The "Star" Magazine by Nikolay Gumilyov and Mstislav Farmakovsky

The article considers the history of the Sirius magazine issued by Nikolay Gumilyov and Mstislav Farmakovsky and such poorly studied aspects as the symbolic meaning of the magazine's title and Gumilyov and Farmakovsky's aesthetic platform. Sirius (1907) was the first Russian art magazine in Paris. Its co-editors were the poet Gumilyov and the painter Farmakovsky. The Paris period in the life of the two Silver Age artists is insufficiently studied, and, most importantly, it is poorly understood by scholars. A complex method is used in the research: a historical and cultural approach to the study of biographical materials with the use of literary and culturological analysis. The core of the authors' methodology is contextual research, which is used to analyse the contemporaries' memoirs, Gumilyov's letters to Valery Bryusov, as well as artistic works and criticism, spiritual and aesthetic positions of Gumilyov and Farmakovsky during that period. The authors emphasise the fruitful and creative character of Gumilyov and Farmakovsky's friendship. Sirius publishers demonstrated the independence of their opinions and tastes, which were conceptually different from the famous Diaghilev's Seasons exhibitions. They wrote that the exhibitions of Russian art contained worldclass works, but they did not show works by such national painters as Fedotov, A. Ivanov, Savrasov, Surikov, Repin, Vasnetsov, Nesterov. In one of his articles, A. Benois shared this opinion. The authors of the article come to the conclusion that, for Gumilyov, the "first Paris" period was the time of apprenticeship and also the beginning of his personal and creative independence. It was in Paris that the poet's strong and persistent character was formed, his skills were honed, and his inimitable style was created, with the colour-sound synthesis of the striking romantic picturesqueness and a clear strong word which was the premonition of Akmeism. For Gumilyov, a rising star of the Silver Age, Paris was the place of polishing his artistic taste, developing a comprehensive system of views, finding main poetic motifs and setting life goals. In Paris, the world's capital of art, Farmakovsky obtained recognition and received highest prizes for his works in decorative art. Most of his biographers forget this fact. In Paris, Farmakovsky painted the first portrait of Gumilyov, and he was able to keep it in the years of repressions and during the Seige of Leningrad as a true memory about the executed friend. The study of the materials published in Sirius allowed the authors come to the conclusion that "Russian Parisians" demonstrated a broad European education and a depth in understanding of Russian art.

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