OBERIU (in Russian, ОБэРИу - Объединение реального искусства, An Association of Real Art) was a short-lived avant-garde grouping of Russian
post-FuturistRussian Futurism is the term used to denote a group of Russian poets and artists who adopted the principles of Marinetti's manifesto. Russian futurism may be said to have been born in December 1912, when the Moscow-based group Hylaea Russian Futurism is the term used to denote a group of Russian...
poets in 1920s-1930s.
The OBERIU was founded in
1928Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Russian poets Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky found OBERIU , an avant-garde grouping of Russian post-Futurist poets in the 1920s-1930s* American poets Charles Reznikoff, George Oppen and Louis...
by
Daniil KharmsDaniil Kharms was an early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist.- Life :Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachov was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a well known member of the revolutionary group, The People's Will...
and Alexander Vvedensky. Some scholars say that the OBERIU manifesto was penned mostly by the poet
Nikolay ZabolotskyNikolay Alexeyevich Zabolotsky - a Russian poet, children's writer and translator. He was a Modernist and one of the founders of the Russian avant-garde absurdist group OBERIU.-Life and Work:...
with the help of Kharms. In any case, the historical group included at its core
Daniil KharmsDaniil Kharms was an early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist.- Life :Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachov was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a well known member of the revolutionary group, The People's Will...
, Alexander Vvedensky,
Nikolay ZabolotskyNikolay Alexeyevich Zabolotsky - a Russian poet, children's writer and translator. He was a Modernist and one of the founders of the Russian avant-garde absurdist group OBERIU.-Life and Work:...
,
Konstantin VaginovKonstantin Konstantinovich Vaginov was a Russian poet and novelist. In twenties he was a member of almost all the poetic groups of Saint Petersburg. In 1921 he joined Nikolai Gumilyov's Guild of Poets....
, Igor Bakhterev, though there were others involved, including actors, musicians and filmmakers.
The great Russian artist
Kazimir MalevichKazimir Severinovich Malevich , was a painter and art theoretician, pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.- Life and work :...
gave the OBERIU shelter in his newly created arts institute for a while, letting them rehearse in one of the auditoriums. It is reported that he said to the young "Oberiuty" (as they are called in Russian): "You are young trouble makers, and I am an old one.
OBERIU (in Russian, ОБэРИу - Объединение реального искусства, An Association of Real Art) was a short-lived avant-garde grouping of Russian
post-FuturistRussian Futurism is the term used to denote a group of Russian poets and artists who adopted the principles of Marinetti's manifesto. Russian futurism may be said to have been born in December 1912, when the Moscow-based group Hylaea Russian Futurism is the term used to denote a group of Russian...
poets in 1920s-1930s.
The OBERIU was founded in
1928Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Russian poets Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky found OBERIU , an avant-garde grouping of Russian post-Futurist poets in the 1920s-1930s* American poets Charles Reznikoff, George Oppen and Louis...
by
Daniil KharmsDaniil Kharms was an early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist.- Life :Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachov was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a well known member of the revolutionary group, The People's Will...
and Alexander Vvedensky. Some scholars say that the OBERIU manifesto was penned mostly by the poet
Nikolay ZabolotskyNikolay Alexeyevich Zabolotsky - a Russian poet, children's writer and translator. He was a Modernist and one of the founders of the Russian avant-garde absurdist group OBERIU.-Life and Work:...
with the help of Kharms. In any case, the historical group included at its core
Daniil KharmsDaniil Kharms was an early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist.- Life :Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachov was born in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a well known member of the revolutionary group, The People's Will...
, Alexander Vvedensky,
Nikolay ZabolotskyNikolay Alexeyevich Zabolotsky - a Russian poet, children's writer and translator. He was a Modernist and one of the founders of the Russian avant-garde absurdist group OBERIU.-Life and Work:...
,
Konstantin VaginovKonstantin Konstantinovich Vaginov was a Russian poet and novelist. In twenties he was a member of almost all the poetic groups of Saint Petersburg. In 1921 he joined Nikolai Gumilyov's Guild of Poets....
, Igor Bakhterev, though there were others involved, including actors, musicians and filmmakers.
The great Russian artist
Kazimir MalevichKazimir Severinovich Malevich , was a painter and art theoretician, pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.- Life and work :...
gave the OBERIU shelter in his newly created arts institute for a while, letting them rehearse in one of the auditoriums. It is reported that he said to the young "Oberiuty" (as they are called in Russian): "You are young trouble makers, and I am an old one. Let's see what we can do." Malevich also gifted a book of his own ("God Is Not Cast Down") to one of the founders of OBERIU (Daniil Kharms), with the relevant inscription "Go and stop progress!".
The OBERIU group became notorious for provocative performances which included circus-like stunts, readings of what was perceived as nonsensical verse, and theatrical presentations that some view as preceding and foreshadowing the European
Theatre of the AbsurdThe Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular plays written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work....
(for instance, Kharms's play, "Elizabeth Bam"). The group's actions were derided as "literary
hooliganismHooliganism refers to unruly and destructive behaviour. Such behaviour is commonly associated with sports fans, particularly supporters of association football and university sports. In some countries, the hooligan elements of a group of supporters are known as Category C...
" in the ever-more conservative press of the late 1920s. It was chastised even more in the early 1930s, and many of its associates were arrested (though most were released quickly). Hence, the OBERIU has often been called "the last Soviet avant-garde." (See Jean-Phillipe Jaccard's book on Daniil Kharms.)
In the 1930s, Socialist Realism and Stalin's purges precluded the formation of any such "leftist" or "radical" public artistic groupings. After about 1931, The OBERIU held no more public performances, and most of those involved showed their writing only to a small circle of friends, though one went on to become a marginally accepted Soviet poet (Zabolotsky).
Though the group was held together for a while by common interest, some split away. Zabolotsky seems to have had a falling out with Vvedensky. In the 1930s Kharms and Vvedensky became more closely involved with a group of friends who met semi-regularly for what they called "conversations. Yakov Druskin, a Christian philosopher and music-theorist (he wrote on Bach,
SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and
WebernAnton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
), was a key member of this group. Druskin and his friend Leonid Lipavsky (a children's writer under the name of Leonid Savelyev, and an amateur mathematician and author of philosophical tracts) had known Alexander Vvedensky in high-school, and had become friends with Kharms and Zabolotsky as well. Lipavsky actually wrote down a number of the "conversations." Nikolay Oleynikov, an editor at the children's publishing house which had long employed the young poets of the OBERIU as writers and translators of children's literature, became part of this group by the mid-thiries.
This later grouping, which had no public outlet, is generally called the "chinari" (i.e. "the titled ones") group in Russian literary scholarship, though it is uncertain that they ever formalized a name for the group, nor that they called themselves "chinari" with any consistency. Thus the names "OBERIU" and "chinari" are somewhat interchangeable in the scholarship and refer genrarlly to these writers and thinkers whether officially involved in the OBERIU project or not. The borders between the two groups are (and were) permeable, and the only basic continuity is the presence of Kharms and Vvedensky.
Influence
Though short-lived, the OBERIU seems to have had lasting effects on Russian culture. Since the late 1980s a kind of cult fervor has grown in Russia around these long-forgotten writers. And, in fact, the ideas and art of the OBERIU had been influential even in the 60s and 70s, in what is called the "unofficial" art world of the Soviet Union. Some writers and artists of that period would proudly admit the influence of the OBERIU, in others it is clear enough. The OBERIU was seen as something of a missing link from the old Russian avant-garde to the new one. Poets like
Genrikh SapgirGenrikh Sapgir was a Russian poet and fiction writer.-Biography:He was born in Biysk to a family of a Moscow engineer on a business trip...
,
Alexei KhvostenkoAlexei Khvostenko , November 14, 1940 – November 30, 2004, was a Russian avant-garde poet, singer-songwriter, artist and sculptor. Khvostenko is also frequently referred to by the nickname Khvost , meaning "tail".-Biography:...
, Anri Volokhonsky, Lev Rubinstein,
Dmitri PrigovDmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov was a Russian writer and artist. Prigov was a dissident during the era of the Soviet Union and was briefly sent to a psychiatric hospital in 1986....
, Timur Kibirov,
Eduard LimonovEduard Limonov is a French citizen and a Russian nationalist writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of Russia's unregistered National Bolshevik Party....
were certainly familiar with the OBERIU writers through "
samizdatSamizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet-bloc; individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader, thus building a foundation for the successful resistance of the 1980s...
" publications circulating in the underground art scene, and their writing reflects that knowledge, though in very different ways for all of them. Some scholars claim that a 1980s Novosibirsk
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
musician
Egor LetovIgor Fyodorovich "Yegor" Letov was the creator and singer of the Russian punk band Grazhdanskaya Oborona. He also formed the collective collage band "Communism", and played with female punk legend Yanka Dyagileva.Certainly a prolific musician, Letov is a controversial figure...
and his
Grazhdanskaya OboronaGrazhdanskaya Oborona is one of the earliest and most famous Russian punk bands and now maintains a huge army of fans, admirers, and followers. It inspired hundreds of subsequent Soviet and then Russian bands...
band were greatly influenced by OBERIU. Some people also see the
AbsurdistAbsurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe ultimately fail , because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual...
influences of OBERIU in the lyrics of the older Russian rock-band
AquariumAquarium is a Russian rock group, formed in Leningrad in 1972 by Boris Grebenshchikov, then a student of Applied Mathematics at Leningrad State University, and Anatoly Gunitsky, then a playwright and absurdist poet.-History:...
, mostly written by
Boris GrebenshchikovBoris Borisovich Grebenshchikov also known as Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov, is one of the most prominent members of the generation which is widely considered the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music...
and
Anatoly GunitskyAnatoly Avgustovich Gunitsky also known as George and Stariy Rocker is a Russian writer, journalist and poet, one of the founders of Aquarium rock group....
.
OBERIU in English
An important anglophone edition of OBERIU writings translated by Eugene Ostashevsky, Matvei Yankelevich, Genya Turovskaya, Thomas Epstein and Ilya Bernstein was published by the Northwestern University Press in 2006.
External links