Publication: The New York Sun
Date: Mar 31, 2005
Section: Arts & Letters
Page: 16
Vladimir Nabokov Observed
GARY SHAPIRO
MONTREUX MOMENTS Literature and Lepidoptera were on the minds of viewers on Monday at the opening of a photography show by Horst Tappe called “Nabokov in Montreux,” on exhibit at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University through April 22.
Co-sponsored by the Russian American Cultural Center and curated by Regina Khidekel, the show graces a 12th floor gallery space at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs building.
Taken between the years 1961–1977 in Montreux, Switzerland, the photos show Nabokov in various endeavors such as catching butterflies or buying Time magazine at a local kiosk. Mr. Tappe, who has photographed Picasso, Chaplin, and Hitchcock among other luminaries, focuses a skilled lens on Nabokov, showing the writer’s vivacity.
The Russian émigré novelist Nabokov fled Europe during World War II with his Jewish wife and son. He always considered it symbolic that the sole surviving relic of his past was the family suitcase.
In response to the question,“Why do you live in hotels?” Nabokov said, “It simplifies postal matters, it eliminates the nuisance of private ownership, it confirms me in my favorite habit — the habit of freedom.” Nabokov also composed chess problems, which found their way into the canon.
Among those at the opening were Nabokov’s niece, Marina Ledkovsky; Russian movie star,Irina Shmeleva; Vilna-born professor Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier, who is an expert on Russian painter, Ilya Repin, and whose father was Manfred Kridl, the great Polish literary critic whose papers reside in Butler Library. Also seen were Yvonne Simons, artist and vice president for education of the South Street Seaport Museum; writer Tatiana Pahlen; Jean-Claude Javet of the United Nations Population Fund; jazz and blues musician and composer Val Belin, known as “King B.”; photographer Fred George; Gabriela Eigensatz, cultural attaché of the Consulate General of Switzerland. Nabokov’s renown helped bring out this crowd, even though he once somewhat disingenuously claimed,“Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name.”
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