Pushkin Seen in Dreams

Kyiv’s Museum of Russian History and the local Aleksandr Pushkin Museum are staging an exposition, I Saw Pushkin in a Dream... with a series of works by the noted illustrator and Pushkin researcher Nikolai Kuzmin (1890-1987), totaling over 100 works, both complete canvases and sketches, variations on a subject testifying to the artist’s creative quest, an attempt to interpret a theme approaching it at various angles. The series is complete with copies of books bearing Kuzmin’s well-known illustrations of different periods. Most items on display belong to Yakiv Berdychevsky, prominent Kyiv collector of Pushkiniana. At one time they were presented to him by the great Russian poet’s family and later, as part of his collection, formed the bulk of the newly established Pushkin Museum’s stock.

Nikolai Kuzmin made his name in the tragic year of 1933 when he created a subtle and remarkably accurate graphic commentary on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. In it he revealed his talent as both illustrator and keen researcher, adding his own original vision and interpretation of the text. Kornei Chukovsky wrote, “Kuzmin’s illustrations for Eugene Onegin merge into the poet’s text, forming a single whole. It is hard to deny that Pushkin would have liked them...” The artist would subsequently return to Pushkin more than once, creating a number of subtle hints, meaningful faces, and scenes bearing every hallmark of the times. His style is purposefully kept close to Pushkin’s period and the poet’s own artistic style. His works are a precious contribution in the studies of Pushkin. The display includes illustrations for Gogol, Lermontov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Krylov, and others.

The opening ceremony was scheduled to coincide with Pushkin’s anniversary (Old Style). The number of those wishing to marvel at Kuzmin’s graphic works was so large that the spacious museum halls could hardly provide room enough for all the guests. However, what leapt to the eye was that the audience was mostly like those one usually meets at a lonely hearts club. Young people completely ignored the event. Perhaps this is one of the consequences of the lowering accent on Russian literature in the schools or bespeaks the “immaturity” of potential young visitors, because simply reading even a genius such as Pushkin does not cause everyone to wish to better acquaint him/herself with the subject and form a wholesome opinion of it as a phenomenon. Be this as it may, the public came “by inertia” and professional belonging. The situation with a predictable number of real visitors also alarms the organizers who brought all their strength to bear calling for bringing to the halls all of the acquaintances. And they did not bother about elementary press releases for journalists, offering to write down information from leaflets behind the glass. Such neglect is absolutely unjustifiable, for a “text without a context” has long been considered mauvais ton. Yet the Embassy of the Russian Federation awarded the Russian Art Museum of Kyiv a diploma, apparently in acknowledgment of the institution’s contribution to the propaganda of its national culture.