Dialogue of arts in the novel “The Artist is Unknown” by V. Kaverin

Abstract

Prose about the artist is fairly popular in the world and Russian culture, but the novel “The Artist is Unknown” by V. Kaverin holds a special place within the Russian literature, and the title itself is precedent for the philologists – it is mentioned each time when it comes to genre of the novel about artist. Kaverin not only creates a vivid image of the artist-painter, but also restores his manner via literary style. The pictorial beginning is prevalent in the text; however, orientation towards other types of art, namely sculpture and theatre, are also noticeable sculpture and theater, which is reflected in the character sphere and in the composition itself. In the novel “The Artist is Unknown”, theater and painting are deeply intertwined – and not only scenes of the play engage painting, but also the authorial “painting” involves theatrical aesthetics. However, namely the art of painting, is in the center of Kaverin’s attention, while the ekphrasis technique becomes the fundamental principle for arranging artistic material. It should be noted that the focus of attention of the audience falls onto imaginary ekphrasis, description of the image that exists only in the author's imagination, which allows revealing the features of Kaverin's original idiostyle that correlates certain literary techniques with the painter's technique (the author thinks in the categories of color, painting, texture, and perspective). In such way, painting becomes a metalanguage, the way of understanding the laws of art as such, and thus, the laws of literature, including such categories as narrative perspective and composition. The boundary between genres of the novel about artist and the novel about the novel in Kaverin's text is quite lucid: the fate of the artist is inseparable from the fate of his creation, and the questions of skill, purpose and designation of works comprise the very essence of conflicts of the novel.