by Gavriel Shapiro, Cornell University
March 27, 2023 at 16:00 (IST)/15:00 (CET)
via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7895502233
In his childhood and early youth, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), a writer of world renown, entertained a thought of becoming a landscape painter. He studied under the tutelage of several drawing masters, including Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, a distinguished member of The World of Art. In this lecture, I address the important role of The World of Art as a Russian cultural phenomenon as well as Nabokov’s affinity with this remarkable artistic movement. I further focus on the personal and creative relations between Nabokov and Dobuzhinsky, his erstwhile art teacher.
Gavriel Shapiro is Professor Emeritus of Comparative and Russian Literature at Cornell University. His major publications include Nikolai Gogol and the Baroque Cultural Heritage (1993), Delicate Markers: Subtexts in Vladimir Nabokov’s “Invitation to a Beheading” (1998), The Sublime Artist’s Studio: Nabokov and Painting (2009), The Tender Friendship and the Charm of Perfect Accord: Nabokov and His Father (2014), and Thanksgiving All Year Round (2016). Shapiro also edited Nabokov at Cornell (2003) and has contributed numerous articles and book chapters to various scholarly periodicals and critical collections.
For more information: facebook.com/Jewishart.biu