Biographies of the sages

The life of others: 4 biographies of the Great, who should read the author Natalya Lomikin on August 25 to write a biography so that the reader receives a true portrait of the hero is a difficult task. Peter Akraid “Hitchcock” Publishing House “Hummingbirds” from the 80 years of the life of the great director, 55 feature films, 20 television works and many diaries, notes, articles and even books, a talented writer and experienced biographer Peter Akraid made a deep and at the same time compact book on how the son of a greenhouse from the suburbs of London became the legend of world cinema.

With the detached scrupulousness of the researcher and the virtuoso skill of the surgeon from the literature, Akraid computers all unnecessary, avoiding pathos, false accusations and excessive admiration. Advertising on RBC RBC. He thought great trips, sticking small flags into the map on the bedroom wall, and kept the schedule of European railways on the table until the end of his life.

He knew how to notice the tragicomic in everything and was proud of his gloomy humor. Akraid fixes circumstances, analyzes the repeated motives, carefully watches films. He does not disregard the famous Hitchcock draws or strange habits - having drunk tea, throwing a cup over his shoulder and wait until she breaks the director said that it was “good for nerves. Removes stress. Much better than scolding actors.

" But for Akraid, all these oddities are only strokes to the portrait, he sees in Hitchcock a prudent pragmatist who subtly feels the viewer and knows how to work. Peter Akraid confirms his observations with quotes, choosing them very carefully and without overloading the text with fragments of letters or interviews, which is often the biographers sin. He does not ascribe to his hero anything superfluous, like French cinema theorists, and gives a very indicative episode: “Hitchcock’s granddaughter, who studied the course of cinematography at school, asked him about one of the films:“ You meant that in that stage?

They told us so. ” Hitchcock rolled his eyes: “Where did they get it all?

Another time, he helped his granddaughter write an essay about one of his favorite films“ Shadow of Doubt. ”She received a three. During his life, Alfred Hitchcock carefully watched how she looked in the eyes of others, attracting attention to carefully selected facts and silent about the rest. And Peter Akraid, using the director’s favorite instrument - light and shadow, shifts the focus from the famous and obvious to hidden and important.

Andrew Wilson "Alexander McQueen. Blood under the skin ”Publishing house“ Centerpoligraph ”The book will be released in Russian in early October“ This book will break your heart, ”writes The Telegraph. And perhaps this is so. Lee Alexander McQueen, one of the most famous and scandalous British fashion designers, a brilliant bully and Enfant Terrible Fashion World, Andrew Wilson wrote with the support of a family and close friends of the designer.

Frank answers to uncomfortable and even tough questions make this book special. After all, about how the son of a taxi driver, who called himself “a three-piece of East End”, thanks to talent and instinct, became the world-famous designer and founder of the multimillion brand, and past biographers of Maccuine also wrote. But Wilson knows enough to explain the gloomy and defiant shows of the commander of the Order of the British Empire by the even more gloomy and scandalous circumstances of his life.

People close to Maccuin talked about a broken, lost, fat boy with protruding teeth, who nevertheless in childhood was a style consultant for older sisters. About a teenager who fell in love with a friend at 16, and then he was so frightened by a shameful feeling that he unfastened himself in his feet with a belt. About the child prodigy, like Edward, a hand-hand, who “could take a piece of fabric and, clicking with scissors several times, turn it into a fabulous coat, jacket or dress.” About the tender son, so attached to his mother that his greatest fear was to die before her.

About the son who committed suicide on the eve of her funeral. McQueen behaved as if he were a rock star, not a designer, but at the same time he was very timid and vulnerable and fought his own demons all his life, Wilson proves. Until the last day, he suffered from self -doubt, and even numerous awards and praise of the most reputable experts did not affect his self -esteem.

Maccuin’s sister Janet told the biographer about a possible reason: at nine years, “Lee had an event that had a great influence on his entire future life” - her first husband abused him. Alexander admitted this sister much later, four years before his death, but his friends say that “he often mentioned, directly or indirectly, about sexual violence” and it was clear how strong the power of the past was strong.

She is now knocked out on his tombstone. Wilson believes that this quote is the key to understanding whether a man of McQueen and the “star” fashion designer Alexander McQueen ” - he was sure that“ only love had the power to transform something ugly into something beautiful. ” Alex Danchev "Cezann.Life "ABC Publishing House on the method of presenting material Cezanne Biography, written by a professor at the University of Nottingham, artist and an employee of the TATE London Gallery, Alex Danchev, a synthesis of the previous two books.

Paul Cezann became a legend during his lifetime. Already after the Paris triumph of the year, myths, guesses and interpretations were generously mixed with the facts of his biography. And Alex Danchev, like Peter Akraid, undertook to choose facts from the sea of ​​information, newspaper hype, gossip and legends. For this, he, like Andrew Wilson, “gave the word” to the artist and people from his environment - friends, enemies, mentors and followers.

The biographer compares the words of those who understood the meaning of Cezanne’s painting and the scale of his talent: Matisse, Gogen, Picasso, Modigliani, Rilke, Beckett, Heidegger. Perhaps he did not have such a compact and elegant story as that of Akraid. Danchev failed to leave his own creative laboratory outside the text. It can be seen how he collects material, studies and compares sources, analyzes the work of past biographers of Cezanne.

The duality of interpretations sometimes interferes, but it gives a feeling of involvement. Reading, you will not just find out the details of the life of one of the main artists of the 20th century, but collect a complex mosaic, evaluating the facts and trying on them and this way. The art critic Danchev pays a lot of attention to the surroundings of Cesanne, and the circle of friends of the artist was such that from his biography the history of European art of the twentieth century is obtained.

A person who was not even allowed to enter the national school of elegant arts, who only at the age of 35 managed to sell his picture to a third-party buyer and constantly fought with a despotistical father, who declared the summer Cezanne “Sans Profession loser, without a profession,” “among brothers-artists caused enthusiastic interest.” At that very triumphal autumn salon in the year in Paris, it was they who became the first collectors of his work.

Pissarro acquired twenty -one. Gauguin, going to a neighboring restaurant, now and then grabbed one of his beloved “Cezanne” with him and spent hours ranting about the amazing virtues of the picture. All of them tried to penetrate the secrets of his skill. Henri Matisse acquired his first “Cezanna” at the time of the extreme need, and the “three swimsuits” became a talisman for him.

Of course, Danchev writes not only about Cezanne-artist. In the voluminous volume there is a schoolboy Paul, a wretch and a nap, with his bosom friend Emil Zola, and Cezanne-Sin, who “felt like in a cage”, and Cezann Muzh, who hid a young wife and little son from a despotistical father for a long time. Nevertheless, for the art critic Danchev, it is more important not life, but the painting of Cezanne, which he helps to get to know and understand better.

Annabel Farden. In the dedication of Akhmatova-the name of Boris Anrepa, a Russian monumental artist, whose mosaics now decorate the London National Gallery, Westminster Cathedral, Royal Military Academy and other English buildings. This acquaintance of two talented young people who “immediately felt mutual sympathy, mixed in the case of Boris with reverence” writes not just a biographer, but the daughter -in -law of Boris Anrepa, his son Igor Annabel Farzhen.

Case, happy case. Fargeen was already fond of Russian literature and culture, and here is a large personal archive, a rich pedigree, an interesting and sociable hero. Annabel collected materials and photographs, asked many questions and wrote a story about a Russian artist, starting from the childhood of his father, an authoritative forensic expert, forensic professor of forensic medicine Vasily Anrepa.

Annabel Farden biographer turned out to be trembling - she gives all significant letters, memories, diary entries entirely, not daring to rule. True, as a woman and as a journalist, he pays maximum attention to love triangles, heart adventures of his hero and moments of his creative triumph. Say, fully publishes the long friendly letter of the first wife of Anrepe Yuni Khitrovo to the second, Helen Maitland.

It is impossible to imagine that the male biographer would have done the same. Nevertheless, of all these letters, home details, the sincere interest of Farjen in the family of the father -in -law, his fate and to all Russian, an interesting history of pre -revolutionary and post -revolutionary Russia and a certain circle of emigrants of the first wave is formed.

Anna Akhmatov Boris Anip did not forget - since the middle of the 10ths, the artist worked on a marble mosaic in the lobby of the London National Gallery. On it, he recreated the recognizable faces of his contemporaries: the Muse of the History of Clio has the features of Virginia Wolf, in Melpena it is easy to recognize Greta Garbo, the proud eagle's face of Winston Churchill.

And in the central medallion of the “compassion” of the year there is a blocked Leningrad and Akhmatov lying on the ground, over which the guardian angel was spread over its wings.