Exhibitions

To the Great Poet of Great Russia

Since 20 May, an exhibition of paintings-illustrations to the writings of Alexander Pushkin by Dubna artist and craftsman Boris Makarov "Let's Remember Pushkin. To the great poet of great Russia is dedicated..." has been open in the exhibition hall of the JINR Cultural Centre "Mir". About why he has decided to illustrate the prose and poetry of our classic, we will learn from the author of the paintings.

- Why did I take a swing at Alexander Pushkin? I guess, the time has come. I haven't approached him before since I think, I haven't reached him. I've read almost all of Pushkin, I've been reading for a year and I was given a unique volume of 1946 edition. Pushkin simply needs to be illustrated and I urge all my colleagues to do it. Not to dive headfirst into it but to do something, to show your own view of Pushkin. It will be interesting.

Of course, Pushkin is our everything, he is the source of our literary, poetic language. And our literature is like that for before there was Pushkin. It is very important to me that he died an Orthodox man, having confessed and taken communion. And forbade his friends to avenge him. This is important since Dantes would probably have been killed and some duelist would have been hired to do it. It seems to me that it is wrong to make an opinion about Alexander Pushkin based on his early writings; before "The Prophet", he was one person and after that he was different, matured.

The style of the illustrations is recognizable, yours…

- It's like a second skin, you can't help it!

There are traits, attributes of the 19th century on the writings, you obviously thought about it.

- Surely, although I'm not sure that I haven't lied about anything.

And the Battle of Poltava is consonant with current events, relevant...

- Yes, and "To the Slanderers of Russia" is certainly relevant. History repeats itself. When he wrote "To the Slanderers of Russia", he was persecuted in the light. From the noblemen that were fed at the expense of their peasants, while having houses in Europe. Pushkin started to cooperate with Nicholas I that made him his historian, put his salary and incidentally, paid all his huge debts. He found himself close to the sovereign and part of the high society turned against him. As the current "fifth column" behaved.

And of course, fairy tales, where do without them!

- Yes, but there are not enough illustrations for fairy tales, I'll do them separately, I'll add more. In general, there's a lot of work to do, I want to replenish the series. Pushkin has a lot of topics. Here is "Onegin" - a stanza and a new illustration!

Yes, it is "Eugene Onegin" that takes up most of the exhibition...

- It's the central work, the most powerful. When I write something, sometimes, I open a book and read it, but most often, I play a recording performed by an artist - Gaft, Yursky or Smoktunovsky, they are the best at reading Pushkin's works. It's important since even if it's a good book and you don't like the timbre of the reader's voice, you can't listen to it.

Last question. Why do you call yourself an artisan?

- I don't claim to be an artist. It's very important for our local artists to be called artists. But I am an artisan. Call it a pot, but don't put it in the oven!

The exhibition is open until 15 June. Entrance is free.

Olga TARANTINA