Turning from the window, whence he had been surveying the Hudson gleaming like a band of blue steel in the afternoon light, Nicolai Abracheff lit another cigarette.
"My ideas about art," he said, "like my practice of art, are the essences of simplicity. I believe, first of all, that art should be creative, not a mere copy of nature and natural phenomena. The manifold effects of nature are merely the starting point for the artist, not the end itself. And nature, which reduces everything to a system - the rigorously ordered system, should, in art, be itself reduced to a system - the rigorously ordered system of a purely structural interpretation. In my work, I seek to suppress the accidental, to preserve and present the essential, basic elements of colour, form, and movement."
Reaching for the essential cigarette, Mr. Abracheff continued:
"Since we live to-day, and are of today, I maintain that we should evolve an aesthetic language which shall be the language of our particular day and generation. This is what the ancients did, and it is our duty to follow not what our predecessors produced, but as they practised. The twentieth century is the century of the machine, of force, of movement, of vast crude realities and resources constantly place at the service of mankind. We hear a great deal in scientific circles about synthesis, and synthetic products, and I hold that this is the day of artistic synthesis. Everything in the universe from delicate snow crystal to the great, blinding disc of the sun has its exact mathematical form, and correspondingly, every form has a particular colour. Every form has also its direction, its movement, which movement gives to form its characteristic line."
A pause for the inevitable cigarette and he summed up as follows:
"The creative artist is instinctively aware of all this, and art itself is but an expression of the creative process. Artistic experience, like human experience, advances along certain definite, predetermined lines. If we remain out of step with the age in which we live our work becomes ineffective and futile. If we place ourselves in accord with the prevailing time-spirit, we may accomplish something. we may catch something of the eternal rhythm of the universe which, machinelike, moves forward with relentless, inspiring, impetus."
"Judging from your attitude, the younger group of artists and literateurs in Rio de Janeiro are quite modernist, and thus I presume you hailed with joy the recent visit of Marinetti, the official spokesman of the Futurist-Facist movement, did you not?"
"No," was the prompt reply, "I cannot say we were greatly impressed. Their programme seems old-fashioned to us. Compared to the fresh, spontaneous social and aesthetic conciousness we of South America are today evolving, Marinetti and Mussolini - declamation and despotism - are decidedly out of date."
A final cigarette, a glance at the darkening river, and our chat was over.
Note: I believe this to be a handout for Abracheff's exhibition at the Gainsborough Galleries, Feb 10-Mar 11, 1927.
You can reach me by e-mail at:
Ed Zerne