jean-Paul Sartre, who enrolled him in existentialism, believed that war was a turning point for Jacketti. Although he spent her in neutral Switzerland, the experience of inhuman suffering experienced in Europe resulted in classical images of resistance.

These are the figures elongated to the sky and the figures exhausted to the death, in which stubborn will, that is, unbending, concentrated. Jacketti’s women stand like salt pillars, men are contrary to circumstances, there are no children at all.

(Music)

Alexander Genis: I know for sure where I realized that Jacketti is my favorite sculptor. This happened near Nice, in the Museum of Modern Art, which was founded and headed by the French collector Eme Mage. It is difficult to come up with a more beautiful place: soft hills, vineyards, a Mediterranean climate, which means the southern sun. And among this luxury, on a naked terrace stood a bronze man of such a thinness that he was almost no different from a sharp shadow, which was thrown into a white marble figure. It seemed two -dimensional, she was devoid of her body. Instead, the master depicted the spirit, impulse and even the wind that prevents him from going forward.

"Walking person"

Of course, it was a “walking person” - one of the most famous sculptures of the twentieth century. Having met her again at the exhibition in Guggenheim, I did what to do before was shy: I accepted, not paying attention to the visitors, just such a pose and tried to keep it only one minute. Experisively, I managed to find out that Jacketti portrayed a man in a painfully uncomfortable state. He had already stepped forward, but had not yet moved. A strong wind interferes with him, but the hostile pressure of the elements helps and resist his feet. The resistance of the environment is a condition for victory or, at least, hopes for it. The sculptor put a complete philosophy into this awkward pose, and I recognized her even then, in Provence. Of course, this is Becket.

The scene from the play "In anticipation of Godo." Jacketti's work tree

I guessed about their friendship, without knowing anything about it, and was right. They met before the war, but became friends after it when both returned to Paris. At night, friends walked around the city for hours. Jacketti's extrovert said, the Introvert Beckett only listened, but, apparently, both were necessary for both. It was then that in the first post -war years the sculptor found himself, and the writer composed the main thing - the great trilogy and the immortal play. At the premiere “Waiting for Godo”, Jacketti was conquered by the only but very important decoration: a dry tree on stage. It was twisted from wire hangers. To rectify the situation, Jacketti built a new tree for the play. In it, ascetic realism was connected with the magical just in such a proportion that we believe in the magical phenomenon of the only sheet that distinguishes the second action from the first. In search of this - minimum - Jacketti's shift spent his whole life.

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Alexander Genis: The musicologist and culturologist Solomon Volkov join our conversation about the work of Jacketti and high modernism.

Solomon, how do you feel about Jacketti? How am I?

Solomon Volkov: I really like him. He is both Brankusi, or as Brankushi, one of my favorite sculptors of the twentieth century, is called in Russia. Of the modern sculptors, I greatly appreciate the work of my New York friend Grisha Bruskin.

I agree with you that there is a lot of close in the work of Jacketti and Beckett, in fact, it does not occur to it right away. You guessed, and this is confirmed by the facts of their biography. Judge for yourself, this is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the work of both one and the other. But when you think about what can bring them closer, you see that this is what can be called the minimalism of modernism.

Alexander Genis: I agree with you. Minimalism in the form in which he resulted in high modernism was characteristic of both. I emphasize high modernism all the time, because in the history of this current there are two peaks. The first is the beginning of the 1920s, when Joyce Ulysses appeared, Eliot's Fillar Earth, this is Akme of modernism. The second peak is the end of the 1940s-the beginning of the 1950s, when the work of Becket, which is considered the last modernist, blossomed, because after it began postmodernism. This period between 1920 and 1950, these 30–40 years, which were dedicated to evaporation of reality, is the salt of art. This was what Jacketti and Beckett did this. They were very different in appearance, Jacketti was small.

Solomon Volkov: But Persons ...

Alexander Genis: As Brodsky often repeated, we are responsible for our face. Both of them had dealt with emptiness and despair for a very long time, and this was reflected on their faces. Jacketti was small, and Beckett was tall, sports, but in their faces they really have something in common. And their lifestyle was like. It is known that Beckett lived in Paris, he had a room in which there was a narrow bed and a chair, nothing more. Jacketti had a studio in Paris three by four meters. Can you imagine this closet? I can, because at the exhibition they showed a film where Jacketti works in this studio. It is hard to believe that you can fit the sculptor into such a tiny room. But Jacketti always worked here, first from poverty, but then, becoming a rather wealthy person, he did not want to change anything. In this studio, he worked every day. And he worked brutally.

When he made portraits, it was a terrible stress for both him and for the model. Once he sculpted the bust of Tadao Yanahara - this is a Japanese philosopher, a rather famous sociologist, a large person. He sat for 18 days in a row for 8 hours in the studio. But this is not the limit, because one portrait of Jacketti made 230 days. He demanded from the model of meditation, he wanted a person to forget about who he is, only then he began to write him. It is very curious to watch how it was drawn, because he was also a great artist. This makes a strong impression. What a blessing that there are films about contemporary artists. On the screen is the birth of a portrait, a network of features that catch the eye. Jacketti said: all my art comes down to one thing - to portray my eyes. Because we always look for his eyes in the oncoming man, even at the blind.

Solomon, I would like you to illustrate our conversation with something like that. Is this minimalism of high modernism in music?

Dierry Kurtag

Solomon Volkov: I brought two works of two completely different composers to our studio today, between which there is even no similarity, but they both correlate with the art of Jacketti, as well as with the art of Beckett. I will try to show how it works in one and in another case. I will start with the composer, who is our contemporary, he is 92 years old, his name is Dierdy Kurtag, he is Hungarian, with a very interesting and complex biography, a man who studied in Budapest, then in France with Messian, with Miyo. The man who, after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution, fell into depression, which brought him to a psychiatric hospital. He is now one of the most respected of the living masters of the composition. Kurtag composes small opuses, the latter dates from 2011 or 2012. He performs them with his wife, also a pianist, Martha.

Alexander Genis: It should be noted, perhaps an interesting detail: he speaks many languages, from ancient Greek to Russian. Therefore, he writes a lot of music on poetic texts in a variety of languages, including the words of Blok, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva.

Solomon Volkov: Yesenin even that, it would seem, should not have entered his repertoire. He likes Russian poetry, which in itself is nice.

The origins of Kurtag as a composer in a non -folklore bartock. Bartok, Hungarian classic, of course, the greatest Hungarian composer. There is a folklore barok, more affordable, melodic, dance and more popular, but there is a bartot much more abstract, where expressionism passes to an abstract step, it is thinner. This is quite difficult for perception of music even today. And there is the influence of Weberne, he is certainly a leader, if you like, musical minimalism in general in the twentieth century. The author, who composed minute works that make you absorb into yourself, this musical minute is driven into you like a nail into the skull. It may not be the most pleasant sensations, but you remember.

We spoke about Rozanov in our other program. His aphorisms can be unpleasant for you, but you remember them forever. There is a similarity with musical aphorisms, if so, weburne, and these are the musical aphorisms of Kurtag.

I would like to show our listeners his essay on Becket's words "What word?" This is a 1991 composition for a vocal and instrumental ensemble. Very bright, painful and memorable music.

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Alexander Genis: Yes, Solomon, it really is very difficult to listen to this music, how, however, to read, understand or watch Beckett, as well as, however, how to watch Jacketti. I sometimes think that the art of high modernism is not very intended for the viewer or for the listener-this is a challenge to the very art itself. And the fact that it is so difficult to give to the listener, and the viewer, and the reader, indicates that such art has reached the edge, it has reached its limit, there is nothing further. It is no coincidence that after modernism there was postmodernism, which called for "digging the ditches between high and mass art." It is curious that Jacketti was offered to carry out a wonderful project: putting three of their sculptures in New York near the bank on the same square in Dautaun. There is a layout at the exhibition that allows you to see how it should have looked, that is, real sculptures, and behind a photograph of the background on which they were supposed to stand in New York. But Jacketti refused this project, because it seemed to him wrong to put his sculptures - a woman, a man and his head - among skyscrapers in a giant city. They are lost, do not fit into the city landscape, because they need concentrated contemplation. This can be said about Beckett's plays, and about its texts, especially late ones, which are also very short. To delve into them, you need to read the context - in all the work of Beckett.

It is very difficult to accept the music that we listened now. How is the musicologist tell me how to listen to her?

Solomon Volkov: You know, and listeners, I think, by this time know that you and I are not big lovers of avant -garde art, I am especially conservative.

Alexander Genis: I would say we are not lovers of avant -garde extremism.

Solomon Volkov: Bekketic composition Kartag is certainly extremist. But when I begin to think that the main thing for me is when I listen to such a work, the main thing for me is a feeling of high quality of work done.

Alexander Genis: How well is the thing done?

Solomon Volkov: And this is pure intuition. Those tons of theoretical justifications that are now accompanied by any pile of garbage, exposed as a work of art, will not help here.

Alexander Genis: This is the so -called curatorial art.

Solomon Volkov: where the text prevails. Therefore, it is theoretically to prove that a bunch of garbage, which is a bunch of garbage and nothing more, is an outstanding work of modern culture, is not even difficult. Therefore, I don’t try to analyze such things, I completely surrender to my emotion, my perception, and the momentary, and if intuition tells me that this work is done qualitatively if I do not feel fakes in it, if I see that the human soul is invested as our beloved Rozanov, whom I remember all the time, then I accept this work. It can be extremely extreme, and this work of Kartag is certainly extreme, but it scratches the soul, I accept it in that capacity. Although I would not want to listen to him again and again.

Alexander Genis: Not Mozart.

Solomon Volkov: Once enough, but it was remembered for me, it is somewhere settled in my soul, I will remember it.

Alexander Genis: Another question: we are talking all the time about the minimalism of high modernism. But there is another minimalism - American minimalism. In what relations are these two schools?

Solomon Volkov: The fact of the matter is that American minimalism is minimal in terms of expressive means. These are relatively short phrases rhythmic, which are endlessly repeated, what the Americans call the "closed loop", which is repeated and repeated. This music is easy to distinguish when you listen to the five minutes of the opus of Philip Glass.

Alexander Genis: You hear all the rest of the opuses of Philip Glass, because these five minutes give an idea of all his work.

Solomon Volkov: In its own way, this is interesting music, especially as applied, it works well. I respect the courage of these guys who broke the tradition of high modernism, because it came to the middle of the century, by the 60s.

Alexander Genis: Art has come to naught.

Solomon Volkov: They restored, launched the music again facing the listener.

Alexander Genis: I have a friend who plays the piano in the Washington Square in Greenwich Willidge. He brings the piano to the arch, there is a triumphal arch where a good sound, and plays in the open air. He is quit money, a kind of stray musician, only he carries a piano - a rather difficult thing. We made friends with him, and I asked him: "What do they like to listen to the most?" I thought that you can listen to pieces, because people come and go. For example, Bach can be listened to this way, you can cut a piece from it. He says: "No bang, there is only one composer who can be played as much as you like and will always quit money, - Philip Glass."

Solomon Volkov: You see, it works. For me, in American minimalist music there is a neon color, glamorous light. European minimalism is essentially expressionism. There really is a minimum of funds to express the maximum of emotions, what American minimalists, it seems to me, is not present in their work. There are composers like Adams who stepped over to determine minimalism. I think that Steve Reich also largely went beyond what was once called minimalism. The revolutionary period is over.

These are all very significant figures, I treat them with great respect, but, despite the fact that I have been living in New York for more than 40 years, I still remain in my cultural roots a European, so I am emotionally closer to European minimalism, the bright representative of which is Stravinsky. Moreover, Stravinsky can also be a very different composer. For example, you can’t attribute the “sacred” to minimalism - this is a riot in the world. But periodically, Stravinsky came a minimalist period, which, incidentally, is associated with purely practical considerations, because Stravinsky was the greatest practitioner. He always responded to current needs, what customers needed, he always said that he needed an order, the order stimulates him.

I completely share this point of view, the order really stimulates. In this position, he ended up in Switzerland. He lived there just in those years - from the beginning of the World War to 1920 - when Jacketti also found there. So it is very possible that they crossed somewhere, they could not but cross in such a small country as Switzerland, being both bright figures.

I want to show the essay of Stravinsky, characteristic of the Swiss period, this is 1920, which echoes precisely in terms of the high modernism, which you spoke about, with the work of Jacketti. So, concertino for 12 tools, 1920, Switzerland, Stravinsky. In this opus, I see a resemblance to Jacketti's art.

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