Philologists from the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities listened to Nadezhda Matsenko, lecturer of the Znanie (Knowledge) Russian Society.
Nadezhda Matsenko is an art lecturer, artist, researcher of the viewer's experience, and author of the course on the "Living Artists". The topic of her lecture, which took place on October 3rd, was "Pushkin as an Artist".
In the year of the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, a huge number of events dedicated to the work of the great poet are held. However, Nadezhda Matsenko showed a completely different Pushkin − not only a poet, but also an artist!
Stories from Pushkin's childhood and his time at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a gallery of people from the poet's inner circle, 98 slides with Pushkin's drawings, his portraits, self-illustrations, vignettes, ornaments, landscapes − all this made the lecture as visually compelling, rich and fascinating as possible!
The lecturer said that the image of the poet in our minds is firmly linked to his instantly recognizable self-portraits, drawings and sketches in the margins of manuscripts. Among them are vignettes-strokes, landscapes and scenes, numerous portraits, as well as designs for covers and title pages. When we say "Alexander Pushkin", a profile appears before our eyes, created by quick lines in ink, with the same pen that a moment ago scratched the paper, clothing the voice in brilliant stanzas.
During the lecture, Nadezhda Matsenko discussed what kind of artist Pushkin was, what is interesting about his drawings, and how self-illustrations influence the perception of text.