A few years ago, Runet appeared Scans of the erotic alphabet, whose authorship was attributed to the Soviet sculptor Sergei Merkurov. We checked whether such an attribution is fair.
The first publications of this alphabet, in the letters of which erotic scenes are included, appeared About ten years ago. They were mainly extended to forums and in social networks - the corresponding posts and now you can find in Facebook, "VKontakte", Livejournal, on Pikabu and other resources. The author of the drawings created in 1931 was indicated Sergey Merkurov - The famous Soviet sculptor, author of numerous statues of Lenin and Stalin, posthumous masks of most prominent figures of his time (from Mayakovsky to Frunze). However, more serious sites are in doubt whether Merkurov can be called the author of this series of drawings. For example, the portal "Culture.rf" Turned on This information in the selection “Not just monuments: gossip about ten Russian sculptors”, but in discussion Articles about Merkurov in Wikipedia directly called it a fake indicating that the article had to clean several times from this.
We turned to the chief expert on the work of Sergei Merkurov for clarifications. Anton Merkurov, the great -grandson of the sculptor, the keeper and researcher of his heritage, said “verified”: “The original alphabet, who, judging by the reproductions on the Internet, is sheets with watercolor drawings, I personally never held it in my hands. However, among the published scans there is a sheet with an autograph and a date - I, since I worked a lot with the archives of my great -grandfather, I see that it is extremely similar to his handwriting. ”
However, the main fact indicating the belonging of the alphabet of the sculptor’s hand is, according to Anton Merkurov, it is completely different: “The fact is that the folder with these sheets was really stored in our family, in the family apartment, after the author’s death (he died in 1952). She was seen by my parents, grandfather and grandmother, family friends who remember this well. But in my memory, for the past forty years, she has gone. In Soviet times, many visitors were constantly happening in our bakery apartment, some got there by chance. At some point, the folder with frivolous drawings disappeared, probably someone took it away. Apparently, then she passed from hand to hand, I think the current owner considers himself a completely "conscientious acquirer." This fact was confirmed by journalist Alexei Fedorov-according to him, he saw a folder with the ABC in the Merkurovs apartment in the 1970s. “It was a kind of attraction, it was shown to many family friends,” he says.
Regarding the appearance of the ABC on the Internet, Anton Merkurov told the following: “In early 2012, someone posted scans of these sheets into the network, indicating that" the album is stored in a private meeting. " Perhaps this was done by the owner or just a fan of the genre, to whom the owner gave permission to scan and publish. I tried to contact these people, wrote to that site, but I was answered that the owner would not talk to me. We do not know where these drawings are now, maybe they again changed the collector. Nobody contacted Merkurov’s family about their authentication. ” Another acquaintance of the Merkurov family, who also saw a folder in the Soviet years, told us that, in his opinion, one of the representatives of the older generation could sell the folder without informing other family members.
However, in addition to obvious scans of yellowed sheets of paper, on the Internet you can find other options for erotic alphabet. This is a subject or interior shooting.
Anton Merkurov also told about this: “Photos on the Internet on which you can see sheets with these letters in the Passarte or within, is already my project. Last year, I invited a professional designer, and based on the scans of the alphabet from the Internet (which have a low resolution), we restrained these letters in high quality. Now they exist as collection prints in silk -screen technology, which can be purchased on the site Azbuka.love. In October 2020, the first circulation was presented at the exhibition "Soviet Erotic ABC of 1931" in the Cube art space in Moscow. We also printed a series of cards, which can also be bought. ”
So, after all, the Soviet sculptor is exactly the author of an erotic alphabet or with a certain degree of doubt? What is the final verdict? The great -grandson answers as follows: “Regarding Sergei Merkurov, my opinion based on the study of his creative manner and habits is as follows: most likely, he was a direct performer of drawings. Moreover, the autograph put it. However, I think that in general this alphabet is a fruit of collective creativity. Probably, Merkurov came up with all this with his friends during some fun evening. ”
It seems to us that the idea, of course, could be born spontaneously, however - as everyone who dealt with the creation of graphics knows, for a thirty -odd watercolor sheets, you need more than one day and a hard hand. Perhaps Merkurov and friends on a pirus could sketch sketches, inventing together how to enter erotic poses in Cyrillic, but the embodiment of the project required concentration and work alone (or with an assistant in coloring). Autograph with a specific date "Drawed S. D. Merkurov 17-X-931", Most likely, dates back to the time the last sheet is completed.
But Merkurov could present the executed project in the same large fun company. Who could enter this group of frivolous co -authors? Friends of the sculptor, the color of the Soviet intellectual elite. The key to who exactly was, as it seems to us, can give an overprint on the cover, which reads: “Watercolor drawings of I. I. Ivanov (1886–1924)” ”. It is strange enough to put a handwritten autograph with a true surname in one place, and to stick a piece of paper on the cover, on which a completely different is reported using a printing machine. (We leave a version in reserve that the label was glued years later by other people, since the folder was stored in the family.). I. I. Ivanov - the name is clearly false and cannot help. But the date of 1886–1924 (although maybe this is a simple coincidence and an arbitrary set of numbers) is an accurate time existence The art mug "Shmarovinskyia", which included a lot of artists, for example Dmitry Moor. Surrounded by Sergei Merkurov, there were probably people who visited these "environment". Perhaps one of them (or even several) became a member of the creation of a cheerful alphabet, which, however, requires further research - for example, studying the diaries and letters of the “suspects” dating back to October 1931.
Most likely, the truth
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