This first complete picture of Borisov-Musatov refers to the “pre-Parizh” period of his work. The artist all his life experienced difficulties with the sale of his work. “May flowers” – a rare exception to this sad rule. They were bought directly from the XVII school exhibition of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
The color of the azure The usual surprise: how could this provincial child, burdened with childhood injury and rewarded with a ridiculous, almost parodic patronymic, give us an amazing airy world in which everything breathes a mystery and unearthly harmony? But I could. “My dreams create whole symphonies,” wrote Borisov-Musatov. Yes, he is a symbolist, but without that trail of turbulent inconsistencies, ethical slovenliness and tragic distortions, with which the history of Russian symbolism is full. The artist’s libre, by and large, formulates the problems of symbolist poetics.
After all, Andrei Bely wrote symphonies in prose, because Blok never tired of talking about the secret music of the world: “Music, music first…” After all, these symbolists dreamed dreamily of heavenly azure, the color of purity, clarity, truth, looking for its glare and light in the gloomy colors of everyday life. I also sought Borisov-Musatov. I searched and found. If you do not understand this, the Musatovian color may seem monotonous; if you understand, then he will charm.