The art association and the magazine "World of Art" are significant phenomena in the Russian culture of the Silver Age, clearly expressing one of the essential aesthetic trends of their time. The Commonwealth of the World of Arts began to take shape in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. 19th century around a group of young artists, writers, artists who sought to renew the cultural and artistic life of Russia. The main initiators were A.N. Benois, S.P. Diaghilev, D.V. Filosofov, K.A. Somov, L.S. Bakst, later M.V. friends bound by the same culture and common taste." In 1898, the first issue of the magazine "World of Art" was published, which was mainly prepared by Philosophers, in 1899 the first of five exhibitions of the magazine was held, the association itself was formalized in 1900. The magazine existed until the end of 1904, and after the revolution of 1905 the official activities of the association ceased. In addition to the members of the association, outstanding artists of the turn of the century who shared the spiritual and aesthetic line of the "World of Art" were involved in the exhibitions. Among them are the names of K. Korovin, M. Vrubel, V. Serov, N. Roerich, M. Nesterov, I. Grabar, F. Malyavin. Foreign masters were also invited. Many Russian religious thinkers and writers who advocated the "revival" of spirituality in Russia also published on the pages of the magazine. These are V. Rozanov, D. Merezhkovsky, L. Shestov, N. Minsky and others. The magazine and the association in its original form did not last long, but the spirit of the World of Art, its publishing, organizational, exhibition and educational activities left a mark on Russian culture and aesthetics, and the members of the association retained this spirit and aesthetic predilections almost throughout their lives. In 1910–1924 The "World of Art" resumed its activities, but already in a very expanded composition and without a sufficiently clearly oriented first aesthetic (essentially aesthetic) line. Many of the representatives of the association in the 1920s. moved to Paris, but even there they remained adherents of the artistic tastes of their youth.
Two main ideas united the participants of the World of Art into an integral community: 1. The desire to return to Russian art the main quality of art artistry, free art from any tendentiousness (social, religious, political, etc.) and direct it into a purely aesthetic direction. Hence, the slogan l'art pour l'art, popular among them, although old in culture, the rejection of the ideology and artistic practice of academism and wandering, a special interest in romantic and symbolist trends in art, in the English Pre-Raphaelites, French nabids, in the painting of Puvis de Chavana, Böcklin's mythologism, Jugendstil aestheticism, Art Nouveau, but also E.T.A. a tendency to include Russian culture and art in a broad European artistic context. 2. On this basis - romanticization, poeticization, aestheticization of the Russian national heritage, especially of the late, XVIII - early XIX centuries, focused on Western culture, general interest in post-Petrine culture and late folk art, for which the main participants in the association received a nickname in artistic circles "retrospective dreamers".
The main trend of the "World of Art" was the principle of innovation in art based on a highly developed aesthetic taste. Hence the artistic and aesthetic preferences, and the creative attitudes of the World of Art. In fact, they created a solid Russian version of that aesthetically sharpened movement of the turn of the century, which gravitated towards the poetics of neo-romanticism or symbolism, towards the decorativeness and aesthetic melodiousness of the line, and in different countries had different names (Art Nouveau, Secession, Art Nouveau), and in Russia it was called the style " modern".
The participants in the movement themselves (Benoit, Somov, Dobuzhinsky, Bakst, Lansere, Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Bilibin) were not great artists, did not create artistic masterpieces or outstanding works, but wrote several very beautiful, almost aesthetic pages in the history of Russian art, actually showing the world that the spirit of nationally oriented aestheticism in the best sense of this unfairly underestimated term is not alien to Russian art. Characteristic for the style of the majority of the World of Art were exquisite linearity (graphic - they brought Russian graphics to the level of an independent art form), fine decorativeness, nostalgia for the beauty and luxury of past eras, sometimes neoclassical tendencies and intimacy in easel works. At the same time, many of them also gravitated towards the theatrical synthesis of the arts - hence the active participation in theatrical productions, Diaghilev's projects and the "Russian Seasons", an increased interest in music, dance, and modern theater in general. It is clear that the majority of the World of Arts were wary, and as a rule, sharply negative about the avant-garde movements of their time. The "World of Art" sought to find its own innovative path in art, firmly connected with the best traditions of the art of the past, alternative to the path of the avant-garde artists. Today we see that in the twentieth century. the efforts of the world of arts practically did not receive any development, but in the first third of the century they contributed to maintaining a high aesthetic level in domestic and European cultures and left a good memory in the history of art and spiritual culture.
Artists of the World of Art.
"World of Art" - an organization that arose in St. Petersburg in 1898 and united the masters of the highest artistic culture, the artistic elite of Russia of those years. The beginning of the "World of Art" was laid by the evenings in the house of A. Benois, dedicated to art, literature and music. The people who gathered there were united by their love for beauty and the belief that it can only be found in art, since reality is ugly. Having also arisen as a reaction to the pettiness of the late Wanderers, its edifying and illustrative nature, the World of Art soon turned into one of the major phenomena of Russian artistic culture. Almost all famous artists participated in this association - Benois, Somov, Bakst, E.E. Lansere, Golovin, Dobuzhinsky, Vrubel, Serov, K. Korovin, Levitan, Nesterov, Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Bilibin, Sapunov, Sudeikin, Ryabushkin, Roerich, Kustodiev, Petrov-Vodkin, Malyavin, as well as Larionov and Goncharova. Of great importance for the formation of this association was the personality Diaghilev, patron and organizer of exhibitions, and later - the impresario of Russian ballet and opera tours abroad ("Russian Seasons", which introduced Europe to the work of Chaliapin, Pavlova, Karsavina, Fokine, Nijinsky and others and showed the world an example of the highest culture of the forms of various arts: music , dance, painting, scenography). At the initial stage of the formation of the World of Art, Diaghilev arranged an exhibition of English and German watercolors in St. Petersburg in 1897, then an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists in 1898. Under his editorship from 1899 to 1904, a magazine was published under the same name, consisting of two departments: artistic and literary. The editorials of the first issues of the magazine were clearly formulated the main provisions of the "World of Art"» on the autonomy of art, that the problems of modern culture are exclusively problems of artistic form and that the main task of art is to educate the aesthetic tastes of Russian society, primarily through acquaintance with works of world art. We must give them their due: thanks to the World of Art, English and German art was really appreciated in a new way, and most importantly, Russian painting of the 18th century and the architecture of St. Petersburg classicism became a discovery for many. "World of Art" fought for "criticism as an art", proclaiming the ideal of a critic-artist with a high professional culture and erudition. The type of such a critic was embodied by one of the creators of The World of Art, A.N. Benoit.
"Miriskusniki" organized exhibitions. The first was also the only international one that brought together, in addition to Russians, artists from France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Finland, etc. Both St. Petersburg and Moscow painters and graphic artists took part in it. But the crack between these two schools - St. Petersburg and Moscow - was outlined almost from the first day. In March 1903, the last, fifth exhibition of the World of Art closed, in December 1904 the last issue of the magazine World of Art was published. Most of the artists moved to the “Union of Russian Artists”, organized on the basis of the Moscow exhibition “36”. Diaghilev completely went into ballet and theater. 1906, then exhibited in Berlin and Venice (1906-1907).In the section of modern painting, the main place was occupied by the "World of Art". This was the first act of pan-European recognition of the "World of Art", as well as the discovery of Russian painting of the 18th - early 20th centuries in in general for Western criticism and a real triumph of Russian art
The leading artist of the "World of Art" was Konstantin Andreevich Somov(1869–1939). The son of the chief curator of the Hermitage, who graduated from the Academy of Arts and traveled around Europe, Somov received an excellent education. Creative maturity came to him early, but, as correctly noted by the researcher (V.N. Petrov), he always had a certain duality - the struggle between a powerful realistic instinct and a painfully emotional worldview.
Somov, as we know him, appeared in the portrait of the artist Martynova (“Lady in Blue”, 1897–1900, State Tretyakov Gallery), in the portrait painting “Echoes of the Past Time” (1903, b. on the map, aqua., gouache, State Tretyakov Gallery ), where he creates a poetic characterization of the fragile, anemic female beauty of the decadent model, refusing to convey the real everyday signs of modernity. He dresses the models in ancient costumes, gives their appearance the features of secret suffering, sadness and dreaminess, painful brokenness.
Before anyone else in The World of Art, Somov turned to the themes of the past, to the interpretation of the 18th century. ("Letter", 1896; "Confidentialities", 1897), being the forerunner of Benois' Versailles landscapes. He is the first to create an surreal world, woven from the motifs of the nobility, estate and court culture and his own purely subjective artistic sensations, permeated with irony. The historicism of the "World of Art" was an escape from reality. Not the past, but its staging, longing for its irretrievability - this is their main motive. Not true fun, but a game of fun with kisses in the alleys - such is Somov.
D 
Somov’s other works are pastoral and gallant festivities (“The Ridiculous Kiss”, 1908, Russian Museum; “Marquise’s Walk”, 1909, Russian Museum), full of caustic irony, spiritual emptiness, even hopelessness. Love scenes from the 18th – early 19th centuries. always given with a touch of erotica Somov worked a lot as a graphic artist, he designed a monograph by S. Diaghilev on D. Levitsky, an essay by A. Benois on Tsarskoye Selo. The book, as a single organism with its rhythmic and stylistic unity, was raised by him to an extraordinary height. Somov is not an illustrator, he “illustrates not a text, but an era, using a literary device as a springboard,” wrote A.A. Sidorov, and this is very true.
Somov"Lady in Blue" "At the Skating Rink" Benois. A. "King's Walk"
The ideological leader of the "World of Art" was Alexander Nikolaevich Benois(1870-1960) - an unusually versatile talent. Painter, easel graphic artist and illustrator, theater artist, director, author of ballet librettos, art theorist and historian, musical figure, he was, in the words of A. Bely, the main politician and diplomat of the "World of Art". Coming from the highest stratum of the St. Petersburg artistic intelligentsia (composers and conductors, architects and painters), he first studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University.
As an artist, he is related to Somov by stylistic tendencies and addiction to the past (“I am intoxicated with Versailles, this is some kind of illness, love, criminal passion ... I completely moved into the past ...”). In the landscapes of Versailles, Benois merged the historical reconstruction of the 17th century. and contemporary impressions of the artist, his perception of French classicism, French engraving. Hence the clear composition, clear spatiality, the grandeur and cold severity of rhythms, the opposition between the grandiosity of monuments of art and the smallness of human figures, which are only staffage among them (the 1st Versailles series of 1896-1898 under the title "The Last Walks of Louis XIV"). In the second Versailles series (1905-1906), the irony, which is also characteristic of the first sheets, is colored with almost tragic notes ("The King's Walk",). The thinking of Benois is the thinking of a theatrical artist par excellence, who knew and felt the theater very well.
Nature is perceived by Benois in an associative connection with history (views of Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, executed by him in watercolor technique).
In a series of paintings from the Russian past, commissioned by the Moscow publishing house Knebel (illustrations for the "Royal Hunts"), in scenes of the noble, landowner life of the 18th century. Benois created an intimate image of this era, albeit a somewhat theatrical Parade under Paul I. Benois the illustrator (Pushkin, Hoffman) is a whole page in the history of the book. Unlike Somov, Benois creates a narrative illustration. The plane of the page is not an end in itself for him. The illustrations for The Queen of Spades were rather complete independent works, not so much the “art of the book”, as A.A. Sidorov, how much "art is in the book." A masterpiece of book illustration was the graphic design of The Bronze Horseman (1903,1905,1916,1921–1922, ink and watercolor imitating colored woodcuts). In a series of illustrations for the great poem, the main character is the architectural landscape of St. Petersburg, now solemnly pathetic, now peaceful, now sinister, against which the figure of Eugene seems even more insignificant. This is how Benois expresses the tragic conflict between the fate of Russian statehood and the personal fate of a little man (“And all night long the poor madman, / Wherever he turned his feet, / The Bronze Horseman was everywhere with him / With a heavy stomp galloped”).
"Bronze Horseman"
« 
Parade under Paul I» 
As a theater artist, Benois designed the performances of the Russian Seasons, of which the most famous was the ballet Petrushka to music by Stravinsky, worked a lot at the Moscow Art Theater, and later on almost all major European stages.
The activity of Benois, an art critic and art historian who, together with Grabar, updated the methods, techniques and themes of Russian art history, is a whole stage in the history of art criticism (see "History of Painting of the 19th Century" by R. Muther - volume "Russian Painting", 1901- 1902; "Russian School of Painting", edition of 1904; "Tsarskoye Selo in the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna", 1910; articles in the magazines "World of Art" and "Old Years", "Artistic Treasures of Russia", etc.).
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the third in the core of the "World of Art" was Lev Samuilovich Bakst(1866-1924), who became famous as a theater artist and was the first among the "World of Art" to gain fame in Europe. He came to the "World of Art" from the Academy of Arts, then professed the Art Nouveau style, joined the leftist trends in European painting. At the first exhibitions of the World of Art, he exhibited a number of pictorial and graphic portraits (Benoit, Bely, Somov, Rozanov, Gippius, Diaghilev), where nature, coming in a stream of living states, was transformed into a kind of ideal representation of a contemporary person. Bakst created the brand of the magazine "World of Art", which became the emblem of Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons" in Paris. There are no 18th century motifs in Bakst's graphics. and estate themes. He gravitates towards antiquity, moreover, to the Greek archaic, interpreted symbolically. Particularly successful with the Symbolists was his painting "Ancient Horror" - "Terror antiquus" (tempera, 1908, Russian Museum). A terrible stormy sky, lightning illuminating the abyss of the sea and an ancient city - and over all this universal catastrophe the archaic bark with a mysterious frozen smile dominates. Soon Bakst completely devoted himself to theatrical and scenery work, and his scenery and costumes for the ballets of the Diaghilev entreprise, performed with extraordinary brilliance, virtuoso, artistically, brought him worldwide fame. In its design there were performances with Anna Pavlova, ballets by Fokine. The artist made sets and costumes for Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Stravinsky's The Firebird (both 1910), Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, and The Afternoon of a Faun to Debussy's music (both 1912). 
"Ancient Horror" Afternoon of a Faun "Portrait of Gippius
Of the first generation of "World of Art" the younger was Evgeny Evgenievich Lansere (1875–1946), in his work, he touched upon all the main problems of book graphics of the early 20th century. (See his illustrations for the book "Legends of the ancient castles of Brittany", for Lermontov, the cover for "Nevsky Prospekt" by Bozheryanov, etc.). Lansere created a number of watercolors and lithographs of St. Petersburg (Kalinkin Bridge, Nikolsky Market, etc.). Architecture occupies a huge place in his historical compositions (“Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in Tsarskoye Selo”, 1905, State Tretyakov Gallery). We can say that in the work of Serov, Benois, Lansere a new type of historical painting was created - it is devoid of a plot, but at the same time perfectly recreates the appearance of the era, evoking many historical, literary and aesthetic associations. One of Lansere's best creations - 70 drawings and watercolors for L.N. Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad" (1912-1915), which Benois considered "an independent song that fits perfectly into Tolstoy's powerful music."
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graphics by Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky(1875–1957) represents not so much Petersburg of the Pushkin era or the 18th century as a modern city, which he was able to convey with almost tragic expressiveness (“The Old House”, 1905, watercolor, State Tretyakov Gallery), as well as a person living in such cities (“ A Man with Glasses”, 1905-1906, pastel, State Tretyakov Gallery: a lonely, against the backdrop of dull houses, a sad man, whose head resembles a skull). The urbanism of the future inspired Dobuzhinsky with panic fear. He also worked extensively in illustration, where his series of ink drawings for Dostoevsky's White Nights (1922) can be considered the most remarkable. Dobuzhinsky also worked in the theater, designed for Nemirovich-Danchenko "Nikolai Stavrogin" (staged "Demons" by Dostoevsky), Turgenev's plays "A Month in the Country" and "The Freeloader".
A special place in the "World of Art" occupies Nicholas Roerich(1874–1947). A connoisseur of philosophy and ethnography of the East, an archaeologist-scientist, Roerich received an excellent education, first at home, then at the law and historical-philological faculties of St. Petersburg University, then at the Academy of Arts, in the workshop of Kuindzhi, and in Paris in the studio of F. Cormon. Early he gained the authority of a scientist. He was related to the "World of Art" by the same love for retrospection, only not of the 17th-18th centuries, but of pagan Slavic and Scandinavian antiquity, to Ancient Rus'; stylistic tendencies, theatrical decorativeness (“Messenger”, 1897, State Tretyakov Gallery; “The Elders Converge”, 1898, Russian Museum; “Sinister”, 1901, Russian Museum). Roerich was most closely associated with the philosophy and aesthetics of Russian symbolism, but his art did not fit into the framework of the existing trends, because, in accordance with the artist’s worldview, it turned, as it were, to all of humanity with an appeal for a friendly union of all peoples. Hence the special epic nature of his paintings.
« 
Heavenly battle"
"Overseas guests"
After 1905, the mood of pantheistic mysticism grew in Roerich's work. Historical themes give way to religious legends (The Heavenly Battle, 1912, Russian Museum). The Russian icon had a huge influence on Roerich: his decorative panel The Battle of Kerzhents (1911) was exhibited during the performance of a fragment of the same title from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia in the Paris Russian Seasons.
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about the second generation of the "World of Art" by one of the most gifted artists was Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev(1878–1927), a student of Repin, who helped him in his work on the State Council. Kustodiev is also characterized by stylization, but this is a stylization of popular popular print. Hence the bright festive “Fairs”, “Shrovetide”, “Balagany”, hence his paintings from the petty-bourgeois and merchant life, conveyed with slight irony, but not without admiring these red-cheeked, half-asleep beauties behind a samovar and with saucers in plump fingers (“Merchant”, 1915, Russian Museum; "The Merchant for Tea", 1918, Russian Museum).
A.Ya. Golovin is one of the greatest theater artists of the first quarter of the 20th century; I. Ya. Bilibin, A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva and others.
The "World of Art" was a major aesthetic movement at the turn of the century, which overestimated the entire modern artistic culture, approved new tastes and problems, returned to art - at the highest professional level - the lost forms of book graphics and theatrical and decorative painting, which gained all-European recognition through their efforts, created new art criticism, which promoted Russian art abroad, in fact, even opened some of its stages, like the Russian XVIII century. "Miriskusniki" created a new type of historical painting, portrait, landscape with its own stylistic features (distinct stylistic trends, the predominance of graphic techniques.
World of Art
World of Art (1898-1924) - an artistic association formed in Russia
in the late 1890s. A magazine published under the same name began in 1898.
group members.
A.N. Benois among artists. August 1898
World of Art - a monthly illustrated art magazine, published in St. Petersburg
from 1898 to 1904, entirely devoted to the promotion of the work of Russian symbolists and
which was the body of the association of the same name - "World of Art" and symbolist writers.
Publishers - Princess M. K. Tenisheva and S. I. Mamontov, editor was S. P. Diaghilev;
since 1902 Diaghilev became the publisher; with No. 10 for 1903, the editor was also
A. N. Benois.
Magazine cover for 1901 Benois among the artists. August 1898
The association loudly declared itself by organizing the "Exhibition of Russian and Finnish
Artists" in 1898 at the Museum of the Central School of Technical Drawing
Baron A. L. Stieglitz.
The classical period in the life of the association fell on 1900-1904. - at this time for
The group was characterized by a special unity of aesthetic and ideological principles. Artists
arranged exhibitions under the auspices of the magazine "World of Art".
After 1904, the association expanded and lost its ideological unity. In 1904-1910
most of the members of the "World of Art" were members of the "Union of Russian Artists".
Artists of the Society "World of Art" in the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts.
Petersburg. March 1914
At the founding meeting on October 19, 1910, the art society "World of Art"
was revived (N. K. Roerich was elected chairman). After the revolution, many of its leaders
were forced to emigrate. The association actually ceased to exist in 1924.
B. M. Kustodiev. "Group portrait of the members of the association "World of Art"". 1916-1920.
Left to right: I.E. Grabar, N.K. Roerich, E.E. Lansere, B.M. Kustodiev, I.Ya. Bilibin,
A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, A.N. Benois, G.I. Narbut, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, N.D. Milioti,
K.A. Somov, M.V. Dobuzhinsky.
After the successful Russian-Finnish exhibition at the end of 1898, an association was created
"World of Art", one of the founders of which was Benois. Together with S. Diaghilev
he becomes the editor of the magazine of the same name, which became the herald of neo-romanticism.
Motivating the emergence of the "World of Art", Benoit wrote:
"We were guided not so much by considerations of an 'ideological' order, but by considerations
practical necessity. A number of young artists had nowhere to go. Their
or were not accepted at all to large exhibitions - academic, traveling and watercolor,
or accepted only with a rejection of everything in which the artists themselves saw the most
a clear expression of his quest ... And that's why Vrubel turned out to be next to us
Bakst, and Somov next to Malyavin. The "unrecognized" were joined by those of the "recognized"
who were uncomfortable in the approved groups. Mainly, we were approached by Levitan,
Korovin and, to our greatest joy, Serov. Again, ideologically and by the whole culture they
belonged to a different circle, they were the last offspring of realism, not devoid of
"peredvizhnaya coloring". But with us they were connected by hatred for everything stale,
established, dead."
Magazine cover from 1900
The World of Art magazine came out in the fall of 1898, with an 1899 imprint. He
caused even more noise than the exhibition. Setting the World of Art on pure art,
free from ideological predilections, of course, wandering and academism,
seemed obviously flawed, which was also found in the paintings of young artists.
Similar phenomena occurred in architecture, and in poetry, and in the theater, which
perceived as decadence and what was defined as Russian modern.
Harlequinade. Screensaver in the magazine "World of Art", 1902, N ° 7-9. 1902
"The World of Art" was published until 1901 - once every 2 weeks, then - monthly.
It was a literary and artistic illustrated magazine of the widest content,
which sealed his fate. They talk about the popularization of Russian art XVIII -
the beginning of the 19th century, on the promotion of samples of folk art and handicrafts
crafts, which manifested the aesthetics of the World of Art and the interests of patrons
Elephants. Screensaver in the magazine "World of Art", 1902. N ° 7-9. 1902
The magazine widely introduced the reader to modern Russian and foreign art
life (articles and notes by A.N. Benois, I.E. Grabar, S.P. Diaghilev, V.V. Kandinsky,
excerpts from Op. R. Muther and J. Meyer-Grefe, reviews of foreign publications,
reproduction of exhibition expositions, reproductions of modern Russian and
Western European painting and graphics).
This corresponded to the main aspirations of friends from the Benois circle - the achievement of development
Russian art in line with European and global art, based on
thoughts about our backwardness, which, however, will reveal something unexpected: the development of Russian
classical literature, music and painting will turn into a revolution in the theater in the world
scale and what we now recognize as a Renaissance phenomenon.
In addition, literary-critical articles were published on the pages of the World of Art
V.Ya.Bryusov and Andrei Bely, who formulated the aesthetics of Russian symbolism.
But most of the place was occupied by the religious and philosophical writings of D. S. Merezhkovsky,
Z. N. Gippius, N. M. Minsky, L. Shestova, V. V. Rozanov.
With notebooks of his poems,
Long ago you crumbled to dust,
Like branches flown around lilacs.
You are in a country where there are no ready-made forms,
Where everything is scattered, mixed, broken,
Where instead of the sky - only a grave hill
And the lunar orbit is motionless.
There in a different, slurred language
Sings the synclit of soundless insects,
There with a small flashlight in hand
Beetle-man greets acquaintances.
Are you calm, my comrades?
Is it easy for you? And have you forgotten everything?
Now you are brothers - roots, ants,
Blades of grass, sighs, columns of dust.
Now you sisters are flowers of carnations,
Lilac nipples, slivers, chickens...
And I can't remember your language
There's a left brother up there.
He still has no place in those parts,
Where did you disappear, light as shadows,
In wide hats, long jackets,
With notebooks of his poems.
Nikolay Zabolotsky.
« WORLD OF ART» -
Russian art association, which took shape in the late 1890s. (officially - in 1900) on the basis of a circle of young artists and art lovers, headed by A. Benois and S. Diaghilev.
World of Art. Symbolism. Russia.
Bakst, Lev Samoilovich. Portrait of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev with his nanny
As an exhibition union under the auspices of the World of Art, the association existed until 1904, in an expanded membership - in 1910-1924.
In 1904-1910 most of the masters of the "World of Art" were members of the Union of Russian Artists.
In addition to the main core (L. Bakst, M. Dobuzhinsky, E. Lansere, A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, K. Somov), the World of Art included many St. Petersburg and Moscow painters and graphic artists (I. Bilibin, A. Golovin, I. Grabar , K. Korovin, B. Kustodiev, N. Roerich, V. Serov and others).
M. Vrubel, I. Levitan, M. Nesterov and others participated in the exhibitions of the World of Art.
The ideological attitudes of the figures of the "World of Art" were largely determined by the sharp rejection of the anti-aestheticism of modern society, the desire for "eternal" spiritual and artistic values.
Recognition of the social role of artistic creativity, called, according to the theorists of the "World of Art", to aesthetically transform the surrounding reality, they combined with the ideal of "free" or "pure" art; declaring its independence, they rejected both academicism and the work of the Wanderers (recognizing, however, the aesthetic significance of the latter), criticized the aesthetics of Russian revolutionary democrats and the concepts of V. Stasov.
Ideologically and stylistically, the early "World of Art" was close to Western European art groups that united theorists and practitioners of modernity: the figurative structure of the works of a significant part of the artists of the "World of Art" was also formed on the basis of the poetics of symbolism and, more broadly, neo-romanticism.
At the same time, a common feature of the majority of the "World of Art" was the recognition of the artistic charm of the past as the main source of inspiration.
In their works, they (often in an ironic, on the verge of self-parody vein) revived the elegance and peculiar "puppetry" of Rococo, the noble austerity of the Russian Empire.
They created a special lyrical type of historical landscape, tinged either with elegy (Benois) or with major romance (Lancere).
Refined decorativeism, elegant linearity, sometimes turning into ornamentation, and an exquisite combination of matte tones have become common to the works of members of the World of Art.
The work of a number of representatives of the World of Art was characterized by neoclassical tendencies (Bakst, Serov, Dobuzhinsky) or a passion for ancient Russian culture and history (Bilibin, Roerich).
The search for a style-forming beginning, “holistic art” was most fully realized by the masters of the “World of Art” in their works for the theater, in a few experiments in interior design, and mainly in graphics, which played a leading role in their work.
Their activities are associated with the final transformation of engraving from a reproduction technique into a creative type of graphics (color prints by Ostroumova-Lebedeva, etc.), the flowering of book illustration and the art of the book (Benois, Bilibin, etc.).
After 1904, significant changes took place in the ideological and aesthetic views of the leading artists of the World of Art.
During the Revolution of 1905-1907. some of them (Dobuzhinsky, Lansere, Serov, and others) appear as masters of political satire.
The new stage in the existence of the "World of Art" is also characterized by its dissociation from the extreme leftist trends in Russian art, statements in favor of the regulation of artistic creativity (the idea of the "new Academy" put forward by Benois), the intensification of theatrical activities and the promotion of contemporary Russian art abroad (participation in foreign enterprise of Diaghilev).
Since 1917, a number of members of the "World of Art" (Benoit, Grabar, and others) turned to museum-organizational and restoration activities.
At the end of the 19th century, artistic life in Russia was very lively. The society showed an increased interest in numerous art exhibitions and auctions, in articles and periodicals devoted to fine arts. Not only Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also many provincial newspapers and magazines had corresponding permanent headings. Various kinds of artistic associations arose, setting themselves various tasks, but mainly of an educational nature, which was influenced by the traditions of the Wanderers.
Under these conditions, Diaghilev's idea of rallying the young artistic forces of St. Petersburg and Moscow, the need for which had long been felt in Russian art, was favorably received.
In 1898, Diaghilev for the first time achieved their joint performance at the Exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists. It was attended by Bakst, Benois, A. Vasnetsov, K. Korovin, Nesterov, Lansere, Levitan, Malyutin, E. Polenova, Ryabushkin, Serov, Somov and others.
In the same 1898, Diaghilev managed to convince the well-known figures and art lovers S. I. Mamontov and M. K. Tenisheva to finance a monthly art magazine. Soon, a double issue of the magazine "World of Art" was published in St. Petersburg, edited by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev.
It was the first art magazine whose character and direction were determined by the artists themselves. The editors informed the readers that the magazine would consider the works of Russian and foreign masters "from all eras of art history, to the extent that the aforementioned works are of interest and significance for the modern artistic consciousness."
The following year, in 1899, the First International Exhibition of the magazine "World of Art" took place. It featured over 350 works and featured forty-two European artists, including P. de Chavannes. D. Whistler, E. Degas, C. Monet, O. Renoir. Exhibition
allowed Russian artists and viewers to get acquainted with various areas of Western art.
Thanks to the appearance of the magazine "World of Art" and the exhibitions of 1898-1899, a circle of young artists who sympathized with the direction of the magazine emerged.
In 1900, Diaghilev managed to unite many of them in the creative community "World of Art". This “brilliant team” (an expression by A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva) was made up of remarkable artists who came to art in the 1890s, namely: Bakst, Alexander Benois, Bilibin, Braz, Vrubel, Golovin, Grabar, Dobuzhinsky. K. Korovin, Lansere, Malyutin, Malyavin, Ostroumova, Purvit, Roerich, Ruschits, Serov, Somov, Trubetskoy, Zionglinsky, Yakunchikova and Yaremich.
In addition, Repin, V. and E. Polenov, A. Vasnetsov, Levitan, Nesterov, Ryabushkin took part in some of the then exhibitions of the World of Art.
From 1900 to 1903 three exhibitions of the "World of Art" were held. Organizing these exhibitions, Diaghilev focused on young Russian artists. They were Petersburgers - Bakst, Benois. Somov, Lansere and Muscovites - Vrubel, Serov, K. Korovin, Levitan, Malyutin, Ryabushkin and others. It was Muscovites that Diaghilev placed his greatest hopes on. He wrote: "... all of our present art and everything from which we can expect the future, is in Moscow." Therefore, he tried in every possible way to attract Moscow artists to the exhibitions of the World of Art, which he did not always succeed in.
The World of Art exhibitions thoroughly introduced Russian society to the works of famous Russian masters and emerging artists who have not yet achieved recognition, such as Bilibin, Ostroumova, Dobuzhinsky, Lansere, Kustodiev, Yuon, Sapunov, Larionov, P. Kuznetsov, Saryan.
There is no need to cover in detail the activities of the World of Art here, since publications devoted to it have recently appeared. It should be said about some of its general features, they were emphasized by the World of Arts themselves and many contemporaries.
The association "World of Art" was not an accidental phenomenon in Russian art, but historically conditioned. Such, for example, was the opinion of I. E. Grabar: “If it were not for Diaghilev<...>, an art of this order was bound to emerge.”
Concerning the question of the continuity of artistic culture, Diaghilev said in 1906: “The whole present and future of Russian plastic art ... will in one way or another feed on the same precepts that the World of Art has taken from a careful study of the great Russian masters since the time of Peter.”
A.N. Benois wrote that everything done by the World of Art "did not mean at all" that they "broke with all the past." On the contrary, Benois argued, the very core of the "World of Art" "was behind the renewal of many, both technical and ideological traditions of Russian and international art." And further: “... we considered ourselves to a large extent representatives of the same searches and the same creative methods that we valued in the portrait painters of the 18th century, and in Kiprensky, and in Venetsianov, and in Fedotov, as well as in outstanding masters directly the generation preceding us - in Kramskoy, Repin, Surikov.
V. E. Makovsky, a well-known wanderer, in an interview with a journalist, said: “We have done our job<...>We are constantly being cited as an example by the Union of Russian Artists and the World of Art, where all the best forces of Russian painting are supposedly now concentrated. But who are they, these best forces, if not our own children?<...>Why did they leave us? Yes, because they felt cramped and they decided to found their new society.”
In the work of the World of Art, this continuity of the best traditions of the Wanderers manifested itself during the revolution of 1905. Most of the artists of the "World of Art" joined the struggle against tsarism, taking an active part in the release of publications of political satire.
"World of Art" has played a significant, and sometimes even decisive role in the creative destiny of many artists. I. E. Grabar, for example, only after meeting with members of the World of Art exhibition committee, Diaghilev, Benois and Serov, “believed in himself and began to work.” Even about Serov himself, not without reason, they said that “the active sympathy of the “World of Art” circle miraculously inspired and strengthened his work”
K. S. Petrov-Vodkin wrote in 1923 in his memoirs about the World of Art: “What is the charm of Diaghilev, Benois, Somov, Bakst, Dobuzhinsky? Such constellations of human groups arise at the boundaries of historical turning points. They know a lot and carry with them these values of the past. They know how to extract things from the dust of history and, reviving them, give them a modern sound... “The World of Art” played its historical role brilliantly.” And in another place of the same memoirs: “When you remember how twenty years ago, amid the miasma of decadence, amid the historical bad taste, blackness and slush of painting, Sergey Diaghilev and his comrades equipped their ship, how then we, young men, took wings together with them, suffocating in the obscurantism surrounding us - remember all this, say: yes, well done guys, you brought us to the present on your shoulders.
N. K. Roerich stated that it was the “World of Art” that “raised the banner for new conquests of art.”
Recalling the distant 1900s on the slope of her life, A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva wrote: “World Art students chose and invited young artists to their society when they noticed in them, in addition to talent, a sincere and serious attitude to art and to their work<...>The World of Art persistently put forward the principle of “craft in art”, that is, they wanted artists to make paintings with a complete, detailed knowledge of the materials they worked with and bring the technique to perfection<...>In addition, they all talked about the need to increase culture and taste among artists and never denied themes in the paintings and, therefore, did not deprive the fine arts of its inherent properties of agitation and propaganda. The conclusion of Ostroumova-Lebedeva was very definite: “It is simply impossible to destroy the significance of the “World of Art” society and deny it, for example, as art critics do in our country because of the principle “art for art’s sake”.
K.F. Yuon noted: "The World of Art" indicated the untouched virgin land of diverse means of artistic expression. He encouraged everything soil and national...”. In 1922, A. M. Gorky defined this concentration of remarkable talents as “a whole trend that revived Russian art.”
The "world of art" ceased to exist in 1903, but continued to retain a tremendous attraction for contemporaries. In 1910, the World of Art society reappeared in St. Petersburg, but Diaghilev no longer took part in its work. Diaghilev's artistic activity took a different direction.
In 1905, in the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg, he arranged a grand historical and artistic exhibition of Russian portraits. Not limited to works from the capital's palaces and museums, Diaghilev toured the provinces, revealing a total of about 4,000 portraits. There were many interesting and unexpected finds at the exhibition. Russian portrait art appeared unusually significant and rich. V. E. Borisov-Musatov wrote in those days to V. A. Serov: “For this work [vol. e. arrangement of the exhibition] Diaghilev is a genius, and his historical name would become immortal. Its meaning is somehow little understood, and I feel sorry for him sincerely that he was somehow left alone. Photographs taken at the initiative of Diaghilev from most of the exhibits (negatives are stored in the TG) now make it possible to get acquainted with many masterpieces of Russian art that died or disappeared during the turbulent events of the 1905 revolution, civil and world wars (for example, the fate of eighteen works by D. G. Levitsky, who, among his other works, were exhibited at the Tauride Exhibition).
In the spring of 1905, cultural figures in Moscow decided to honor Diaghilev in gratitude for the fact that he edited the magazine "World of Art" and arranged a historical and art exhibition. Responding to greetings, Diaghilev declared: “... it was after these greedy wanderings [Diaghilev means trips around Russia that he undertook, collecting works for the Historical and Art Exhibition] that I became especially convinced that the time had come for the results. I observed this not only in the brilliant images of ancestors, so obviously distant from us, but mainly in the descendants living out their lives. The end of life is here<...>We are witnesses of the greatest historical moment of results and ends in the name of a new, unknown culture that will arise for us, but will also sweep us away. And therefore, without fear and disbelief, I raise a glass to the ruined walls of beautiful palaces, as well as to the new testaments of a new aesthetics”
