“Listening to a Great Artist, I Found Something Great and Necessary…”: Simon Fix’s Letters to Maxim Gorky and about Maxim Gorky (Based on the Materials of A.M. Gorky’s Archive)

Abstract

This publication of materials from A.M. Gorky’s archive supplements studies related to the name of the artist Simon Fix, new facts and details of his life and work. The only mention of Fix’s name in Gorky's letter to the publisher A. Kogan (the publication of L. Fleishman in 1979) remained without comment for a long time and scattered information about the artist left significant gaps in his biography. V. Khazan's research, supplemented by the publication of Fix’s letters to R. Friedlander and N. Friedlander, kept in the archives of David and Yevsey Shor (National Library of Israel, Jerusalem), recreates the main episodes of the artist's creative biography. Letters stored in the A.M. Gorky’s Archive reveal the details of a previously unknown acquaintance between the artist and the writer. Presented corpus of Fix’s letters — three letters to Gorky and four letters to relatives — testifies to their rather long acquaintance and Gorky’s obvious interest in works and personality of the young painter. The content of Fix’s letter to Gorky dated January 28, 1936 continues the theme of the conversation with Gorky during the meeting in Sorrento, which Fix described to his relatives in April 1928. It is logical to assume that its topics — art education and the position of artists in Soviet society — were discussed with Gorky also in the period between these two dates: perhaps researchers will have a chance to verify it.

Keywords

• maxim gorky
• simon fix
• pavel muratov
• maxim peshkov
• russian artists in italy
• russian culture in italy
• correspondence
• a.m. gorky’s archive