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Eternal Emigrants
It was in this way that Nicolas and Vera Morosoff referred to themselves. Both were born in the same penultimate year of the 19th century in Moscow, Russia. Both died at the end of the 20th century in Florida in the United States. Three times they had managed to be granted new citizenship in different countries – Italy (1927), France (1948), and in the USA (1956). Their long life had encompassed four equal periods: Moscow, Western Europe, New York and Florida. And each time they had to begin to live and work from scratch in new circumstances. The fact that a considerable part of their life had been spent in an out-of-the-way American town did not help to make them well known in their homeland when the opportunity to publicize new names of the Russian emigrant culture had presented itself.
We have some materials from the Morosoff family archives as well as reproductions of their works put at our disposal by their direct heir Brad Cooper, a gallery owner from Tampa, Florida who does much to preserve their artwork.
Nikholai Ivanovich Morosoff (1899-1994) was born into the family of a Moscow lithographer (Ivanovich Morosoff and Maria Akatova), and at the age of thirteen, he was sent to study at Graphic Arts School where special attention was paid to mastering drawing and engraving techniques. Upon graduation he joined the first State Free Art Studios (attached to Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) which in 1920 evolved into the VKHUTEMAS (known as the school of the Russian Avant-Garde; which generated a new aesthetic born of the social revolution and victims of totalitarianism.)
For two years he had studied under Richard Falk and Alexander Kuprin and in later years he always referred to this time with great warmth and gratitude: “There is little doubt that I have learned much in this studio, and I virtually drank in Kuprin’s talks on contrasts, color theory and on painting in general”. It was in Kuprin’s studio, as he later asserted, that he had acquired “the insight into Art”. Another poignant life-long impression which stayed with him was a visit, at the age of 16-17, to the exhibitions of Post-Impressionist works of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse – from the Sergei Schukin and Ivan Morozov collections.
Morosoff’s studies seem to have been interrupted by some dramatic events in 1921, referred to by Morosoff in his autobiography as “getting to know the CHEKA” (the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin.) Fortunately the arrest was short-termed but it gave birth to the desire to flee to the West. By this time Morosoff had completed his term of studies at Moscow’s First Model Printing-House. He took engraving courses and started to earn his living teaching, painting and drawing at the factory workshop-school attached to the Seventh Printing-House, as well as doing some graphic work for the Printing-House. In his spare time he painted and did etching. Several of his etchings were bought by Rumiantsev Museum in St. Petersburg. Two of them – “Self-Portrait” and “A Landscape”, both dating from 1919, belong to the Etchings Department of the Pushkin Museum.
In the spring of 1925 the “Polygraph Trust” acquired the first of two designs of modernized Cyrillic type-faces executed by Morosoff and his painter, girl-friend Vera Maslenikoff. This job was approved by the State Commission on New Russian Types Development and in those times was a piece of sheer
good luck. It offered them an opportunity to earn some money and obtain permission to go abroad to study art. They were granted foreign visas and sailed from Odessa to Italy. They never returned. That same year they got married. Their marriage lasted 66 years until Vera’s death in 1991. |
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On being granted Italian citizenship they prepared to move to Paris, their dreamland, and in 1931, settled in Montparnasse. Before that, in 1928, Nicolas Morossoff, a former Falk student, came with the latter’s letter of recommendation to Mikhail Larionov in Paris. “In those days we spent a lot of time roaming through Paris streets. Larionov wished to take me everywhere around this marvelous city and especially show me some of its nooks by night. Never will I forget those night walks along the Seine embankments and our talks on the eternity of Painting. I drew courage and solace from our friendship and my convictions were strengthening.”
“When I came to Paris, I had some money, but soon my savings evaporated and had to start waging a fight against poverty. But this is the fate of the overwhelming number of artists: each of us has had his difficult moments. But this did not stand in the way of my work”, wrote Morosoff in an article in the Russian Language newspaper: New Land, Paris, June 23, 1946.
Morosoff described Larionov as, “a rare man in his remarkable sensitivity to art”. Morosoff had also retained a pious attitude to his other elder friends of the Paris period; Maurice Utrillo and Le Corbusier. Having joined the society of the painters of the Paris International School rather late in life, he managed to find his own niche among them rather quickly doing his work in the post-impressionist manner. He painted from life, paying much attention to the rhythm of the stroke and formed the color harmony of his subjects, in relationship to the background of the canvas.
Morosoff’s still-life works of the 30’s and 40’s are consistent in their painting techniques: the subject’s color shaping is unified by general shadow contours, strengthened rigorously through his precise compositions. Still-life has always been a favorite with Morosoff and he explored this subject all his life.
Traditional subjects such as portraits, landscapes, interior scenes, especially in cafes and bars, reflect the creator’s rich vision and his joie de vivre. Representations of Paris cafes are overflowing with a multitude of objects on tables and bar counters, and they bespeak of his expertise in the portrayal of peoples’ faces, still lives and interior compositions. The ability to arrange a complex design and evenly extend his personalized color, with the help of warm, transparent hues, he made every brush stroke integral in creating meaningful images. He excels in portraying the atmosphere of Parisian cozy cafes, the peculiarity of their garcons, chefs and clients, all of whom are depicted with great sympathy. His landscapes of the French province with small houses nestled among lush trees under blue skies are more outspoken in their dazzling compositions and reflect the artist’s fondness of them.
Morosoff took active part in a number of exhibitions, especially in the mid-1930’s: An exhibit “Russian Painters” at Zak Gallery, 1936, (with Chagall, Epstein, Exter, Gontcharova, Larionov, Maslennikova, Soutine and other Russian ex-pats), a variety of exhibitions at Le Niveau Gallery where he continued to exhibit until German occupation of Paris. In the 1940’s he also was a constant exhibitor at the Salon of the Independents. A majort solo exhibition was held at the Galerie Bosc in Paris in 1947. (Louis Cheronnet, editor for Beaux-Arts, Le Journal des Arts, Paris the wrote the essay for his exhibition) His works sold well and went to different owners.
We have a lesser amount of information on Vera Mikhailovna Morosoff (see Maslennikova, 1899-1991, born to Mikhail Maslennikov and Leontina Mikine Karlovna). It is known for certain though that for three years she studied under Falk in the VHUTEMAS where she got acquainted with her future husband. When in Paris she co-exhibited with him at the Autumn Salon (1932). Her primary interests were in drawing and etching where she had won recognition. In 1938 her London dealer sold five of her drawings to the Victoria and Albert Museum. That could have been the result of her having taken part in the highly representative International Summer Group Exhibitions in London in 1936-37 (Galerist: Ernest Brown & Phillips, The Leicester Galleries) where she exhibited alongside such artists as Derain, Dufi, Rodin, Sisley, Soutine, Vlaminck and others.
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Because of the difficulties with selling out their works and the ensuing impoverishment after the end of the war they decided to make another move. In 1951 they arrived in the United States with a single trunk containing their personal belongings, two crates full of pictures, several letters of recommendation from Larionov and some addresses he had provided them with. Upon arrival they rented a studio-apartment in the north-western part of Manhattan close to Harlem.
Most of the pictures that Morosoff had brought with him were sold at his first American solo exhibition held at the Ahda Artzt Gallery in Manhattan in 1959. The New York art critics referred to him as a Parisian, a Russian “Frenchman,” “reminiscent of Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard”, singing a “Small Life of Modern France” “The New Russian Word” newspaper, January 18, 1959. But for the painter himself, that attribution belonged to a by-gone era.
Now again the Morosoffs had to adapt to new circumstances and find another source of income. As before, in Russia, Italy and France, Morosoff was saved from poverty by what had been his sustenance during those periods – his art engraving and graphic art profession. In New York he managed to get a job with the Arnas Remon Design workshop. But he regarded this occupation only as a means of making the ends meet. Vera did illustrations for magazines and drawings for newspapers.
Her American pen and ink landscapes can be likened to artfully intricate lace-work of a super master-craftswoman and her color gouache paintings dedicated to the portrayal of dance fully reflect her compositional mastery and an organically deep sense of rhythm.
Morosoff did not show any interest in the innovations in the American art scene and was hostile toward popular culture. But in this new world his “French” painting manner, being too intimate in character, could not gain a foothold. Therefore his trip to Puerto Rico in 1952 proved to be of extreme importance for his future development as an artist. The breathtaking brilliance of the southern nature and its strong vitality gave a new impetus to his creative work. He wished he could capture this plethora of color, discipline it and then transform it into his language of pictorial harmony.
He starts looking for support in his pre-war impressions of Byzantine mosaics and frescoes of the early renaissance and feels their intimate and deep-rooted ties with ancient Russian iconography which he now regards as his national heritage.
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Some of his paintings done in New York openly imitate the primary source, for example, his “Mother and Child”, 1958 is overtly similar to Madonna with baby. Its iconographic design had allowed him to use the beauty and variety of line to shape the flowing silhouettes of the figures against a cubist constructed background. He used conventional colors creating a timeless symbolic image.
Morosoff’s new style based on the flattening of the picture plane was emerging, allowing the artist to place visibly modern personages in the midst of objects and landscape, primarily relating to the art of the ancients. Highly refined, graphic compositions harmonize with the decorativeness of his palette: complex color shaping of each detail of representation confined within strict boundaries is interwoven like a colorful sparkling thread into the texture of the painting, highly reminiscent of a panel. The feeling of nature which animated his earlier works is absent, and fantasy has become the primary driving force, the rapture of the freedom to create random compositions, and the search for decorative rhythms. His canvases abound in monstrous skyscraper boxes huddling around the Central Park, Pieros and Harlequins are lost in meditation, dancers whirl, circus acrobats and horses rush around the arenas, musicians ponderously play their ancient instruments whose melodies stick in the folds of clothes and draperies. Rainbow colors reminiscent of multicolored mosaics are refracted in the figures, objects, in the sparkling facets of the geometrical ornaments and on the carved leaves of quaint plants.
Exquisitely executed are the portraits of Vera, his wife, with their complex composition and concentrated hues emanating a mysterious energy. Highly expressive are his still-life paintings where objects are arranged on artfully draped tablecloths against the background of multifaceted interiors. The expressiveness of these joyful still-life works reflect the echoes of the author’s specific perception and transformation of cubism.
Many of Morosoff’s works from this time were sold at his solo exhibition in New York which was held at the Center Art Gallery (at 49 W. 57th St). The exhibition was a great success.
The painters’ last twenty years were spent in Florida where in 1972 Nicholas and Vera bought a house in St.Petersburg, Florida, in the cozy eclectic retirement center which had taken shape at the beginning of the 20th century, at present a emerging town on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. It is known to us in Moscow due to the collection of the Salvador Dali Museum that opened in 1982 and for the cultural ties with the city of St.Petersburg, Russia.
Change of residence and the whole atmosphere of life close to nature where every moment was devoted to his beloved painting had done much to further the longevity of Morosoff’s creative production. He was realizing more and more color combinations of constructed forms that reflected echoes of different styles which he explored during his lifetime. He freely chose them like a musician that creates melodies out of well-known sounds and rhythms. Till the end of his life he had possessed the magic of transforming paint into fantastic images, yet bearing strangely realistic reminiscences.
Many facts of their American period life are irretrievable, and little is known about their relations with the painters of the United States, where at the age of the better side of 60 years, they had to begin to study another foreign language. But in America there abides their creative heritage which deserves to be known elsewhere.
Nicolas Morosoff lost his beloved Vera Morosoff in St.Petersburg, Florida, in 1991. Two years later he died in Tampa, Florida.
“Painters striving to find new means of self-expression often forget that this is not the end in itself. Of greater importance is the development of boundless love for life whose evolution springs from sparkling freshness and eternal youth” Nicholas. Morosoff.
“I hope that through our productive collaboration, this work will help preserve the art and memory of these artists” Translated from Russian and published with permission of the author. |
copyright ©2007 Brad Cooper Gallery. All rights reserved.
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