The one and a half-eyed archer

Benedikt Konstantinovitz Livshitz (1887-1939) was a russian poet and writer. In the course of the terror, that was initiated by Stalin as “the Great Purge“, he was arrested and executed in 1939 as a public enemy. Published for the first time in 1933 his memoirs testify his preference for a group of russian Avant-Garde artists that were mainly ignored by the art historians of the 1920s. Because of this, Livshitz was compelled to record his own version of the events between 1910 and 1914. One of the most important aspects of the text are the literary portraits of the participants of the russian futurism, particularly the brothers Burliuk, Natalia Goncharova, Alexandra Exter and the poet Vladimir Mayakowski. Another part of the memories are Livshitz's own thoughts on the art itself. The discussions and disputes over the years are described by Livshitz, revealing the characters of the protagonists in the development of the russian Avantgarde, the actual historical background and the true initiators behind the then scandalous avantgarde actions. The text, considered today as the most important document on the russian futurism is accompanied by photographs of Moscow and St Petersburg from 1910 to 1914, as well as numerous paintings, sketches, posters and book illustrations by all the mentioned artists.