Charchoune / The Exhibition Is Open

Serge Charchoune (1888 - 1975) may not be as well known as some of his Dada and Surrealist associates, but for that reason his work comes as a fresh discovery; evading easy categorisation, it has not been over exposed or explained. In his lifetime Charchoune seemed partly to lament and partly value his relative invisibility.

He often seemed to be hiding in plain sight, as encapsulated in a couplet from his 1921 Dada Poem, Foule Immobile: The exhibition is open/ And still no one sees it. This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to appreciate something of the range of the Russian born painter’s enigmatic work from aleatory mark making, obscure landscapes and arcane symbolism, to almost gothic religious imagery, calligraphic drawing and dense monochrome abstraction.

“I LIE LOW, AND HAVE A LOT OF FREEDOM”

By 1927, the date of the earliest work in this exhibition, Charchoune was firmly enmeshed inthe avant-garde circles of the day. He had assimilated Cubism, contributed to the Dada journal 391and at various stages associated withFrancis Picabia, MaxErnst, And ré Breton, Tristan Tzara, Arthur Craven and other influential artists and thinkers. From the outset Charchoune shared the open and experimental attitude of his peers, embracing poetry, music and performance.

Charchoune’s openness to artistic possibilities was broadened by time spent in Moscow, Berlin, Barcelona and above all. Paris, where he would spend much of his artistic career. By the late 1920s Purism, particularly the work of Amédée Ozenfant, was having the greatest impact on him.

Charchoune was starting to demonstrate a knowing way with the vocabulary of painting, deployed as a series of tropes. He was starting togain recognition. Charchoune’s relative obscurity today might have something to do with the awkward relationships he had with galleries anddealers in subsequent decades. He was not interested in sales or maintaining a clearly defined ‘progressive’ career, as evident in the obstinate, capricious character of his output. In retrospect, Charchoune seems to have anticipated in very personal ways a number of diverse developments in painting. He was deploying Pollock like dripping and other abstract expressionist techniques by 1930. His use of the surface of the painting anticipated the evolution of the monochrome, preceding artists like Robert Ryman, and his return to bizarre post abstract figuration can be seen to foreshadow Philip Guston. His periodically morbid, distasteful or eccentric turns can even seem to share something with strains of recent post conceptual painting.This exhibition was curated by painter Merlin James. He trained at the Central School and Royal College of Art in London. His critical writing on art is extensive. With artist Carol Rhodes he runs the exhibition space 42 Carlton Place, in Glasgow.

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Curated by Merlin James

Serge Ivanovich Charchoune

1888: Born on 4 August in Buguruslan, in the Samara region of Russia. Charchoune’s father is a trader originally from Slovakia, his mother Russian. As a youth he aspires to be a poet, musician or artist.

1909: Charchoune moves to Moscow where he discovers Modernism at the museums; the international avant - gardes at the collections of Shchukin and Morozov and in vanguard exhibitions. He meets Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Vladimir Tatlin and other artists and frequents poets and writers.

1911–1920: Charchoune arrives in Paris in 1912, having spent time in Berlin and Munich. He enrols at the Académie Russe and then the Académie de la Palette. In 1913 he exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants; he meets the sculptor Helena Grünhoff with whom he will live for ten years. With the outset of WWI (1914) he and Grünhoff take refuge in Barcelona and Mallorca with a group of artists and writers that includes the Delaunays, Marie Laurencin, Arthur Cravan and Olga Sacharoff. He moves in Dada circles and exhibits at the progressive Dalmau gallery. With the onset of the Russian Revolution in 1917 the young artist considers returning to Russia He briefly joins the French expeditionary corps to Russia, but contracts Spanish flu. In 1919 he returns to Paris and becomes closely associated to with Dada, meeting Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara André Breton and others. Charchoune works for Povolozky's bookshop and publishing house and is intimate with Russian émigré circles in Paris.

1921–1922: The Dada performance poem Foule Immobile is published. The text is proof - read by Philippe Soupault, a French writer and critic central to Surrealism Intended for a choir of twenty - five voices, it is unlikely Foule Immobile was performed publicly. Charch oune is one of the signatories of Picabia's famous painting l'Oeil Cacodylate (1921). He inscribes it "Soleil Russe" in optimistic reference to the future of Russia. He takes part with the Dadaists in the Barrès Trial performance, a fictitious trial of the conservative nationalist Maurice Barrès. In 1922 Charchoune travels to Berlin with the intention of gaining papers to return to Russia. American dancer Isadora Duncan, returning from a trip there, warns him of the political dangers and he abandons the plan. He splits with Helena Grünhoff. In Berlin he exhibits at Der Sturm gallery and elsewhere, alongside El Lissitski, Alexej von Jawlensky and others. He meets Van Doesburg, founder of De Stijl, publishes a Russian language anthology of Dada and founds his one-man journal Perevoz Dada ('Cross - border Dada').

1923–1930: Charchoune moves back to Paris and collaborates with the Russian journal Chisla ('Numbers'). He is in contact with Kurt Schwitters and contributes to Merz and other avant - garde journals. He continues issuing poetry pamphlets, which will appear throughout his life. He will remain in long - term contact with Max Ernst, Man Ray, Jean/Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp and others of the Dada circle. Charchoune has various addresses over the following years, around Montparnasse, St Germain, and République. By 1925 he is interested in Theosophy and the theories of Rudolf Steiner. A solo exhibition at Jeanne Bucher contributes to the beginnings of critical acclaim and some commercial success. In 1927 Charchoune meets Amédée Ozenfant and associates closely with Purism. He has a solo show at Galerie Aubier. Toward the end of the decade he has a solo show at Galerie Percier where Picasso buys a painting and in 1930 he has a solo exhibition at Galerie Boneparte. He joins the Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) group for abstract artists.

1931–1940: In 1931 he has a solo show at Galerie Aux Quatre Chemins. He is also a member of the Abstraction Création group. The financial cris is of 1929 is still affecting the art market and Charchoune cannot sell work. He spends time at the 'new age' colony Terre Libérée, run by Louis Rimbault in Touraine. Back in Paris he survives on a state benefit for artists and intellectuals. He concentrates on small format paintings, alternating abstraction and representation, frequently returning to atmospheric landscapes. Though solitary, he is friendly with Nicolas de Staël André Lanskoy, Fernand Léger, John Graham and numerous other artists.He writes prolifically cryptic prose and quasi- poetic texts, mostly in Russian – which he largely self -publishes using a duplicating machine.

1941–1950: Charchoune moves into a studio at Cité Falguière in Montparnasse in 1942. A few collectors and dealers support him towards the end of the war. In 1945 he joins the Raymond Creuze gallery, where he will exhibit for over ten years. Towards the end of the decade he worksin the small town of Juan- les Pins and resumes his poetry pamphlets after a break of some years.

1951–1960: Traveling to Spain in 1953, Charchoune paints Spanish architecture and madonnas from Murcian churches.

In 1956 he is a warded a Copley Foundation Prize (advisors include Duchamp, Arp and Man Ray). Released from an exclusive contract with his Paris dealer he begins to exhibit more widely. In 1960 moves to Vanves, south of Montparnasse, his final studio.

1961–1970: Charchoune travels more frequently, to Italy and to Slovakia (1963 or 65), visiting Bratislava, and Martin, and probably Vienna. He twice reprints Foule Immobile at the original Austrian publishing house of Elbmühle. Also in this decade Charchoune re-works and adds to many of his writings, issuing them as commercially printed books under his own imprint 'La Question'.  In 1965 he is included in the major Dada survey exhibition in Zurich. In 1968 he makes a second visit to Slovaki a and makes illustrations for a Slovakedition of Valéry's Mon Faust which appears in 1970. He goes to Moscow and St Petersberg, sending back letters and cards to Pierre Lecuire that will be incorporated into an artist's book, Abracadabra (1971).

1971–1975: There is a major retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, in 1971. Though ailing, Charchoune under takes a major trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1974 where he paints the landscape and animal life. Charchoune returns weak but continues working. He dies in 1975 in a nursing home he had not long moved to,in Villeneuve - Saint-Georges, Paris.

List of Works:

1. Epiderme - Paysage (1929) Oil on canvas, 165 x 218 mm. (Catalogue no.2)

2. Impressionisme Ornamental No.5 (1930) Oil on canvas,150 x 470 mm. (Catalogue no.3)

3. Grossissement (1927) Oil on canvas,186 x 198 mm. (Catalogue no.1)

4. Le Secret du Tombeau(1932) Oil on card, laid on masonite, 150 x 200 mm. (Catalogue no.8)

5. Nocturne (1931) Oil on canvas, 650 x 810 mm. (Catalogue no.7)

6. Pluie Colorée No. 1 (1937) Oil on canvas, 225 x 246 mm. (Catalogue no.9)

7. La Dolorosa de Murcia (1953) Oil on canvas, 330 x 410 mm. (Catalogue no.12)

8. La Amargura II (1953) Oil on canvas, 360 x 560 mm. (Catalogue no.13)

9. Virge (c.1953). Oil on canvas,190x 330 mm. Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin. (Catalogue p. 20)

10. Untitled (probablylate 1950s) Gouache and pencil on paper, 460 x 372 mm. (Catalogue no.14)

11. Weber Concertino Pour Clarinette Var. II (c.1965) Oil on canvas, 460 x 655 mm. (Catalogue no.18)

12. Piano, Clavecin, Harpe (1962). 46 x 55 cm. Ravenscourt Galleries, London/Moscow. (Catalogue p.16)

13. Untitled (Meule de Foin) (c.1960) Probably woodcut, image size 211 x 152 mm. (Catalogue no.15)

14. Untitled (1973) Oil on canvas, 322 x 542 mm. (Catalogue no.19)

15. Drawing (1964) Ink on card, 95 x 154 mm. (Catalogue no.16)

16. Drawing (mid 1960s) Ink on paper, 98 x 210 mm. (Catalogue no.17)

17. Axis Mundi (1942) Oil on canvas, 460 x 372 mm. (Catalogue no.11)

18. Paysage - Moulin à Vent (1938) Oil on canvas, 260 x 400 mm. (Catalogue no.10)

19. Impressionisme Ornamental (1930) Oil on canvas, 190 x 370 mm. (Catalogue no.4)

20. Val de Loire 1 (1930 -31) Oil on canvas, 220 x 535 mm. (Catalogue no.5)

21. St. Germain (1931) Oil on canvas, 202 x 208 mm. (Catalogue no.6)

Glass cases include a selection of catalogues and publications from throughout Charchoune's career.

The corner room contains some reading material and screens a recent performance of Charchoune's Dada performance poem Foule Immobile (1921).