Dmitry Prigov - poet, artist, image maker

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

The famous Soviet and Russian poet Dmitry Prigov was born on November 5, 1940 in the family of a pianist and engineer. After graduating from school, he entered the Stroganov School in the Department of Sculpture, and after graduating he worked in the Moscow Department of Architecture. Since 1975, Dmitry Prigov has been a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, and in 1985 he became a member of the avant-garde club. He published his poems mainly abroad in émigré magazines in the USA, France and Germany, as well as in uncensored (samizdat) publications in Russia. There was not much fame, but many knew that there was such a Prigov Dmitry Aleksandrovich.

Poems

The texts of his poems consisted mainly of buffoonery; As a result, 1986 was marked by forced treatment in a psychiatric clinic, from where he was quickly taken out by protests led by Bella Akhmadulina both at home and abroad. Naturally, during perestroika, Dmitry Prigov became an extremely popular poet, and since 1989 his works have been published in incredible quantities in almost all media, where the format allowed, but it has changed almost everywhere.

In 1990, Prigov joined the Writers' Union of the USSR, in 1992 - a member of the PEN Club. Since the late 80s, he has been an indispensable participant in television programs, published collections of poetry and prose, even a large book of his interviews was published in 2001. Dmitry Prigov was awarded various prizes and grants. Most of the patrons were German - the Alfred Töpfer Foundation, the German Academy of Arts and others. But Russia also suddenly noticed what good poetry Dmitry Alexandrovich Prigov writes.

Paintings

Literary activity did not immediately become fundamental in the work of Dmitry Prigov. He was the author of a huge number of all kinds of performances, installations, collages and graphic works. It was the most active participant in underground actions in the field of literature and fine arts.

His sculptures have been exhibited abroad since 1980, and in 1988 he had a personal exhibition in Chicago. Theatrical and musical projects were also often accompanied by the participation of Prigov. Since 1999, Dmitry Alexandrovich Prigov has directed various festivals and served on the jury of various competitions.

Conceptualist

Vsevolod Nekrasov, Ilya Kabakov, Lev Rubinstein, Vladimir Sorokin, Francisco Infante and DmitryPrigov plowed up and ideologically sowed the field of Russian conceptualism - a direction in art where priority belongs not to quality, but to semantic expression and a new concept (concept).

The poetic image is the main point on which the entire individual system of the creator of imperishable art is concentrated. Prigov has developed a whole strategy for constructing an image, where each gesture is thought out and provided with a concept.

Image maker

It took many years to try on various images, exceptionally useful: a reasoning poet, a hysterical poet, a mystical leader poet, and so on. One of the interesting elements is the use of the patronymic without fail, it can be like “Aleksanich”, it can be without a surname, but with a traditional pronunciation. The intonation is something like this: “And who will do it for you? Dmitry Aleksanich, or what? - with a hint of "our everything", that is, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. Increased attention to the image in itself is not a characteristic feature of conceptualism, but nevertheless, the times have passed when, in order to be a poet, it was enough to write good poetry. Over time, sophistication in creating one's own image began to dominate creativity as such. And this phenomenon began beautifully - Lermontov, Akhmatova … Conceptualists brought this minor tradition almost to the point of absurdity.

Life as an experiment

Prigov's reflexive efforts brought this strange pseudo-philosophical platform under poetic constructions, as according to Mayakovsky - in small places. "Policeman"comprehends the sacred role of the state in human existence, in "Cockroachomachy" one can see an attempt to reveal the ancient base beginning, which brings to life the presence of domestic insects.

Any innovative writer experiments with material, styles, techniques, genres, language. The trend in Prigov's work is the combination of any artistic practice with mass culture, everyday life, often with kitsch. The effect, of course, is amazing to the reader.

Envy of the "Public Favorites"?

Here we can also mention the transformation of the works of many other authors - from classics to nameless graphomaniacs, in which not so much an aesthetic as an ideological goal is pursued. The "samizdat" version of "Eugene Onegin" was an example of this, and Prigov from Pushkin tried to make Lermontov by replacing adjectives.

The most common performance among adherents of Prigov's muse is reading classical works aloud, with howls, in a singsong voice, in the style of Muslim and Buddhist chants, which are named after the poet ("Prigov's mantras"). Poetic works Dmitry Prigov, whose biography is extremely rich in events, wrote a huge amount - more than thirty-five thousand. He died in July 2007 in hospital after a heart attack at the age of sixty-seven. He was buried at the Donskoy Cemetery, where he is often visited by compatriots and foreign guests, impressed by his works and lifestyle.