Russian Artist

A CALL OF THE HEART

ROBERT FALK EXHIBITION

By Stephen Wilson

      At last Russians can see more of the works of the Avant- Garde artist Robert Falk. The exhibition which began on the 22nd January ends on the 23rd May at the New Tretyakovskaya Gallery at Krimski Val in Moscow. Don't make the mistake of missing it!

 

"I don't like painting successful people. For me unfortunate folk have a kind of mysterious magnet draw," declared the Russian artist Robert Falk {1886 -1958}. This perhaps sums up much of the philosophy of the artist who painted portraits of people not for popularity, or money, but because ''I like to paint ...my kind of people." The main thing was to do a brilliant piece of work from the soul. Falk painted people from all kinds of backgrounds, such as beggars, circus performers, old woman and dying woman. What he attempted to depict was the inner soul of the person which the subject's appearance or mannerisms hinted at. Falk also painted wonderful scenes of nature with incredible tones of color. A cultural official called Lebedev, who visited Falk's studio in Moscow perceptively remarked -"Yes Falk always wins with color. What incredible color, look at that! " 

Olga Stefanova, a Bulgarian teacher based in Moscow who visited the exhibition agreed. She not only marveled at Falk's sense of color, but was surprised at how prolific he was. The artist seemed to be full of an inexorable and inexhaustible energy! Olga stated, "I didn't expect so many pictures and that he had such a great collection and since spring is here we need a lot of bright colors especially when the weather can be horrible and there are not many colors. All in all, I liked his paintings." 

As many as around 200 works are on display, which comprises 100 paintings, drawings and designs for the theater. However, it is important to point out that this represents less than 10% of the artist's creativity as he painted well over 1000 works.  

 

GOOD ORGANIZATION

 

The good thing about this exhibition is that the works are arranged in a chronological order from his early works [1905-1909}, the Jack of Diamonds{1910-1916} ,and then around his work 'The Red Furniture {1917-1921} ,Back to the Masters {1922-1927}, the Parisian period {1928-1937}, Back to the U.S.S.R :Crimea {1938}, Samarkand {1938 to 1944} and the late period {1944-1950}.

It is impossible to pigeon hole Falk. Falk absorbed all the influence of Impressionists, Expressionists, Neo-Primitivism and Cubism. And this is just to name but a few. Despite being one of the leading lights of the Avant Garde movement in Russia, he did not despise past works of art but declared, "I keep turning back to the old masters". By old masters he meant Vermeer, Courbet and Cezanne. His deep reverence for Cezanne is indicated by one portrait he did of his wife on a sofa which has a portrait of Cezanne in the background. Olga Stefanova stated, "His works remind me of Cezanne". Falk was closely connected with the art movement known as 'The Jack of Diamonds". One of the aims of this artistic movement was to shock people out of their complacency and render art more accessible and less confined to a small elite of critics and academics. 'With our art we wanted to destroy the whole lifelessly painted world," stated the artist Ilya Mashkov. For the first 3 decades of the 20th century Russia experienced a tremendous renaissance in philosophy and the arts. It was an unprecedented era of free experimentation and innovation that was finally ended by the rise of Stalin. The words of Kasimir Malevich capture the excitement of this lost era. He theatrically declared with gusto that, "The thunder of the October cannon helped us to become innovators. We came to clean out the academic paraphernalia surrounding the individual so as to burn away the fungus of the past in the brain and to restore time, space, tempo, rhythm, and movement, the fundamental elements of the present day". A student of Art history, Natasha told me, "The name Jack of Diamonds was chosen to intentionally shock people. It was based on the name given to convicted prisoners. The idea was to claim that artists are not necessarily 'good' or 'nice' people but could be as 'bad' as criminals". The notion challenged lofty and elitist notions of artists which were often held by the public.

A Grey Day

One of the notions of the artists was that the form of the painting should not be constrained by the frame of the painting and that painted figures could seem to be moving or about to drop out of a picture. Conventional forms of time and space were subverted. You can readily see this in some of the pictures on display as 'A Grey Day,' 1911, when the pier seems to be bent and tilting in such away that you feel the painted figures might fall off or even out of the painting. One of the classic paintings on display is 'Red Furniture' {1920} where a table with a wine bottle is surrounded by distorted red armchairs and a sofa. Falk did not trust bright colors and even preferred grayish colors. In this respect he is like Andre Platonov who in his fairy tale 'Finist the Bright Falcon' writes that the feather of the Fire bird was simply an ordinary gray. Falk felt even gray had beauty. Oksana Chebotareva, who visited the exhibition told me, "I was struck at how the forms in the pictures were not restrained by the frames and looked as if they might drop out of the picture. That picture which shows only half a woman's face while the other part of the face is unseen suggests it has gone beyond the frame or eluded it".

 

An EMBARRASSING LENIN LOOK ALIKE

 

Every picture can tell a story! And thanks to the memoirs of Falk's third wife Angelina Shchekin Krotova, we can learn about some stories behind the figures he painted. {see Memoirs ,Lyrical Commentaries on the Exhibition of Robert Falk. } For instance, in one picture 'Old Woman' {1931} his wife recalls how one day in France, Falk went to a forest to pick mushrooms. He was being led by a clever cat who was loudly meowing the way to where mushrooms were hidden. He suddenly clashed into an old woman who was collecting bundles of firewood to save money on purchasing coal. When both saw each other they were stunned by each others odd appearance. They both found each other strange. Falk persuaded the old woman to pose for one of his pictures. 

In another picture which you can see at the exhibition called 'The Beggar',{1924} a beggar stares at you with piercing and intelligent eyes from a strangely shaped Socratic skull. The story goes that Falk noticed this beggar on the street cursing and swearing at a crowd in the city. He was ranting against the Soviet government who he blamed for making him poor and destroying the peasants. He told Falk, "The more you swear and curse, the more that kind people will give to you". When he noticed Falk doing a sketch of him he rudely shouted, "Hey Artist, do you want to paint my portrait? What is in it for me?" Since Falk was fascinated by this beggar he invited him to his studio to be his model. The beggar charged astronomical fees. Each time he visited Falk, he stole things from the artist. He finally stole Falk's toolbox. Falk went out to see if he could find the beggar, but he was not at his favorite spot. He had vanished. Falk never saw him again. Falk had great difficulty trying to sell this picture or getting a gallery to display it. They would not even accept it as a gift. Finally, the Russian Ambassador to Paris bought it and put it up on the walls of the embassy. That was a mistake. Every time a French visitor saw the picture they would say "O so that is your Lenin". They took the picture down and asked Falk to give them another picture to replace it.

One sad story is behind the picture 'A Greek Woman'. This woman was living in great poverty in a very cold attic suffering from tuberculosis. When he finished the painting he told the woman, 'Now you must rest. I must have worn you out'. The woman gave a sad smile and said, "Now I will have nothing to live for. At least I had something to do". Soon after the woman died.

 

Falk painted a portrait of the Russian poet Ksenia Nekrasova. When she saw the picture she complained, "Why did you paint me like a cleaning maid? I am refined". The artist retorted "Ksenia dear, you are better than refined. You are of the people, and more than that, you are a poet". From some accounts of how the artist was approaching his work we learn that unlike many artists, Falk did not view his subjects as objects for their experiments to be manipulated for his own ends, but was befriending them and letting them tell him about their own lives. He often helped cure his subjects of melancholy.

 

A NEGLECTED ARTIST

 

Unfortunately, the Soviet government refused to let the artist display his works. They regarded his works as being 'dangerous' and 'undermining' the canons of Socialist Realism. For years Falk's work was never open or announced to the public. 

Even after his death, Khrushchev slandered the artist's work 'Woman in nude' as 'obscene'. An idea of how badly the artist was treated by officials is given by his wife who recalled the visit of two officials to their home. She stated, "I was ill with pneumonia. Our guests stood in the middle of the room and looked around with disgust ..." Falk immediately showed the officials pictures he thought might be acceptable to the officials. One official Lebedev who saw the pictures told him, "Yes, Falk always wins with color. What incredible color! Look at that! "But then Sysoev interrupted him, frowned menacingly and said, 'It's not the color that is important. This landscape is not Russia. Our birches are tall, even slender. This birch is parochial, all bent and crooked". Falk left the room and I turned to the guests and said, "Goodbye, he won't be showing you any more pictures".

 

This is why Tretyakovskaya's exhibition of Robert Falk's works is more than welcome. It is high time that real justice was granted to this brilliant artist. He has been neglected for too long. The people who organised this display deserve great praise. It is hoped that there will be more exhibitions devoted to Robert Falk as many of his works have never been seen in public. Falk deserves better!