Aleksey Kruchenykh: biography, poems

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The poet of tragic fate Alexei Kruchenykh lived a long life, but this is precisely what drama is about. For more than 30 years he was forced to live the hated life of an inhabitant. The bright period of his life was short, but extremely bright, illuminated by genius.

Family and childhood

Aleksey Kruchenykh was born on February 21, 1886 in the village of Oliva, Kherson province, in a simple family. His father came from a peasant environment, was at first a visiting coachman on the estate, and until the age of 8 the future futurist lived in a small village with 30 houses, and then his father decided to sell the house in the village and became a cab driver in Kherson, so Alexei spent his childhood in this city. Here Kruchenykh graduated from school in three classes and in 1902 entered the Odessa Art School. Thus ended the young man's peaceful childhood. The choice of the place of study was strongly influenced by his older brother, who had an outstanding talent as a painter.

Rebel Youth

Odessa School in those days was the best art institution in the Russian Empire. Aleksey Kruchenykh arrived there with vague hopes for something bright and sparkling, but was faced with painstakingwork, teaching the basics of drawing and composition. The school taught realism, and in this style Kruchenykh wrote his first works, which were distinguished by their resemblance to nature and testified to the presence of artistic talent, but the novice author was not captured by this work. At that time, a stormy life was going on in Odessa: a lot of entertainment, active and varied political activities, all this captivated Alexei. He participated in the work of a Marxist circle and was even once arrested for possession of prohibited literature, at the same time Kruchenykh met David Burliuk, the future founder of Russian futurism.

First calling

In 1907, Kruchenykh Alexei received a diploma of graduation from the college and went to Kherson to serve as a drawing teacher. But he dreamed of becoming a freelance artist, so he went to work irregularly and in the same year he applied for admission to the Moscow School of Painting. And, despite the fact that he was not accepted at the school, in the fall of 1907 he went to Moscow with a strong desire to be an artist.

In Moscow, he makes numerous acquaintances in the artistic environment, begins to work in the magazines "Alarm Clock" and "Spring", in the "Moskovskaya Gazeta" as an illustrator and caricaturist. He became famous as a cartoonist and even created a series of works "All Moscow in cartoons" commissioned by a major publishing house. He is quite successfully engaged in creativity, overcomes his academic school, acquires his own style, but his dream is to study literature. Kruchenykh participates in periodicexhibition of the Art Society of Moscow Artists, in the exhibition "Impressionists". He enters the circle of the Russian avant-garde, meets Elena Guro, Mikhail Matyushin, Vasily Kamensky.

Literary vocation

Kruchenykh Aleksey Eliseevich begins his path to literature with critical articles, reviews, satirical poems. He feels that literature is his main business of life. In 1912, he met Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov, who helped to finally shape the worldview of Kruchenykh, who saw himself as the creator of new poetry. He writes stories and reviews that are very different in style from the surrounding literary reality, in which he tries to present declarative ideas about the future of society and art.

Aleksey Kruchenykh and the Russian avant-garde

Aleksey Kruchenykh, whose biography has been associated with the avant-garde trend in art since the 1910s, has become an active participant in many outstanding events in the artistic environment of Moscow. In 1911, he met Benedikt Livshits, who, together with the brothers Burliuk and Alexei Kruchenykh, would later revive the futuristic society Budetlyane. At this time, avant-gardism is rapidly developing in the world, various circles and groups appear that call for the creation of new art.

Aleksey likes all these ideas very much, he collaborates with several groups at once and participates in the release of several futurist almanacs: "The Garden of Judges", "Three", "Dead Moon", "Slap in the Face of Public Taste". Kruchenykh also produceshis own books with theoretical articles and poems, and he appears here in two guises: not only as a writer and theorist, but also as a graphic designer. The year 1912 was rich in artistic events, Kruchenykh participates in D. Burliuk's group "Gilea", collaborates with the "Jack of Diamonds", participates in disputes and public events.

Poetry

In 1912, Alexei Kruchenykh, for whom poetry comes to the fore, begins to work closely with Velimir Khlebnikov. By this time, both poets were seriously engaged in the creation of poems in their "own" language, both wanted to reform poetry, relieving it of academic boredom. Kruchenykh brought Khlebnikov to show the beginning of his poem, and he, having begun to read, suddenly began to finish the sequel. So their joint poem "Game in Hell" was born. Later they will write the libretto for the futuristic opera "Victory over the Sun" together.

This was the beginning of Kruchenykh's activities in the field of poetic avant-garde, he publishes his debut book of poems "Old Love", in which he continues to develop the primitivist tradition. The book, like the poem, was illustrated by the outstanding Russian avant-garde artists M. Larionov and N. Goncharova and was an example of the synthesis of words and graphics. Kruchenykh begins experiments in creating illogical poems, professing the invented principle of the "worldly end", which was later implemented in a collection of works by Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh with the same name.

In 1913-14 Kruchenykhexperiments with a new style - literary absurdity, he begins to write poetry in the language of his own invention. New works were included in the collection "Lipstick". The most famous of them was the text:

hole bul schyl

ubeshchur

skoom

you co boo

r l ez..

According to A. Kruchenykh, there was more Russian national spirit in him than in all the poetry of A. Pushkin. The poet continues his literary experiments until 1930, when the collection of his poems "Ironiad" is published.

Years without poetry

Since 1930, Kruchenykh Alexei Eliseevich, whose photos often appeared in collections of avant-garde works, began to move away from literature. His comrades-in-arms are leaving him: Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov have died, the Burliuk brothers, like many other futurists and progressive artists and poets, are leaving the country.

Since 1934, the work of Kruchenykh was no longer published, and later he was denied admission to the Writers' Union. He is engaged in second-hand and antiquarian activities, preparing for publication the books of his associates, in particular Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov. During World War II, Alexei worked for the Okna TASS news agency. During his life, Kruchenykh collected a unique library. The Soviet government did not allow the poet to work, he was interrupted by various earnings. And only 2 years before his death, his only creative evening took place. June 17, 1968 Alexei Eliseevich Kruchenykh passed away.