The Skomorokhs Come In

Illustrations of "skomorokhs"—Russian minstrel buffoons—by Boris Messerer, c. 1972

Boris Messerer, 1972 I bought this small vintage postcard set last year on a tip from my pal OvO. Laboriously typing on a cyrillic keyboard (once again), I identified the artist as the famous set design Boris Messerer (Борис Мессерер). Here's a bio from pravda.ru:[Messerer] has been making scenery for plays staged in Moscow's best-known theaters and theaters in other Russian cities since 1960. Specialists call him one of the few successors of the classical theater-scenery art. Messerer also worked a lot for TV and made brilliant book illustrations. In 1980, together with his wife, outstanding poetess Bella Akhmadulina, he took part in the publication of the well-known opposition magazine Metropol. Boris Messerer is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts. He has been awarded the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation and is a winner of the Russian State Prize. I put a handful of his paintings and set designs on the 50 Watts tumblr. Read about skomorokhs (скоморох) at wikipedia and at Russia IC, who write, "Skomorokhi were the wandering minstrels of ancient Russia; they were singers, jesters, musicians, play performers, acrobats and animal trainers. But first of all skomorokhi were singers of freedom, who dared to ridicule the power, the clergy, and the rich and sympathized with the common people."