Dmitri Prigov
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Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov (Cyrillic: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович При́гов) (5 November 1940 – 16 July 2007[1]) 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.[2]
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[edit] Early life and career
Born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Prigov started writing poetry as a teenager. He was trained as a sculptor, however, at the Stroganov Art Institute in Moscow and later worked as an architect as well as designing sculptures for municipal parks.[2]
[edit] Artistic career
Prigov and his friend Lev Rubinstein were leaders of the conceptual art school started in the 1960s viewing performance as a form of art. He was also known for writing verse on tin cans.[2]
He was a prolific poet having written nearly 36,000 poems by 2005.[2] For most of the Soviet Era, his poetry was distributed as Samizdat circulating underground with his poetry not being officially published until the end of the Communist era.[1] His work was widely published in émigré publications and Slavic studies journals well before it was officially distribute.
In 1986, the K.G.B arrested Prigov and sent him to a psychiatric institution before he was freed after protests by poets such as Bella Akhmadulina.[2]
Prigov also wrote the novels Live in Moscow and Only My Japan, and was an artist with works at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.[3] He had many strings to his bow writing plays and essays, creating drawings, video art and installations and even performing music.[2]
Dmitri Prigov died from a heart attack in 2007, aged 66, in Moscow. He had been planning an event where he would sit on a wardrobe reading poetry while being carried up 22 flights of stairs at Moscow State University.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Dmitri Prigov, leader of conceptualist school, dies at age 66 news agency AP via International Herald Tribune, 16 July 2007
- ^ a b c d e f New York Times "Dmitri Prigov, 66, Poet Who Challenged Soviet Authority, Dies" July 20 2007
- ^ Russian Culture Navigator
[edit] External links
- The End(s) of Russian Poetry: An Interview with Dmitry Prigov by Philip Metres
- Dimitry Alexandrovich Prigov, Soviet-Era Avant-Garde Poet and Artist, Rest in Peace an overview that includes some Prigov poems
- Russia’s leading conceptualist poet has died poet Ron Silliman provides a useful momento to Prigov, with links to pieces on Prigov, including Silliman's own blog-essay from March 22, 2006
