Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0007855, Fri, 9 May 2003 11:07:56 -0700

Subject
Fw: VN's statue
Date
Body

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yuri Dashevsky" <info@dashevsky.com>



> The main idea of the sculptors was to combine, I believe, VN's head and a
> boy's body (the tummy added for whatever "realism" they had in mind),
since
> they know, or have heard, of his memory being his muse (this combinatory
> effort was much more artistically successful with Einstein's sculpture in
> Washington, DC - see not a very good/telling picture attached, but I read
> about it). When I look at VN's statue, I see here and there this or
another
> fragment of some photo of Nabokovs-Rukavishnikovs' archive.
>
> It's a regular post-Soviet "neither here nor there" work of former art
> establishment, "building a bridge" and all that whole East-West deal (an
> off-balanced chair). I'm not so concerned with this odd-looking chair, or
> knickerbockers (again, find them in those old photos), as with this
general
> absence of VN's spirit and this lifeless anatomical/photographical
likeness
> (I have to respectfully disagree here with DN) that is absolutely taken
from
> not even a photo, but from some sketch from a photo (level of today's
> portraits of VN published in Russia... I have those books).
>
> I hope that some angles I gave here made this sculpture more enjoyable for
> those who haven't decide yet. From a pole on which I'm sitting right now,
> any moment spent with VN (OK, this sculpture included) is a blessed one.
>
> Cheers,
> Yuri Dashevsky
>
>