Valentin Serov: Portraits of Russia's Silver Age by Elizabeth Kridl s> Valkenier (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I I 7 analysis, then discussion of the film's reception and importance within the Soviet or post-Soviet historicaland socio-culturalcontext. Of immense value in Natasha Synessios's book is the detailed exploration of Tarkovskii's difficultieswith the Soviet film establishment,and the director'sown tortuous and sometimes contradictorypath toward the final product the film became. Natasha Synessios also includes some astonishing photographs from the Tarkovskii family archive. The juxtaposition of snapshots from the 1930S featuring Tarkovskii's mother, and shots from the film with Margarita Terekhova, the actress who plays Mariia Tarkovskaiain the film, reinforces the truly autobiographical nature of the film, and the deep personal importanceit had forthe directorhimself. There is much to enjoy here,with sectionson the use and significanceof the poems by Arsenii Tarkovskii(the director'sfather:another personal touch), the use in the film of music, colour and monochrome, newsreels, Pushkin's correspondence with Chaadaev, nature and, perhaps most importantly, Tarkovskii'semphasis on spirituality.Above all, the film's engagement with memory and identityremainsthe book'sfocus, with a telling comment on the director's 'recreation'of his mother: 'Ashe explained to his comrades at the studio meetings, what was important for him [Tarkovskii]was the way he remembered his mother, not the way she was' (p. 95: author'sown italics).Mirror, consequently, 'isa filmnot only about memory, but also about conscience and the purgingof guilt'(p. 98). On a personal level, this reviewer would have liked to have seen a larger section exploring Tarkovskii's contribution to autobiographical film as a genre, with discussionof hisparticularpresentationof the nationalexperience as expressed through the individual. A minor quibble about the book's production would indicate errors in reproducing Cyrillic on p. 84, but otherwise this is timely, well-presented and cogently argued piece: an extremely usefultool for the student of Russian, the film buffand the general cinema enthusiast. Department ofEuropean Studies andModern Languages DAVID GILLESPIE University ofBath Valkenier,Elizabeth Kridl. Valentin Serov. Portraits ofRussia'sSilver Age.Studies of the HarrimanInstitute.NorthwesternUniversityPress,Evanston, IL, 2001. XVi + 277 pp. Illustrations. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $35.00 (paperback). RUSSIAN nineteenth-century painting is not renowned for its accessibility. Readings of AleksandrIvanov's work require at least some understandingof the artist'sspiritualAngst;the work of many of the Peredvizhniki presupposes wide knowledge of social and political contexts; and, for most Russians,their nationalschool of landscapepaintingismessilybut inextricablyentwinedwith that most elusive of determinants, the Russian soul, or dusha.In welcome contrast,one does not have to mastersuchhistoricalorintellectualframeworks in order to appreciate the subtle characterizations of Valentin Serov's portraits, the power and resonance of each pose and composition, and his i i8 SEER, 8 i, I, 2003 masterful application of paint. But this is not to deny the extent of Serov's engagement with the intellectualattitudesand social circumstancespecificto the Russia of his day. As ElizabethKridlValkeniershowsin her accomplished new book, Serov'sportraitsnot only provide a compelling commentary on a period of rapid social change and culturalinnovation, but also prompt us to modify certain assumptions about the prominent social groups of Russia's SilverAge. Valkenier begins her account with three chapters which chart Serov's personal and professionaldevelopment, as the neglected child of a composer fatherand a motherwhose dedication to populistcausesepitomized the social commitment of the i 86os; as an impressionable young member of Savva Mamontov's artistic circle at Abramtsevo; and as an increasingly confident and successful artist whom Diaghilev recruited to collaborate on various projects, from the Worldof Artjournal in St Petersburgto the later visual extravagances of the BalletsRusses.Whilst making no excessive claims for Serov's involvement in these initiatives he was neither a core member of the miriskusniki nor one of the major designers for Diaghilev's theatrical enterprises Valkenier is anxious to credit him with the seminal idea of approaching a theatricalperformance as an animated bas-relief, inspiredby Assyrian frieze designs. The incorrigible self-publicist Shaliapin, amongst others,claimed thisinnovation as hisown, but Valkenierdrawson the memoir of the architectIl'iaBondarenkoto arguethat it was Serovwho firstsuggested the stylizedmovements in profilewhich became so characteristicof the Ballets Russes (pp. 53-54). This important observation apart, much of the material in the firsthalf of Valkenier'sbook has been covered in Russianaccounts. However, in...