Alexei Kruchenykh: biography, poems

The poet of a tragic fate Aleksei Kruchenykh lived a long life, but this is the dramatic thing. He was forced to live the hated life of a philistine more than 30 years. The bright period of his life was short-lived, but extremely bright, illuminated by genius.

Family and childhood

Alexey Kruchenykh was born on February 21, 1886 in the village of Olivsk in the Kherson province in a simple family. His father left the peasant environment, was first an out-of-town coachman at the estate, and up to 8 years the future futurist lived in a small village for 30 houses, and then his father decided to sell a house in the village and became a cabman in Kherson, so Alexei spent his childhood in this city . Here Kruchenykh graduated from the school in three classes and in 1902 entered the year in the Odessa Art College. Thus the youth's quiet childhood ended. The choice of the place of study took place under the strong influence of the elder brother, who possessed an outstanding talent of the painter.

The rebellious youth

Odessa School in those days was the best art institution of the Russian Empire. Alexei Kruchenykh arrived there with vague hopes for something bright and sparkling, but faced with painstaking work, teaching the basics of drawing and composition. The school taught realism and in this style Kruchenykh wrote his first works, which differed in their similarity to nature and testified to the presence of artistic talent, but the beginning author was not captured by this work. At this time in Odessa was a turbulent life: a lot of entertainment, active and diverse political activities, all this enthralled Alexei. He participated in the work of the Marxist circle and was even once arrested for possession of prohibited literature, at the same time Kruchenykh got acquainted with David Burliuk, the future founder of Russian Futurism.

The First Call

In 1907, Aleksei Kruchenykh received a diploma of graduation from the school and went to Kherson to serve as a drawing teacher. But he dreamed of becoming a free artist, so he went to the service irregularly and in the same year applied for admission to the Moscow School of Painting. And, despite the fact that he was not admitted to the school, in the autumn of 1907 he went to Moscow with a firm desire to be an artist.

In Moscow, he starts numerous acquaintances in the artistic environment, begins to work in the magazines "Alarm Clock" and "Spring", in the "Moscow newspaper" as an illustrator and cartoonist. He became famous as a cartoonist and even created a series of works "All of Moscow in cartoons" commissioned by a major publishing house. He is quite successfully engaged in creativity, overcomes his academic school, acquires his own style, but his dream is to study literature. Kruchenykh participates in the periodic exhibition of the Moscow Artists' Art Society, in the exhibition "Impressionists". He is part of the Russian avant-garde, meets with Elena Guro, Mikhail Matyushin, Vasily Kamensky.

Literary vocation

Kruchenykh Aleksei Eliseevich, the path to literature begins with critical articles, reviews, satirical poems. He feels that literature is his main business of life. In 1912 he met Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov, who helped to shape the worldview of Kruchenykh, who saw himself as the creator of a new poetry. He writes stories and reviews that differ dramatically in style from the surrounding literary reality, in which he tries to set forth declarative ideas about the future of society and art.

Alexei Kruchenykh and Russian avant-garde

Alexei Kruchenykh, whose biography since the 1910s is connected with the avant-garde trend in art, became an active participant in many outstanding events in the artistic environment of Moscow. In 1911, he met Benedikt Livshits, who together with the brothers Burliuk and Alexei Kruchenykh later revive the futuristic society "Budelians." At this time avant-gardism is rapidly developing in the world, various circles and groups are emerging that call for the creation of a new art.

All these ideas are very popular with Alexei, he cooperates with several groups at once and participates in the production of several futurist almanacs: "Sadok Judges", "Three", "Lunar Moon", "Slap in the face of public taste". Kruchenykh also produces his own books with theoretical articles and poems, and he appears here in two ways: not only as a writer and theorist, but also as an artist-designer. 1912 was rich in artistic events, Kruchenykh participates in D. Burliuk's group "Gilee", collaborates with the "Knave of Diamonds", participates in debates and public actions.

Poetic creativity

In 1912, Alexei Kruchenykh, whose verses are coming to the fore, begins to closely cooperate with Velimir Khlebnikov. By this time, both poets were seriously engaged in creating poetry in "their own" language, both wanted to reform poetry, saving it from academic boredom. Kruchenykh brought Khlebnikov to show the beginning of his poem, and the latter, beginning to read, unexpectedly began to add the sequel. Thus, their joint poem "Playing in Hell" was born. Later they will write together the libretto to the futuristic opera "Victory over the Sun".

From this began the work of Kruchenykh in the sphere of the poetic avant-garde, he publishes the debut book of poems "Ancient love", in which he continues to develop the primitive tradition. The book, like the poem, was illustrated by the outstanding Russian avant-garde artists M. Larionov and N. Goncharova and was a sample of the synthesis of words and graphics. Kruchenykh begins experiments to create illogical verses, professing the invented principle of "Myrskonets", which was later realized in the collection of works by Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh with the same name.

In 1913-14, Kruchenykh experimented with a new style - literary zaumyu, he begins to write poetry in the language of his own invention. New works were included in the collection "Lipstick". The most famous of them was the text:

Holes bled

Razor-sharp

Boom

You are from

R l ez ..

According to A. Kruchenykh, it had more Russian national spirit than in all Pushkin's poetry. His poetry experiments continue until 1930, when the collection of his poems "Ironiades" comes out.

Years Without Poetry

Since 1930, Kruchenykh Alexei Eliseevich, whose photo often appeared in collections of avant-garde works, begins to depart from literature. His companions leave him: Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov died, the Burliuk brothers, like many other futurists and progressive artists and poets, leave the country.

Since 1934 the work of Kruchenykh has ceased to be published, and later he was refused admission to the Writers' Union. He is engaged in antiquarian and second-hand books, he prepares to publish books by his associates, in particular Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov. During the Second World War, Alexei worked in the information agency "Windows TASS." During his life, Kruchenykh collected a unique library. Soviet power did not allow the poet to work, he was interrupted by various earnings. And only 2 years before his death was his only creative evening. June 17, 1968 Alexei Eliseevich Kruchenykh passed away.