University of NOTRE DAME

Department of Rare Books
& Special Collections
102 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, IN 46556

Phone: 574.631.0290
Fax: 574.631.6308
Email: rarebook  @  nd.edu

 The Vagrich and Irene Bakhchanyan Collections

The materials include three collections assembled by a prominent Soviet and, after emigration, American artist, writer, and poet, Vagrich Bakhchanyan (1938-2009; Russian: Вагрич Акопович Бахчанян), and his wife Irene: the Eduard Limonov Papers; the Mail Art Collection; and the Stalin Drawings.

MSE/REE 0006 – In process

  The Eduard Limonov Papers

Eduard Limonov (b.1943, Dzerzhinsk, Russia; real name Eduard Veniaminovich Savenko; Russian: Эдуард Лимонов), a long-time friend of Vagrich and Irene Bakhchanyan, is a well-known Russian and émigré writer and poet. More recently, he has been a leading political opposition figure in Putin's Russia.

The materials include personal papers of Eduard Limonov which, for the most part, reflect the early years of his life in the United States (1974-1980), when, as a struggling émigré, he wrote his first and most famous novel Its Me, Eddie: A Fictional Memoir (Russian edition 1977, French translation 1980; English edition 1983).

The collection includes Limonov's early handwritten prose and poetry drafts (9 notebooks, ca 1968-1969); published and unpublished manuscripts and typescripts, including the typescript (with author's notations) of his first autobiographical novel It's me, Eddie and the typescript (with author's notations) of his second autobiographical work Sekretnaia tetrad' ili dnevnik neudachnika (The Secret Notebook Or the Diary of a Loser); Limonov's early political writings (1970s), and miscellaneous documents pertaining to the establishment of Konkret, a poets' group, and the American Art Russe Corporation, organized by Limonov, Valentin Prussakov, Marat Katrov, and Boris Miller in New York.

The collection also includes correspondence with such émigré writers as: Vladimir Maramzin (1980); Yuri Miloslavskii (1980) and Konstantin Kuz'minskii (1978); correspondence with the essayist and literary critic Olga Carlisle and the publisher Carl Proffer (1979) as well as Limonov's letters and handwritten notes to his wife, Elena Shchapova de Carli (ca. 1980). The collection holds such miscellaneous items as Limonov's emigration papers and his foreign visa applications; clippings of articles from the Soviet and U.S. press mentioning his literary work and his political activity (1970s); and a self-portrait in (fictional) military uniform [ca. 1975].

In process

The Stalin Drawings

This unique collection was conceived by Vagrich Bakhchanyan in 1979 in conjunction with the one hundredth anniversary of Stalin's birth. During the ensuing nineteen years, Bakhchanyan gathered almost two hundred original portrait drawings of the Soviet dictator by leading Russian and émigré artists, writers, and cultural figures, including the Nobel laureate poet Joseph Brodsky, the sculptor Ernst Neizvestnyi, painters Ilya Kabakov, Mikhail Shemiakin, and Mikhail Grobman, writers Sergei Dovlatov, Eduard Limonov, and Petr Vail, and numerous other personalities. Most drawings were created on the spot, on small pieces of paper, even napkins, in ink or pencil, during parties at the Bakhchanyans' residence in Manhattan.

In process

The Mail Art Collection

This collection comprises over one hundred examples of mail art received by Vagrich Bakhchanyan from all over the world: the United States, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, and Switzerland. Many of the works represented in the collection can be attributed to such well-known figures as the Russian-French writer, poet, publisher, mail art and performance artist Vladimir Tolstyi (1937-2013, real name Vladimir Solomonovich Kotliarov), Anna Banana, Lon Spiegelman, Mamablanca, David Cole, Geza Perneczky, Abracadala, Ryosuke Cohen, E.F. Higgins III, Carlo Pittore, the Cracker Jack Kid, Buster Cleveland, Cavellini, Enrico Sturani, Kamill Major, Jaroslav Supek, and John Held, Jr. The artistic groups represented in the collection include: Doo Da Post, Zona 85, Inter Dada, Aerosol, and Stampart #4. The collection also contains 20 volumes of DOC(k)S from the 1970s and 80s, a publication dedicated to mail and performance art, edited and published by the French artist and poet, Julien Blaine.