I bought My father and his museum from Marina Tsvietáeva because of a recommendation from Twitter, as well as being from Acantilado, an editorial that up to now has always hit the mark with my tastes.
The truth is that I thought it would deal more with the museum theme and this has disappointed me a little. I love museums and their management fascinates me. We usually go to see museums with the family and recently I have started to document these visits as:
The book is complemented by another volume by the same author entitled My mother and music.
The book consists of 8 short stories. The first 3 written in Russian and the remaining 5, those of the second part adapted to the French taste. According to the publisher, there are 5 very short stories, some barely reaching a couple of pages. They are rewritten anecdotes from long stories.
Throughout the volume he talks about his father's life Ivan Vladimirovich Tvetaieven, founder of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts who was given the name of Alexander III. They are small episodes that are always related to the
No, no, one does not exchange the old for the new, the good for the better. YY a single man should not have two houses. Let's thank God for this one and stay here.
So it was done. If I am proud of something, it is of having been born to parents who never took advantage of anything – material, and everything – spiritual. I hope I have passed this pride on to my son.
The most outstanding story has been The uniform. This fragment is one of the highlights, where he describes the way his father is. It must be said that in all the Russian literature that I have read this pessimism, this sadness emerges as a basic way of life, we already see it in the Chekhov's tales that I reviewed on the web.
let's understand each other It wasn't about greed.
Although actually -yes. It was greed in a superlative degree.
Greed of a son of poor people who would have had regrets about spending, since his parents suffered and suffered hardships until their last breath. And so, greed that was filial piety. Greed of a former poor student who, if he spends, thinks he is robbing today's poor students. And thus, fidelity to his youth.
Greed of the landlord who knows how hard it is for the earth to turn to silver. And thus, fidelity to the land.
Greed of the ascetic who finds everything too good for him, body, and nothing too good for him, spirit. That he has chosen between matter and spirit.
Greed of any truly busy person who is aware that any expense is, above all, a waste of time (all material acquisitions are paid for in time). Greed – economy of time.
Greed of all beings that have a spiritual life and that simply and simply do not need anything. (The detachment that lev tolstoy felt for all terrestrial good is not a desired detachment, but a natural detachment. Managing your assets is infinitely more difficult for a writer than donating them, and a large white wooden table is infinitely more attractive than a beautiful desk with drawers, perhaps full of useless things and that clutter, above all, the head. And Wagner's luxury has always been more mysterious to me than his genius. Therefore greed – spirituality).
Museum of Fine Arts or Alexander III Museum
Digging a bit into the history of the museum, we see that it is called the Pushkin Museum and its official name is the State Museum of Plastic Arts.
It was founded by the philologist Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, son of the historian Dmitri Ilovaiski. In its beginnings it was focused on classical sculpture. Today it has more than 560.000 pieces in a wide variety of collections. Guipian archaeological collections, classical and ancient painting, impressionism and the avant-garde of the XNUMXth century
Official Website of the Pushkin Museum to investigate a little
Notes
Kitezh. According to legend, the city of Kitezh disappeared engulfed by the waters of a lake, to escape from the invasion of the tartars, and survived entirely underwater.
Roman Ivanovich Klein (1858 – 1924), academic, architect and builder of the museum of fine arts.
