People and events:

• TRIBUTE TO VLADIMIR DAL, THE AUTHOR OF THE FIRST DICTIONARY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE (to his bicentennial birthday)
• MANIFACETED TALENT OF MIKHAIL SHEMYAKIN
• THE MAGIC OF BEADS

TRIBUTE TO VLADIMIR DAL, THE AUTHOR OF THE FIRST DICTIONARY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
(to his bicentennial birthday)

By V. Zherdeva
November 22 marked the 200th birth anniversary of the Russian linguist and ethnographer Vladimir Dal.
Dal's parents were foreigners. His father, a Dutchman, specialized in linguistics, theology and medicine. His mother, of German origin, was fond of Russian literature. Dal's first teacher was also a German. This didn't prevent the boy, endowed with surprising "language intuition" from discerning the peculiarities of the speech he heard around him.
Dal spent most of his life collecting and studying Russian folklore. He was the first Russian linguist to conduct a thorough analysis of spoken Russian and its numerous dialects. Years of painstaking work resulted in the first explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. It contained about 200 thousand words, 80 thousand of which were registered for the first time. The dictionary earned Dal honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences. It has survived many editions and up to now represents one of the most fundamental dialectological studies. The city of Nyzhny Novgorod on the river Volga, where Dal worked on his dictionary, has hosted an international scientific conference on the theme "Vladimir Dal And Modern Philology". Taking part were prominent linguists from Russia, Poland, Belgium and Germany. Dal's native city, Lugansk in Ukraine, has held three-day ceremonies that brought together philologists, historians and even engineers. The latter owes to the fact that in his youth Dal participated in the construction of a ferry across the river Visla in Poland. The culmination of events commemorating Dal's bicentennial was the unveiling of his bust at Russia's State Library in Moscow. Speaking at the ceremony, Academic Yevgeny Chelyshev said: "We study Dal's legacy with profound gratitude and admiration. His "Dictionary" is the desk-book of each philologist, and the same goes for his ethnographic studies and belletristic writings. Let me say on behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences that Dal's heritage is in reliable hands".

MANIFACETED TALENT OF MIKHAIL SHEMYAKIN

By V. Zherdeva
Mikhail Shemyakin is one of the few Russian painters who became famous in the West first, and only afterwards in his homeland. The well-known French critic Alain Bosquet wrote about him: "Shemyakin is one of those rarely born artists who become a legend in their own lifetime. One needs time to recover from a shock produced by the striking array of their frenzied colors and charming forms to feel the deep philosophic essence of their works.
Shemyakin's paintings are exhibited at museums throughout the world. His sculptures adorn squares in Venice, San Francisco and Moscow. Last year he revealed another facet of his versatile talent, emerging as the producer, stage decorator, costume designer and even librettist of the new production of Petr Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" at the Mariinsky Theatre in St.-Petersburg.
Mikhakil Shemyakin was born in 1943 in Moscow. Later the family moved to St.-Petersburg where Misha entered a specialized school at the local Academy of Arts and began studying the principles of Orthodox icon-painting, the art of ancient Egypt, American Indians and Australian aborigines. In all that captivated his attention he found some interesting elements, yet never merely copied them but created his own inimitable style that critics later dubbed "metaphysical synthesis". Shemyakin made illustrations to Dostoyevsky's novels and a cycle of drawings of Leningrad he signed by the city's original name - St.-Petersburg. In the early 60s he was put into a mental hospital and in 1971 was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union, first to France and then to the United States.
It wasn't until the "perestroika" in the late 1980s that the painter got an opportunity to return to Russia. Nevertheless, he still lives permanently in the United States and spends much time in France. This doesn't prevent him from maintaining close contact with Russia and engaging in all sorts of public activity. For one, he is the head of the committee to rescue Soviet POWs in Afghanistan. Shemyakin doesn't stand aloof from burning cultural problems facing Russia, especially the Caucasian region. His profound interest in the Caucasus stems from his half-Caucasian origin. Shemyakin's father, Mikhail Petrovich Shemyakin, was a Kabardian (the Kabardians are a Caucasian tribe) He was still a boy when he lost both of his parents and got the surname Shemyakin from his adopted father. Some historians believe that Shemyakin's ancestors can be traced to the Mongol military commander Kardan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, who took part in Mongol military campaign of the 1241-1242. Half of Kardan's descendants numbering about 60 thousand live in Kabardino-Balkaria, a Russian autonomous republic in Caucasus. The rest are scattered across the world. Considering himself a Russian, since he was brought up on Russian culture, Shemyakin maintains close links with his Kabardian relatives and does much to help Caucasian painters and sculptors gain prominence in Russia and abroad.
"My heart is grieving over Russian culture and the culture of the Caucasus", Shemyakin said in an interview. "Caucasian artists and sculptures find it very hard to win recognition nowadays. Having no opportunity to exhibit their works inn Moscow or St.-Petersburg, they remain practically unknown to anyone. In spring I am planning to open an affiliate of my New-York Institute of Psychology And Art in Nalchik (the administrative center of Kabardino-Balkaria). It will provide exhibition space for Caucasian artists. A similar center to propagate Caucasian art will open in St.-Petersburg". He also intends display Caucasian painting and sculpture at his Paris art gallery.

THE MAGIC OF BEADS

By N. Yakhontova
Running at the Historical Museum in St.-Petersburg is a unique exhibition - "The Magic Of Beads". On display are exquisite beadings from the museum's collection as well as from the Hermitage and the Russian Museum, dating from the 18th through 20th century. The art of beading originated on the island of Murano in Venice in the Middle Ages. From Italy it spread all over Europe. Beads were very popular in those times. Bead trade flourished.
In Russia beading got a powerful promoter in the face of the famous scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, whose energy and talent revealed themselves in various branches of science and art. He founded a beads factory. Unfortunately, after his death the factory was closed. But beading sprouted on in the form of cottage craft.
The exhibition shows a great variety of beadworks: lady's bags, wallets, ribbons, belts, tobacco-bags, pipes, glass-holders, tapestries, table-cloths, footwear and even pieces of furniture ornamented with beads.
Do you know how to tell Russian beadings of the 18th and the first half of 19th century from later works? The size of beads is different. This peculiarity was brought about by a major socio-political reform. In 1861 serfdom was officially abolished and landowners no longer had the right to force young women to lose eyesight by threading beads 0.5 mm in diameter. That's why the beads used in later works are much larger.
There exist various beading techniques - embroidery, weaving, knitting, pressing beads into wax, etc. - but they are all based on threading. Bead embroidery or weaving requires patience and assiduity. Color was of special importance. A beadwork could boast 2000 thousand tinges with the number of beads totaling around 10 thousand. The bead gamut followed the ever-changing fashion. 18-th century beadings please the eye with their motley gayety replaced by a two-color combination (predominantly red and white) in the 19th century. In 20th century black and lilac came into fashion. Transparent and mother-of-pearl were also very popular.
"The idea of organizing this exhibition emerged two years ago", says Historical Museum expert Lyudmila Ryzhkovskaya. "We suddenly noticed that girls make all sorts of bead stuff, knowing nothing about beading technique, and we decided to unveil the history of beading and show the best we have in our collection. Our museum offers master-classes in beading and attendance is very high" .