Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) is known as a remarkable and probably the most talented Soviet poet. He was able to develop his own style of poetry and became a classic of Soviet literature during his lifetime. But in addition to poems, Mayakovsky also painted pictures, which, if his creativity was not so brightly manifested in poetry, could glorify Mayakovsky as a significant Russian artist. He mastered all artistic techniques of painting - could draw with ink, oil, pencil, charcoal and even cigarette butts, if there was nothing suitable at hand. Mayakovsky willingly illustrated his poems, and his drawings are included in all academic editions of the complete works. Often no one better than the author himself can draw an illustration of his works, and that is why Mayakovsky's drawings are so interesting.
Mayakovsky's desire for innovation, the search for new ways was manifested not only in poetry, but also in painting. He was one of the founders of Cubo-Futurism and Russian Futurism. However, his paintings in this direction are not very well known to the general public, Mayakovsky's painting is better known from propaganda posters.
Unfortunately, not all of Vladimir Mayakovsky's artworks have survived - much has been irretrievably lost, including many pencil sketches on paper and remarkable caricatures of his acquaintances and prominent Soviet artists made with cigarette butts and burnt matches. But even what remains is enough to conclude about the unconditional artistic talent of the Soviet poet.
It was with painting and began his path in art Mayakovsky, he wanted to make a revolution, to form a new proletarian culture, far from bourgeois prejudices. That's why with such zeal and refuted all the classical canons, created on his own mind, and thanks to the abundant talent of his artwork were not amateurish, but progressive and interesting. About the creative path of the great poet and his artwork we will tell in this article.
Vladimir Mayakovsky in the Georgian village of Baghdati. His father, although he worked as a simple forester, was partial to painting and could draw well. However, his mother and sisters of the future poet drew in the family. When Vladik was seven years old, his father invited Sergey Krasnukha, a popular Kutaisi artist, to teach him.
After the unexpected death of Vladimir Mayakovsky's father from blood poisoning, his wife and children moved to Moscow, hoping at least there to find a livelihood. Money was catastrophically lacking, the family lived very poor, thirteen-year-old Vladik as he could, tried to earn a living - painted Easter eggs, burned boxes. There was no talk of serious training in painting, although even at that age he could draw quite well - portraits of his older sister and the Georgian revolutionary Morchadze have survived.
In Moscow, Mayakovsky met young revolutionary students who had a great influence on him. Mayakovsky fully shared the views of the Bolsheviks and at the age of 14 became a member of the RSDLP. But the tsarist guards did not slumber - despite his young age, he was arrested three times. In the cell he did not give up his beliefs, did not betray his comrades, and to pass the time he drew on the walls with a piece of coal and tried to compose poetry.
Mayakovsky consolidated his artistic skills in Stroganovka - not the best art school at the time, but which had one indisputable advantage for Mayakovsky - it did not require a certificate of trustworthiness, with which the future proletarian poet had big problems.
It was at Stroganovka that Mayakovsky created his first “real” painting - a portrait of a female sitter painted during lessons in the classical realist style.
Classical realism quickly bored him, and therefore he seriously engaged in the avant-garde direction in painting. Two years later, Vladimir Mayakovsky became friends with futurists Velimir Khlebnikov, David Burliuk and Mikhail Larionov and began to paint his paintings in the style of futurism.
Mayakovsky liked to draw giraffes, perhaps because he himself had the nickname “giraffe” in the school for his height and knitted yellow sweater, which he always wore to class. However, he also drew all sorts of other animals - zebras, crocodiles, dogs.
It was necessary for him to get a good hand, for constant artistic practice. But he was especially fond of drawing friendly caricatures of his acquaintances and achieved considerable success in this, clearly noting in them the main features of the character of the person drawn.
In 1914 Mayakovsky joined the art association “Today's Lubok”. Many good artists worked there, such as Kazimir Malevich, Ilya Mashkov, David Burliuk and others. They drew all kinds of propaganda posters in the style of folk lubok. Despite the apparent primitivism, this artwork liked Mayakovsky - at least there you could draw without boring academicism, without careful sketching of the smallest details. In these lubki in the foreground was a creative idea, not artistic execution, which was quite simple - a garish picture, painted in 2-3 bright colors. Usually these lubki had an inscription of satirical content at the bottom, complementing the pictures.
Having gained a hand on the lubki, praising the exploits of Russian soldiers during World War I, Mayakovsky began to engage in something that was much closer to him for ideological reasons - artwork in the famous windows of satire ROSTA. It was there that Mayakovsky's talent as an artist manifested itself particularly brightly - laconic pictures, in which there is nothing superfluous, but only bright schematic images that strike the memory at the first glance at the poster. Mayakovsky's artwork is considered a classic of poster painting and had a great influence on the development of this art form. Many modern advertising posters are close to Mayakovsky's memorizing schematism.
Since 1923, during the NEP Mayakovsky also worked on commercial advertising. He created posters for GUM, Mosselprom, Gosizdat and Rubber Trust. He himself drew, himself wrote memorable short poems on the posters, urging to buy galoshes or rubber nipples. The famous expression “Nowhere but in Mosselprom” became a classic. When some critics pointed out to Mayakovsky that he was engaged in nonsense to the detriment of the time allotted to real art, the classic of Soviet poetry declared: “I consider the poems on posters to be poetry of the highest caliber”. Although, of course, there was quite an apologetic desire to earn a living - in the times of the NEP appeared a lot of temptations, and Mayakovsky, although alien to the bourgeois luxury, extra money has never interfered.
Mayakovsky loved to draw and did it all his short, so senselessly cut off life. His work notebooks were filled with drawings, interspersed with poems and it is unclear what he liked more - to draw or write poetry. It is clear that in poetry he achieved much more success, but even if he was not a poet, he would certainly remain in the history of painting as a talented artist who managed to raise the art of propaganda and advertising posters - no matter how low and primitive it did not seem to some art critics to unattainable heights.
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