Artist and Poet. Dialogues

Section Leader - Viktoriya Yakovlevna Snegovskaya, Senior Researcher, State Hermitage.

Students come to the museum not only for knowledge and not only to 'fill their idle moments.' Back in the 19th century Charles Bowdler described a problem which has lost none of its acuteness today: "The contemporary urban world conceals no fewer dangers for modern man than the original virgin forests." Alienation, 'loneliness in a crowd'... What can resist this destructive force?

In developing a program of studies we do not set for ourselves clearly defined art-historical and didactic tasks. Drawing near to Art and Poetry while using very broad material and taking in a wide period of time gives us not only a certain body of knowledge but also helps us to learn to see monuments, to hear the Word, to understand forms, to compare the phenomena of spiritual culture, and to place ourselves in the current of time.

From the very beginning the program has centered on the permanent collection of the Hermitage and involved visits to the ateliers of sculptors and artists, conversations with art restorers, and group trips out to the suburban palaces. A regular feature of our meetings on Saturdays has been the atmosphere of the poetic word. Lope de Vega defined the subtle organic inter-relationships when he said: "The poet is a great artist for those who listen. The artist is a great poet for those who see." Homer and Petrarch, Shakespeare and Goethe, Tarkovsky and Gumilev, Brodsky and Lorca form a partial list of the poets whom we shall never part with.

Our rather flexible program has at its core a group of themes from Western European painting.
Here are several of them: "The living mirror of fleeting instants" (the minor Dutch artists and poetry of the Netherlands in the 17th century); "Image and Sense" (Great Masters in the Hermitage and the Hermitage group of contemporary painters); "Reading letters" (Cezanne and Rilke); "There are people like hills" (Marc Chagall - artist and poet); and others.

The cultural bonds between the West and Russia are also an essential part of our program. Practically all the major temporary exhibitions become the object of the section's attention. Thus the exhibition on 'Pushkin and Petersburg' found its reflection in two gatherings under the heading 'Local Genius'.

The section 'Artist and Poet' has presented the work of the Student Club at an international conference where it conducted a master class on the theme of 'Rembrandt. An Interpretation Through Poetry of the Past and the Present.' An essay by one student written on the subject of 'The History of the Relief from Antiquity to Our Days' received an award in a municipal competition of students' creative work. A great variety of materials, including verses by students, their travel observations about distant countries, fun photo reporting of our picnics and stage productions of theme evenings have all entered into a manuscript Club journal of the section.

Without a doubt the forms and methods of work may change and there will be new programs, but it appears that our section has attained the most important result: mutual respect and trust, and a recognized need for friendly and creative relationships.

A poetic composition from the life of Holland in the 17th century: A Living Mirror of Fleeting Moments

Participants in the theatrical presentation called The Grotesque. Theme and Variations

An evening of original songs and poetry.
Yevgeny Osipov, author and performer, student of the Military Engineering University