Georgy Bogdanovich YakulovArmenian: Յակուլյան Գևորգ Բոգդանի, Russian: Гео́ргий Богда́нович Яку́лов (Якулян). (January 2 (14), 1884, — December 28, 1928) was a Russian painter and art theorist of Armenian descent. A notable artisan in Moscow during the Silver Age and early Soviet era, he was close to the circle of avant-garde innovators, he actively interacted with various artistic movements (cubism, futurism, imaginism, constructivism), but was not a member of any of the art groups, was looking for his own visual method, combining the culture of the East and the culture of the West. The ideas put forward by him "the theory of light and the origin of styles in art", called the "theory of multi-colored suns", developed by the French artist Robert Delaunay.
Biography Early years
The future artist was born in Tiflis, in the Armenian family of the famous lawyer Bogdan Galustovich Yakulov (Yakulyan): George was the youngest, ninth child, a darling and a favorite of his parents. Father died in 1893, and mother, Susanna Artemievna (née Kananova), taking six children with her, she moved to Moscow, where George in the same year was assigned to the boarding school of the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages (expelled from the sixth grade in 1898 for disobeying the rules of the boarding school). Unlike older brothers, Alexandra and Yakov, who have chosen a legal career, George showed interest in art and in 1901, after two months of classes at the school of K.F. Yuon, he entered the Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture, however, for failure to attend classes in May 1903, he was expelled from the head class of the painting department and was soon drafted into the army. Served in the Caucasus (where he managed to paint), participated in the Russo-Japanese War, in a battle near Harbin he was wounded and in 1905 he returned to Moscow.
Becoming an artist
The very first work "Horse Racing", created by Georgy Yakulov upon his return to Moscow and shown by him in 1906 at the exhibition "Moscow associations of artists", attracted attention in art circles and was noted by Pavel Muratov in the magazine "Vesy": "The paradoxical drawing" Horse Racing "by G. Yakulov is carried out sharply, the artist interestingly applied the colored spots of chinese vases to his theme". A strong impression on contemporaries was made by bright entertainment and organicity, with which Yakulov connected in this work the traditions of the East with the aesthetics of late modernism, and when, in 1908, Kazimir Malevich showed his flat gouaches with an entertaining crowd, they were perceived as an imitation of Yakulov.
The artist consolidated his creative success by participating in the exhibition "Wreath" (1907) a variety of graphic and painting works ("Man of the Crowd", "Roosters", "Sukhum under the Snow", "Hermitage Garden", "Arab Symphony" etc.) but now Muratov spoke very restrainedly about his recent debutant, in which, according to the critic, "sharpness and lethargy, originality and imitation are strangely mixed". P. Muratov Old and young at the last exhibitions |"Golden Fleece", 1908, No. 1 (January), p.89.
From the earliest works, Yakulov surprised by the combinations of the incompatible inherent in his style: in a small, reminiscent of an old miniature, "To the Street" (1909), the emphasized decorativeness of the enamel painting was combined with the methods of transmitting the light-air medium, realistic multi-storey building foreground - with a semi-fantastic view "on the blue street-bowl, in which not so much moving as resting black-red-white carriages with smart riders and pedestrians". At the exhibition "Wreath", he became close to the artists of the association "Blue Rose" - M. Saryan, P. Kuznetsov, N. Sapunov, S. Sudeikin, N. Krymov.
In the second half of the 1900s, Yakulov first appeared as an architectural decorator, decorating the premises for the "Evening of Russian Writers" (1907) and did first steps in book graphics - small works in the magazines "Libra" and "Golden Fleece". In 1908, his works were presented at the VI exhibition of the Union of Russians artists, in 1909 - at the exhibition "Secession" in Vienna, since 1911 have been exhibited at exhibitions of the "World of Art". At the beginning of 1911 G. Yakulov together with P. Konchalovsky, A. Lentulov, M. Larionov, N. Goncharova, K. Malevich, A. Exter took part in the exhibition "Moscow Salon".
In 1908 he made a trip to Italy (visiting Venice, Padua, Florence, Siena and Rome), in 1911-1913 he spent a long time in Paris (where he met and communicated with R. Delaunay), in 1913 he took part in the Autumn salon "Storm" in Berlin. In 1913, Yakulov, together with the blue-rozovites Saryan and N. Milioti, illustrated the book of poems "Purple Kifera" Elsner V. Purple Kiefer. Erotic / front. N. Milioti, ill. M. Saryan and G. Yakulov. - M .: Book publishing "Alcyone", 1913. V. Elsner, with Sudeikin created the scenery for the theatrical program "Dog Carousel" in the artistic cabaret "Stray Dog" in St. Petersburg.
At the end of December 1913, at meetings in Stray Dog, a controversy arose about the priority of ideas, put forward by R. Delaunay in his theory of "simultanism-orphism" - after the report of the philologist A. Smirnov, who promulgated the concept of Delaunay, Yakulov protested against the appropriation of ideas from his own theory, which a week later, on December 30, he stated in his report: "Natural light (archaic solar), artificial light (modern electric)". On January 1, 1914, together with the "Budelians" A. Lurie and B. Livshits, he wrote the manifesto "We and the West", released shortly in three languages (Russian, French and Italian) and then reprinted by G. Apollinaire in the Mercure de France. Years later, Livshits briefly but eloquently described the co-author of this manifesto: "Unlike most painters, Yakulov had the gift of generalization and knew how to coherently express his thoughts".
At the beginning of 1914 in the almanac "Alcyone" Georgy Yakulov made an article-essay "Blue Sun", the first in a series of works outlining the theory of "multi-colored suns": following the "blue sun" of China, he intended to write about the "pink" sun of Georgia, "yellow" - India, but in this form the plan was not implemented, and only in 1922 the artist published an article developing his theory - "Ars solis. Colorist's Sporades".
Since the beginning of the First World War, Yakulov is again in the army, in the fall of 1914, he was seriously wounded in the chest: the bullet touched the lung (which in subsequent years contributed to the emergence of tuberculosis). After recovering from his injury, the artist spent a vacation in Moscow, created a number of sketches and drawings, with whom he participated in early 1915 at the exhibitions of the "Union of Russian Artists" and "World of Art". In March 1915 he returned to the front, on his subsequent vacations, in the spring of 1916 and 1917, he took part in the exhibitions of the "World of Art" in Petrograd. In June 1917, by the decision of the Provisional Government, as part of a group of artists, Staff CaptainRodchenko A.M. Experiments for the future. - M., Grant, 1996. — P. 212. Georgy Yakulov was finally withdrawn from the active army.
Years flourishing One of the "special points" in the creative biography of Georgy Yakulov, which marked the artist's transition from easel painting to theatrical and decorative and monumental art became his work on the design of the Moscow artistic cafe "Pittoresque" (pittoresque - "picturesque"). Even in the pre-revolutionary years Yakulov designed a number of club interiors as a decorator for various charity and entertainment events - an evening on the theme "China" at the Hunting Club (1908/1909), in the same place "Tiflis Maidan" together with B. Lopatinsky and A. Lentulov (1912), "Night in Spain" at the Merchant Club together with P. Konchalovsky (1912) and others. Retrofitting the high hall of the former Passage of San Galli on Kuznetsky Most, (commissioned by N. Filippov, one of the heirs of the famous moscow baker) was not only a more ambitious project, but also of particular professional complexity.
In the design of the cafe "Pittoresk" G. Yakulov acted as the author of the project and the head of the work, lasted from July 1917 to January 1918, and attracted a large group to carry them out constructivist artists and non-objects: L. Bruni, K. Boguslavskaya, S. Dymshits-Tolstaya, L. Golov, V. Tatlin, N. Udaltsova, B. Shaposhnikov, A. Rybnikov. Together with Tatlin, A. Osmerkin took part in the painting of the glass ceiling, A. Rodchenko was engaged in the development of lamps based on Yakulov's rough sketches (this was his first design job), sculptor P. Bromirsky helped to create chandeliers, the rotating elements of the hall's decorative solution were embodied in the material by N. Goloshchapov. For the artists invited by Yakulov, it was an opportunity not only to make money, but also to implement ideas in the material, which they previously developed only in sketches.
Yakulov's overall design solution separated the decoration from the walls and brought him into a constructively and dynamically organized space of the hall. But decorativeness, as an artistic principle, was preserved, which contradicted the main ideology of the constructivists and led to a purely formal participation in the work on the cafe "Pittoresk" of their leader Tatlin.The fact that Tatlin took a demonstratively performing position is evidenced by the conflict described by A. Rodchenko between Tatlin and Yakulov at the stage of remuneration, when "painter Tatlin" demanded that Yakulov pay him for the "painting work" performed - Sidorina, 2012, p. 648.
The cafe was opened on January 30, 1918. A string quartet played on the stage every day, artistic performances were played, writers read their works, there were disputes. A. Lunacharsky performed here, V. Bryusov, V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin, V. Kamensky, Sun. Meyerhold, A. Tairov, A. Mariengof often visited, V. Shershenevich, D. Shterenberg, A. Lentulov, K. Malevich, M. Saryan, A. Shchusev, M. Ippolitov-Ivanov, V.Kachalov, I. Moskvin, V. Massalitinova, A. Dikiy, A. Koonen and many others. Bright, spectacular and innovative work on the creation of the cafe "Pittoresk" put forward Yakulova in the creative, and in the professional workshop, and socially and culturally to the center of the artistic life of Moscow: in the design of the cafe "Yakulov flashed immediately, easily and generously. His path was clear "- wrote A. Efros.
In the fall of 1918, the Pittoresk cafe, due to the change of owner and the threat of reorganization in the variety show,Yakulov reported about this threat in his letter to the People's Commissar Lunacharsky - see: Mass propaganda art of the first years of October ". - M., 1971. -P. 128. was transferred to the Theater Department of the Commissariat and renamed to the "Red Rooster" club-workshop. On the 1st anniversary of the October Revolution, the premiere of the play "Green Parrot" staged by A. Tairov took place here (based on the play by A. Schnitzler) set by G. Yakulov. Before that, in the spring of 1918, the first theatrical work of the artist, at the initiative of Meyerhold, was the design of the performance "Exchange" (joint production by Meyerhold and Tairov based on the play by P. Claudel) - at the Chamber Theater.