The panorama of the artistic culture of the 20th century is very diverse. Its specific feature was the presence of two artistic systems: modernism and postmodernism.

Modernism(from French modern - the latest, modern) - general symbol directions of art of the XX century, which are characterized by the rejection of traditional methods artistic representation of the world. Modernism as an artistic system was prepared by two processes of its development:

- decadence(dekadentia - decline) - that is, flight, rejection of real life, the cult of beauty as the only value, rejection of social problems;

- avant-garde(French - avantgarde - advanced detachment) - whose manifestos called for breaking with the legacy of the past and creating something new, contrary to traditional artistic attitudes.

The main directions and currents of modernism were either rejected, or beyond recognition, transformed the entire system artistic means and tricks. Specifically, in various forms of art, this was expressed: in a change spatial images and the rejection of artistic and figurative patterns in the visual arts; in the revision of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic organization in music; in the appearance of a “stream of consciousness”, an internal monologue, associative montage in literature, etc. The general emotional mood of modernism can be expressed by the following phrase: the chaos of modern life, its disintegration contribute to the disorder and loneliness of a person, his conflicts are insoluble and hopeless, and circumstances, in which he has set are irresistible.

The characteristic features of the Art Nouveau style were: the desire for aestheticization human environment environment; emphasized activity of influencing life processes; entertainment and decoration. The Art Nouveau style realized itself in various types of art, showing sufficient flexibility and diversity, while taking on various incarnations, which later allowed theorists to reproach modernism for the lack of stylistic unity and even have the right to be called a style. In architecture, the range of modern expressive means ranged from emphatically decorative, uninhibited and sophisticated plastic architectural forms to strict, purely geometric solutions that embodied the idea of ​​an ideal architectural environment. These features are most clearly seen in the buildings of Art Nouveau architects - H. van de Velde in Belgium, J. Olbrich and O. Wagner in Austria, A. Gaudi in Spain, F. Schechtel in Russia. In theatrical modernity, there is a craving for line, pattern, for a kind of visualization of music, turning the actors' play into a phantasmagoric symphony of lines and colors. Such were the productions of V. Meyerhold at the beginning of the 20th century. Art Nouveau painting was filled with the poetics of symbolism, combining images characteristic of it with a complex rhythm, linear composition in alliance with a decorative color spot. Art Nouveau reveals a predilection for certain plots and themes. These are allegorical motifs: war, death, sin, love; motifs expressing impulsive manifestations of passion: awe, play, whirlwind; plots showing the union of souls and bodies: hugs and kisses. This whole gamut of themes and plots was embodied in the work of K. Somov, M. Vrubel.

The first trend in the 20th century modernist art counts Fauvism(from the French fouves - wild). The group of young artists, which included A. Matisse, A. Derain, M. Vlaminck, A. Marquet and others, was called Fauvists by French criticism. Their joint exhibition activity was most intensive in 1902-1907. Fauvists did not have own theory, manifest. The group members were united only by the desire for visual experiments with color. The Fauvists are characterized by the desire for a bright open color, which they widely used in the genre of landscape. The maximum expressiveness of color, the organization of artistic space with its help, the active influence of color on the compositional ratio of parts artwork- all this is the characteristic features of Fauvism. The color experiments of the Fauvist artists had a certain influence on the formation visual arts XX century.

Another direction of modernism was Dadaism(French dadaisme from dada - horse, skate; in figuratively- incoherent baby talk) - an avant-garde trend in Western European art, which developed mainly in Switzerland, France and Germany during World War I (1916). Dadaism arose in Switzerland among the intelligentsia, inclined in their protest against the war to a kind of artistic outrageousness. The founders of Dadaism were the poets T. Tzara and R. Gyulzenbek, the artist G. Arp and others. The Dadaists published manifestos and the magazine "Cabaret Voltaire" (1916-1917), with their impromptu scandalous theatrical performances, they tried to break the established ideas about the existing types and genres of art.

Surrealism(from the French surrealisme - supra-realism, super-realism) is an avant-garde trend in the artistic culture of the 20th century, which proclaimed the image of the sphere of the unconscious as the main goal of art. As an independent artistic direction Surrealism emerged in the 1920s. in France. In 1924, the "First Manifesto of Surrealism" was published in Paris. Its author, the French poet A. Breton, proclaimed the initial model of surrealism, based on the psychoanalysis of 3. Freud and C. G. Jung. In the literature of this direction, the principle of “automatic writing” has become decisive, that is, the high-speed recording of the first words or snippets of speech that came to mind in all their bizarre combination. The key concept of surrealism is "dreams" or "dreams" (L. Aragon "Wave of Dreams" - essay, 1924). Dreams, hallucinations, delusions, mystical visions - all this experience of the unconscious expression of the spirit is the essence of the work of surrealist poets. The literary image of surrealism is the dominance of pure chance in its occurrence. The works of A. Breton, L. Aragon, P. Eluard were very popular.

Expressionism(from lat. expressio - expression) - an artistic direction in the art of Germany, which developed in the first quarter of the 20th century. The beginning of a new direction was laid by the activities of the artists of the Dresden group "Bridge" (1905). It included E. Kirchner, E. Heckel, O. Müller and others. In the culturological treatises of the expressionists, it was about the transformation of the world by the power of the human spirit and attempts were made to find something common for all in the sphere of spiritual and public life. According to their ideas, artistic creativity acted as a tense subjectivity based on emotional states, improvisation and vague moods of the artist. And as a result of this, the paintings of O. Dix, G. Gross, H. Nolde and F. Mark distorted real proportions, the plays of G. Kaiser turned into journalistic dramas - into “dramas of screaming”, the poetry of F. Werfel and J. Becher resembled pamphlets and appeals. The world was perceived by expressionists in two ways: both as tormented, obsolete, and as capable of renewal, of re-creating itself. Expressionist painters enthusiastically continued experiments in the field of color, which were started by the French Fauvists (Matisse, Derain, etc.). Just as for the Fauvists, for the Expressionists color became the basis for the organization of artistic space. Expressionism as an artistic movement lasted until the mid-20s of the XX century. However, its main feature - a sharply contrasting vision of the world - seriously influenced the artistic culture of many countries in Europe and America.

Suprematism(from lat. supremus - the highest) - a kind of abstract painting, the basis of which is a combination of the simplest geometric elements. K. Malevich is considered the founder of Suprematism. His famous thesis painting "Black Square" became a kind of manifesto of Suprematism. He called the text version of his manifesto "From Reason and Futurism to Suprematism", thereby emphasizing that he considers the new direction as a necessary link in the evolution of world painting and as a continuation of "the general movement towards the liberation of art from reality and the predominance of life-building functions in it."

Postmodernism- a concept denoting a new, the last to date, super-stage in the chain of naturally changing each other throughout the history of cultural trends. Postmodernism as a paradigm of modern culture is a general direction in the development of European culture, which was formed in the 70s of the XX century.

The emergence of postmodern trends in culture is associated with the awareness of the limitations of social progress and the fear of society that the results of this progress will endanger the destruction of the very time and space of culture. Postmodernism, as it were, should establish the limits of human intervention in the development of nature, society and culture.

In the 20th century, aesthetic and art culture and everything connected with them changed dramatically. In 19th century Europe the artists were clearly preoccupied with what was happening in society, although by the end of the century some of them had come to mysticism and aestheticism. 19th century society sometimes treated artists, artists as second-class people, sometimes some of them as prophets. Art as a whole was respected, as it was considered necessary and useful either for awakening good feelings (which A. Pushkin proudly wrote about: “And I aroused good feelings with a lyre”), or at least for decorating life, for generating beauty in it.

In the XX century. the problem arose not only of the "death" of God, but also of the death of art. O. Spengler in 1918 in the book "The Decline of Europe" noted that Western European art dies of senility.

In the 1950s French sociologist of art Michel Dufrenne stated that art in its traditional understanding of pre-industrial society has already died. In 1972, at the 7th International Aesthetic Congress in Romania, there was a section that discussed the problems of the death of art. They wrote and spoke a lot and in different ways about the crisis of artistic culture. And although crisis phenomena were observed in the development of all artistic eras, trends, styles, what happened in the 20th century was completely unusual, although it all began with a seemingly characteristic for any transition period struggle against academism, against ossifying traditions. However, this struggle went on so intensely, acquired such forms and had such consequences that it really became possible to speak of the death of art, the end of artistry, and of culture in general.

The fact is that this time they rebelled not just against traditions and stagnation in art, but against the entire established bourgeois civilization and culture in general. The word "artists" is used in a broad sense, denoting the creators of aesthetic and artistic life: painters, sculptors, architects, writers, composers, etc. rationality, rationality, vulgar rationality, objectivism and utilitarianism. They opposed hypocrisy, false prettiness that covers up the true ugliness of reality, against bourgeois progress and the culture generated by it and blessing this progress, against all naturalism and realism, but at the same time against aesthetic art, allegedly towering over life.

Therefore, in their artistic searches, they focused on recklessness as opposed to rationality, on irrationality in the peak of rationality, on subjectivism and impracticality instead of objectivism and utilitarianism. They emphasized their indifference to beauty as harmony, proportionality, proportionality, etc. In this regard, attempts to reveal the unconscious, theoretically substantiated by Freudianism, intensified in artistic creativity. Artists were looking for new, not so much pictorial as expressive, means to more or less directly reveal hidden behind the veil of visibility, secret, more significant (as it seemed to them) than visible. In search of unusual expressive means, they turned to dissonances, disharmony of colors, sounds, words. Influencing the public in this way, they tried to “blow up” the usual in its perception and force it not only to look, listen and read, but to think sensually. They were excited precisely by new ways of expressing artistic thought. Picasso directly stated that he paints objects not as he sees them, but as he thinks.

This manifested the desire to make the same painting "reflective", although not in a standard way. But at the same time, it nevertheless rationalized almost more than the traditional one. Abstractionists, futurists, especially surrealists (among them Salvador Dali!) tried in different ways to avoid the danger of a new rationalization, reaching the ideas of “pure psychological automatism”, when the artist creates spontaneously, “like in a dream”, “like in delirium”. But precisely "how", and not in delirium. Such attempts led to particular interesting artistic solutions, but did not remove the problem of "too smart" art.

At the same time, despite very different social and artistic attitudes, the creators of the new art were united by the pathos of rejecting the traditions contained in epigone-classical painting, literature, etc. They were unanimous in recognizing the need to search for new artistic forms and techniques. Many of them were united by anti-bourgeois sentiments, anti-industrialism, the pathos of the fight against "mechanized evil", very clearly expressed by Picasso in his "War in Korea", "Guernica", "The Girl on the sea ​​shore". What united all avant-garde artists was their preoccupation with social problems, the desire not so much to reflect reality as to form a new world, or at least contribute to its cardinal transformation. Therefore, the avant-garde and modernists of the XX century. sometimes they were criticized in vain for their alleged departure from reality, from social problems. All modernist trends and currents: Fauvism, Expressionism, Abstractionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Pop Art, Op Art, etc., the most diverse postmodernist groups are still socially active, infected not just with form-creative rebellion. Representatives of extreme abstractionism in painting, P. Mondrian and K. Malevich (the creator of the famous "Black Square"), who seemed to have reached the limit in detachment from the image of reality, tried in this way to realize their social utopia with the help of art, to help destroy the old world and to create a new, better one, in which, however, there was no longer a place for art in its former, classical sense, but which had to be completely permeated with new artistic principles.

Before the Second World War, the rebels were outcast artists, half-poor, half-starved, whose works were not understood by the public. Neither she, nor even connoisseurs (with the exception of the most perspicacious) bought them. After World War II, the situation changed dramatically. The new art came into fashion, was advertised by art historians. And even what was not recognized as artistic from the point of view of the creators themselves, getting into museums and exhibitions, shocking the public, causing fierce disputes among critics, began to be considered phenomena of innovative art, a new artistic culture. It worked what Arvatov called the "frame", Benjamin - "aura". An object placed in a museum can acquire the quality of artistry, as it were, even despite its complete absence. Invention ready made, collages, the creation in pop art of “works” from rubbish, in postmodernism even “out of nothing”, the very realization of the possibility of “artistic creativity” by a person without any special training, without canvases and brushes in painting, without musical instruments in “noise music” - all this gave rise to a wide variety of speculations, fakes for the new in art. The meaning of the words "art", "artistic creativity", "artistic culture" began to be lost. But the novelty of near-cultural, near-artistic phenomena began to bring solid profits. Art, as primarily an object of curiosity and entertainment, as K. Jaspers believed, was closer to sports than to artistic activity. At the same time, the game element prevailed, and not the seriously meaningful one. Jaspers noted a general movement towards a state when "not only disciplining, but also meaningful craft education will disappear in art ...". Advertising did the seemingly impossible: it gave prestige, value to much of what was not a real artistic achievement and was not even conceived as a work of art, but was sold and bought well as such. A curious thing happened: the anti-bourgeois protest was used by bourgeois reality itself.

There were big problems with the criteria of artistry. And it wasn't just the visual arts. In the music that is called serious, the avant-gardists “broke” the traditional melody and harmony of sounds. Noise atonal music, dodecaphony became both a protest against obsolete musical forms, and "reflective" music, created not at all for enjoyment, not for the delight of the ear.

Along with music, which was considered “classical”, serious, another musical element burst into life, at first it seemed to be entertaining. The so-called "light" music, in particular dance music, has always existed, both in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th. But already at the beginning of the XX century. it included melodies and rhythms unusual for the European tradition (African, Latin American). Even jazz still oscillates between frank lightness, danceability and a tendency to create serious, in the manner of classical, but jazzy pieces of music (for example, J. Gershwin's Blues Symphony).

Rock, which determined the place of music in civilization and culture, became a fundamentally new music. Rock has become almost a new religion, especially for young people, and in any case, a new "language" for expressing feelings, moods, again imbued with rebellion against everything established, conservative. With the advent of rock, Bach and Beethoven had to "step aside". The rock element has taken a leading position in the mass interest in music and has become a new phenomenon in artistic culture, and indeed in culture in general. At first, rock seemed to be just another hobby of teenagers (teenagers). But gradually, rock musicians were drawn to seriousness, scale, to socially charged issues. They began to recycle masterpieces classical music, as if competing with traditional opera, they created a rock opera (for example, "Jesus Christ is a superstar"). Famous rock ensembles (such as the Beatles) excited millions of listeners of all ages, awakening in them a variety of feelings from artless joy and sadness to indignation and anger, because they sang about everything: about love, about loneliness, about what going on in society.

The creativity of rock musicians is characterized by dynamism, rhythm, sometimes beautiful melody, the ability to solve a variety of artistic problems and at the same time - the cheap popularity of one-day hits, ease of replication. The action of rock music was something akin to drug intoxication. A lot of people, especially young people, idolized rock stars as idols, expected from them more and more sharp, screaming melodies, rhythms, screams, sound shudders penetrating the body and soul.

Rebellious, especially at first, rock very quickly became commercially profitable, ubiquitous, dynamically changing stylistically (disco, metal rock, etc.). Dynamism in general has become an integral feature of all types of art of the 20th century. This also affected the new ballet, and the new literature with its "machine-gun prose", and the theater, which competed with cinema and television. Attempts in all types of artistic creativity to activate the position of the public, involving it in a musical, theatrical performance, have also become significant. In the modern theater, the viewer either becomes a participant in the performance (happening), or the performance unfolds around him.

On the change in the nature of artistic culture of the XX century. Of course, technical innovations influenced, some of which changed the means of artistic creativity and perception, some contributed to the emergence of new types of artistic and related activities. We are talking about photography, cinema, television, sound recording, video recording, computer technology, advertising, video clips, etc.

It is interesting that all ultra-modern means and forms, types of “art”, actively use what, according to A. Genis, was located earlier in the “basement” of culture: superstitions, rituals, rumors, legends, all kinds of archaic. All this is embodied in action movies, comics, television series, various "horror films" with vampires, werewolves, superhero idols. Moreover, everywhere in the visual and sound arts, the director with sound and video operators began to take the first place in terms of significance among the creators. It was the director, like a shaman, who "conducted" the reactions of the public in the cinema, on television, in the theater, in various shows. In the XX and XXI centuries. at the same time, there is always a desire to cause not only a reaction, but also the possible co-creation of the crowd: noisy, stamping, singing along. " mass art, like a primitive syncretic ritual, is built around the viewer, not the artist. "" Art really transforms, as it were, into a kind of ritual that connects different types of artistic creativity and, with the help of technical devices, transforms everyday life in a dream, weekdays - in a holiday. In the 20th century, the proportion of non-verbal artistic culture grew all the time. This applies to the rapid development of music, dance, shows, advertising, design. The availability of non-verbal forms of culture to representatives of multilingual cultures has created some new opportunities for the cultural unification of the planet.

But at the same time, what T. Zeldin described was also happening - an increase in the heterogeneity of the cultural life of different strata and groups of society, the closure of individual social groups in cultural isolation, which predetermined the mosaic effect of culture. So, in any case, in France, neither painting nor literature were no longer the subject of general interest. According to some estimates, an average of 2.5% of the income of a French family was spent on a broadly understood culture, while 20% was spent on entertainment. Zeldin noted that

"classical culture is still appreciated only by those who claim to be respectable". What do others value and why? Everything is clearly original, because culture, according to general opinion, had to withstand the stupefying effects of funds mass media, stimulate manifestations of originality, originality of personalities. Therefore, even the French Ministry of Culture vacillated markedly between recognizing the need to save and preserve traditional culture and the desire to encourage (and finance) all kinds of renewal.

Of course, the old traditional artistic culture, traditional art has not died out at all, has not ceased to operate. Traditions of the great novels of the 19th century. were continued, for example, by Russian prose writers Sholokhov, Bulgakov, Nabokov, although a completely different type of novel developed in the West, embodied in Joyce's Ullis, and later in even more modern examples of "epic" prose. However, in the West, in addition to Joyce, there were Hemingway and other novelists who did not repeat, but developed (just like Bulgakov and Nabokov) the traditions of classical prose.

Classical musical forms sounded in a new way in the works of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Carl Orff and many other composers. In the visual arts and cinema, there were talented variations of neorealism and even neoclassicism. Classical operas and ballets were staged, in which amazing performers performed: Anna Pavlova, Vatslav Nijinsky, Fyodor Chaliapin, Mario Lanza, Luciano Pavarotti, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Mikhail Baryshnikov, etc. By the end of the 20th century, there was already a clear imprint of the “museum”: what is valuable must be preserved, as the paintings of old masters or antique sculpture, the Comédie Francaise or Shakespeare's Globe are preserved. But it is no longer possible to write, paint, or create musical and theatrical masterpieces in the way it was done in the 19th, and even in the 20th century. Everything that lacks dynamism and sharpness (even the cinema of the 1950s and 1970s) has ceased to be looked at, read, and listened to with keen interest. The ideal of beauty seems to be still there, in the past. But artistry is no longer like that; aesthetic and artistic tastes have undergone significant changes. The essence, of course, is the same, but the forms of embodiment are different and perception requires these new forms. In beauty, embodied in a new way, there is an aggravation of some features of reality, giving dynamics and freshness to images.

(as in the sculptures of Giacometti). Beauty combines something of that former harmony with additional touches and symbols from other cultures. Features of archaic, medieval, Asian and African cultures pass into European, European - into Asian and African.

The 20th century gave rise to a completely unusual (in some ways, perhaps reminiscent of the ancient) poetic and song culture. Unusual in terms of its mass distribution and impact, expressed in the work of a whole galaxy of French chansonniers (starting with E. Piaf), rock musicians and singers from the USA and Europe, ensembles like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In Russia, in addition, bard poets became more active, among which B. Okudzhava and V. Vysotsky became the most significant. The songs of the singers in question were not only listened to at concerts or in recordings, but were also sung everywhere, becoming almost what the best folklore creations were once.

changed in the 20th century. and dancing. In folk dances until the 19th and in some places even before the 20th century. inclusive, and in the dances danced by the select, aristocratic part of society, rules were fixed, figures that were learned so that they danced according to the rules, with some individual or local variations.

Latin American tango and foxtrot, rumba, which were popular in Europe and the USA until the middle of the 20th century, are generally the same. Charleston also had a fixed form, the blues and twist still retained (even in everyday versions) hints of it and remained paired. Rock 'n' roll already demanded more imagination than obedience to rules. And then there was a complete liberation of the dance from all conventions. Modern dance is rather a collective action, when everyone dances to the common music as he wants, alone or with a partner (partner), revealing in the movement what he wants. Moreover, if earlier it was possible to observe the dance as the performance of figures from the side, now there is nothing to watch, you have to leave or dance yourself. Everyone dances as they can and can. The main thing is freedom of movement to music, usually rhythmic and dynamic.

• See: Jaspers K. The meaning and purpose of history. S. 368.
• There. S. 366.
• GeiisA. Culturology - TIME. S. 227.
• See: Zeldin T. All about the French. M., 1989.
• Zeldin T. All about the French. S. 296.

St. Petersburg: 2008 - 464 p.

The book includes materials that give a holistic view of the development of literature and philological thought in the 20th century. in Russia, Europe, North and Latin America, Australia, Asia, Africa. The authors pay attention to the widest possible range of trends in the development of the literature of that time, drawing on materials that were not previously included in books and textbooks on world artistic culture.

For teachers of world artistic culture, literature, high school students, students of humanitarian faculties of secondary specialized and higher educational institutions, as well as for a wide range of readers interested in the history of culture.

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CONTENT
Part 1. literary process in Western Europe, North and Latin America, Australia in XX in 16
"The 20th century is an extraordinary century" 17
Literature in the context of the world cultural process XX in 22
The art of the word in theories of language and culture 22
"Discovery* of Myth 23
Myth as a special state of consciousness 23
Creation of modern myth (R. Barth) 25
Game Phenomenon 28
Universal category of life 28
“The Glass Bead Game* (G. Hesse) 30
The discoveries of philologists of the first half of the 20th century in 32
Ars poetica 32
Ideas of M. M. Bakhtin and modern humanitarian knowledge 34
Carnival and laughter culture 36
Kindness of the aesthetic 37
Formal Method 38
Philological ideas of Yu. N. Tynyanov 39
The development of philology in the second half of the XX at 42
Structuralism 42
Sign Science 44
Theories of R. O. Jacobson 45
Semiotic schools 45
"Inside thinking worlds* (Yu. M. Lotman) 47
The life path of a scientist 47
Summer schools 48
The concept of "semiosphere* 49
"Omnivorous* postmodernism 51
Postmodern theory 51
Simulacrum, rhizome, “Creating Chaos* 54
What is "mass literature"? 57
"The past - the future * (D. S. Likhachev) 61
The fate of a scientist 61
Culture as integrity 63
"Great Tradition* 65
Literature 67
Destruction of the classical canon 68
Three whales 68
"Revived memory * (M. Proust) 69
“Everyone is conscious* 69
Poetics of artistic contemplation 70
Modernized Myth* (J Joyce) 72
Life Path 72
Journey into the Soul of a Hero 72
Modern "Odyssey* 74
«Naked among the dressed* (F. Kafka) 77
Dante of the 20th century 77
The only and irreplaceable 79
Terrible underground rumble 80
Decadence: the cult of the "superman" 82
Aesthetic concept 82
Singer of "great Italy * (G. D" Annunzio) 82
Symbolism: Comprehension of World Unity 85
The path to the knowledge of the invisible 85
"King of Poets* 86
"Magic Prophet* 87
“Tragic music* of R.-M. Rilke 90
Poetry Devotion 90
Lyric cycles 92
Surrealism: "exile" of logic 94
“More than reality* (G. Apollinaire) 94
Andre Breton - theorist of surrealism 95
About monsters slumbering in the soul 96
“Say your soul * with verses 97
"Genius of pain * (A. Jozsef) 97
“Dissolved in a mysterious stream* (G. Seferis) 98
“Poet's lamp - contradiction* (F. Garcia Lorca) 101
Dadaism: artistic hooliganism 104
Provocative nonsense 104
Language chaos 104
Expressionism: "through the borders of the impossible...* 106
The Art of Expression 106
Mystical revelation (G. Meyrink) 107
Naturalism: “everything is in Nature* 109
“Physiological novel* (E. Zola) 109
Plasticity of verbal description 110
Romantic from naturalism (T. Dreiser) 112
The fate of the novel in XX literature in 114
«Eternal* genre 114
"Intellectualization* of prose 116
Chaos Resistance (T. Wilder) 117
The Beauty of Humanism (T. Mann) 120
Life and creative path 120
An artist before a choice (Doctor Faustus*) 122
“Inside view* (R. Musil) 124
Features of the art world 124
"Man without properties * 124
Mythologism and the genre of the novel (W. Golding) 126
“Between light and darkness...* 126
Disappointment in the Enlightenment Ideal 128
Creation of the mythological world (R. R. Tolkien) 130
Prophetic Warning 130
Memory is the great value of culture 131
Not at all children's "children's literature * 133
IN magical world Moomin Valley 133
Mischievous Astrid Lindgren 134
Great bear cub 137
North American epic 139
Creator of the "Yoknapatatofa District*" (W. Faulkner) 139
"Literary Carpenter* 140
Encyclopedia of the American Way of Life 142
On the Life of "Little Americans*" (O1 Henry) 142
Love of Life (J London) 144
The Essence of “Concrete Morality” (R. P. Warren) 147
Lost Generation* 149
Nostalgia for Wholeness 149
The experience of insight (E. M. Remarque) 149
“And after the war there is no peace* 151
Life as an adventure novel (E. Hemingway) 153
Kaleidoscope of amazing fate 153
Papa Ham* 155
Text like "iceberg* 156
Chronicler of the Jazz Age* (F. S. Fitzgerald) 158
Dolce Vita Glitter* 158
Confessions of a writer 159
“Double vision* (J. Hasek) 160
"Simple* Against Militarism 160
Appearance* and Essence 161
«To be continued...* 162
Spiritual Exploration of the Great Australian Wilderness* 163
artistic method Patrick White 163
Chronicle of days and labors 163
Existentialism: The Philosophy of Existence 165
Breakthrough to the Other* 165
“Rebellious Man* (A. Camus) 166
J.-P. Sartre and “Sartrism* 168
Postmodern metamorphoses 170
The Tragedy of Alienation (P. Suskind) 171
Nobel Prize in Literature 172
Literature 174
Literature of Latin America 176
Poetry and prose of the “mysterious continent* 176
Thirst for social justice (J. Amado) 178
Parable of life (P. Coelho) 179
Great Librarian 181
The Life Path of Jorge Luis Borges 181
Labyrinths of culture 182
Mysteries of creativity Julio Cortazar 184
Between Realism and Fantasy 184
Games with a reader 184
Intellectual space of the writer 185
On the verge of reality and mysticism (K Castaneda) 187
The secret of life and creativity 187
"The path with the heart * 188
"State of non-ordinary reality* 189
Spiritual Discipleship 190
The Genius of Chilean Poetry (Pablo Neruda) 193
"Bonfire of Loneliness* 193
“Residence - Earth* 194
Magical Writer (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) 196
Sea of ​​Disappearing Times* 196
One Hundred Years of Solitude* 197
Literature 199
Literature in the "post-industrial society" 200
“Informational person*, “consuming person* 200
Consumerism virus 201
"On the Roadside* (Beat Culture) 203
"Generation of the broken * 203
Escape from Prosperity (W. Burroughs) 204
Artist's Cryptography (J Salinger) 206
Hatred of vulgarity 206
Influence of Zen Buddhism 206
"Antiroman* 209
Declaration of “asocial* art 209
The salutary comedy of "black humor" 210
"Inverted Utopia* 212
“Culture comes from pain and courage* 214
“Truth is life * (A. de Saint-Exupery) 214
Poets of the Warsaw Uprising 215
Debunking progress 219
The concept of “meaninglessness* (G. Böll) 219
A caustic critic of everyday life (G. Grass) 220
“Happiness is fleeting and false ... * (F. Sagan) 223
Revolt against pragmatism (R. Bach) 225
Turning into " a clockwork orange* (E. Burgess) 227
"Journey Into Yourself* (Rock Poetry 1960s-70s) 229
"Popular* genre 232
Detective's Vast Space* 232
Alchemical action (P. Hoeg) 233
Other Worlds* of Science Fiction 234
Zoo at the tip of a pen 235
Is it worth studying literature today? 237
Literature 239
Part 2. Russian literature in the context of cultural processes of the XX century. . .240
"Silver Age"> as a unique phenomenon of Russian culture 241
Russian cultural renaissance 241
The Age of Unrest and Quest 241
In search of the unity of life 242
Influence philosophical ideas 243
«Russian Idea* (N. A. Berdyaev) 244
“Symphonic Personality* (L. P. Karsavin) 245
Poetic philosophy 246
"Philosophical steamboat * 248
Variety of artistic searches 250
Literary currents and schools 250
Modernism: Art Form Renewal 250
Features of Russian Decadence 252
Neorealism: at the junction of contrasting methods 253
Crisis Born Literature 253
New type of storytelling 254
“I am looking for a combination of the beautiful and the eternal * (I. A. Bunin) 256
“To fit this firmament into consonances...* 256
"Return to Eternal* 256
Autobiography of a Fictional Hero 257
“A heightened sense of the All-Being* 258
Russian symbolism 260
“Shadow of uncreated creatures...* 260
Philosophy of Unity 260
Pre-symbolism 261
Senior Symbolists 263
«New Poets* 263
Search for God 263
Male character 265
“Sharpness of verse* 266
Young symbolism 268
Continuation of traditions 268
Psychological symbolism 269
“Symphony* words (Andrey Bely) 271
Rise to the Soul of the Reader 271
Realistic symbolism 271
“Symbols of Autobiography* 272
Destruction of the myth about St. Petersburg 273
Symbolist theorist 274
Acmeism 276
Return to reality 276
Reification of experiences 276
Reformer of symbolist poetics (N. S. Gumilyov) 278
Dream of distant lands 278
"The sorceress is severe * 279
“I was then exhausted by a woman ... * 280
Sensitivity to the movement of time (O. E. Mandelstam) 282
Poetry of history 282
"Twilight of Freedom* 282
Futurism 284
Future vs Past 284
Manifesto as a form of artistic reflection 285
Homeland of Futurism 286
Irreconcilable differences 286
Cubofuturism: always against 288
Mathematical-linguistic poetry 289
Egofuturism: the eternal circle 291
“I, the genius Igor Severyanin* 291
Poetry Mezzanine* 292
“Centrifuge*: “shine of gossip hands* 293
“So they begin to live in verse * (B. L. Pasternak) 295
"Disintegration of the World* 295
"The Beast in the Paddock"* 296
Imagism 297
“The image is like mothballs * 297
Experiments with the artistic image 298
The Last Imagist 299
New peasant poets 301
The myth of Rus'-guardian 301
"Alien* from Olonets 302
"The Last Lel * 303
Knowledge of world culture (M. A. Voloshin) 305
Farmer builder, artist, poet 305
Faith in Man 306
“My poems... will have their turn* (M. I. Tsvetaeva) 307
Art in the light of conscience 307
Energy of feelings 308
“A noble name is like abuse * 309
Immensity and harmony 310
“The gift of secret hearing is heavy ... * (V. F. Khodasevich) 312
Literary descendant of Pushkin along the Tyutchev line 312
“And in them all my homeland ... * 313
In the "force field * Silver Age 314
Different fates 314
Doubting Reality 315
Absurdity as a reflection of life 316
“Out loud...* (heirs of V. V. Mayakovsky) 318
Themes and Variations (V. F. Khodasevich and I. A. Brodsky) 319
"Akhmatov's orphans* 320
Literature 323
The phenomenon of "Russian literary abroad" 326
“Russia outside Russia* 326
"Waves" of Russian emigration 328
"Keep the Past* 328
“I call everything in life Ithaca...* 329
"Disorder and Curvature* 330
Continuous movement 331
At the crossroads 334
Mastering a New Reality 334
The biased court of history (Mark Aldanov) 335
On other shores (V. V. Nabokov) 338
"Twice Exile* 338
The novelty of poetics 339
“She drank, this melancholy...* 340
Salvation in the language (Sasha Sokolov) 342
The art of handling the word 342
Pendulum Between Two Realities 343
“Return to Russia - in verse * 346
“Fate hit us backhand ... * 346
Poets of the “third wave” of emigration 348
“From nowhere with love* (I. A. Brodsky) 350
Cosmism of attitude 350
Observer and Thinker 352
In the "situation of the border" (on the threshold of the 21st century) 354
Feeling Like Immigrants 354
“Let's Resurrect in the Word* (M. P. Shishkin) 354
Survival Field 356
Literature 357
Soviet literature: between dogma and truth 358
The Formation of the Literature of the "Proletarian State*" 358
New type of culture 358
Diversity within the framework of ideology 359
The affirmation of social realism 360
"Theme of Special Importance* 361
military prose 363
“Come on people, let's never forget about it...* 363
Rethinking the military theme 364
Life and fate of generation 364
From “thaw* to “stagnation* 366
A sip of freedom 366
Return to Prohibitions 367
Dividing line 369
“Dejected by the burden of the godmother* (A. I. Solzhenitsyn) 369
“I was looking for the beaten rightness * (V. T. Shalamov) 371
A generation losing its roots 374
Destruction of the Russian peasantry 374
Tradition and modernity 374
Morality and Progress 375
Disappointed Generation 377
World of Chaos and Chaos of the World (Venedict Erofeev) 379
Absurdist myth 379
Quote Game 380
big life small genre 382
Prose Miniatures 382
History of the story 382
The tragedy of the "little man*" (M. M. Zoshchenko) 384
Consumed by everyday life 384
"Mirror Effect* 384
The intellectual and the revolution (I. E. Babel) 386
Under the name of Kirill Lyutov 386
“I work like a digger* 386
“The World Seen Through Man* 387
The silence of the great master 388
“Story-Fate* (V. M. Shukshin) 390
Loser, pure in soul and thoughts 390
Character-parable 391
Norm and madness (S. D. Dovlatov) 393
The elegance of the ultra-short form 393
Absurdity that has become the norm 394
Humor as a tool for understanding life 395
"Necessity" of the novel 397
Gains and Losses 397
Gap with Classic Shape 397
“Direct feeling of life* (A.P. Platonov) 399
“Sowing souls in people* 399
“Main* question 399
Looking into the new world (Chevengur*) 400
Illusory Efforts 402
"Convulsions of Platonic Humanity* 403
Ideal and everyday life (Yu. V. Trifonov) 404
The painful search for “your* topic 404
"The Nerve of History* 405
“This house is a weight, a spell, torture...* 406
“It’s just that our life is fantastic * (V. N. Voinovich) 407
Absurd Reality 407
Roman anecdote 408
Modern Ivan the Fool 408
“Literature of the House* (Fazil Iskander) 410
The authenticity of the tree of life 410
Roomy Wings of Love 411
Between the joy of realization and the sadness of conclusion 412
Domestic poetry of the second half of the XX in 414
Difficulties in understanding 414
"Forties, fatal ... * 414
Difficult path to the "existing truth*" (A. T. Tvardovsky) 417
Power of Talent 417
Tragic understatement 418
“With a face upturned to the sky * (N. A. Zabolotsky) 419
Thought - Image - Music 419
Later work 420
Poetry of the thaw period 422
Poetry Boom 422
Lianozovo school 422
“My quiet homeland ... * (N. M. Rubtsov) 423
"Opposition to Stagnation* 424
Dialogue with classics 426
Earthly Wonder* (A. A. Tarkovsky) 426
Service to memory (D.S. Samoilov) 427
“In this defenseless world* (B. A. Akhmadulina) 428
Author's song 430
This musical island (B. Sh. Okudzhava) 430
Song of anxiety (V. S. Vysotsky) 431
Portrait of a tragic era (A. A. Galich) 432
Search time 435
New Wave Poetry* 435
Outside groups and currents 436
Literature 438
The latest trends in Russian literature at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries 443
Literature at a historical turning point 443
Surviving System Collapse 443
Within the dictates of the market 445
"Other* prose 447
Eclecticism and experiments 447
National character studies 448
Document credibility 450
New masks of postmodernism 452
Three waves of Russian postmodernity 452
Beyond Literature 453
Mass book market 455
Downtrend 455
Memoir genre 456
« female look* 458
“About the unfortunate and happy, about Good and Evil...* 460
High mission 460
"The Will to Meaning* 461
Literature 463

Russian artistic culture of the early twentieth century. Vanguard.

Vanguard - from fr. avant-garde vanguard. This term refers to phenomena that break with classical continuity in art and literature. And the Russian avant-garde, a peculiar phenomenon of art of the 20th century, does not correspond to any particular artistic program or style. This term is finally assigned to the radical innovative trends that took shape in Russian art in the pre-war years 1907-1914, coming to the fore during the years of the revolution and reaching maturity in the first post-revolutionary decade. There is still one thing in common - the various currents of the artistic avant-garde are united by a decisive break not only with the academic traditions and eclectic aesthetics of the 19th century, but also with the new art of the Art Nouveau style dominating at that time everywhere and in all forms of art from architecture and painting to theater and design. At different stages, these innovative phenomena in Russian art were designated by the terms "modernism", "new art", "futurism", "cubo-futurism", "leftist art", etc.
However, see for yourself...

Pavel Filonov - was born in Moscow. Mysterious artist. One of those who are called prophets. Came from the bottom (the son of a coachman and laundress). Started as a molar. Orphaned early, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he took painting lessons. 4 times entered the Academy of Arts. Entered didn't like it quit. In 1919 the artist's paintings were exhibited at the first state free exhibition of workers' art in Petrograd. He could not sleep for 18 days, go without food for a long time, stare at the sun for several minutes without blinking. In 1923 Pavel Filonov becomes a professor at the Academy of Arts and a member of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK). Somewhat later, the authorities considered him dangerous, and stopped giving orders. He died of pneumonia during the siege of Leningrad in 1941.

He believed that the picture should be “filled” (not have picturesque pauses); painting should reflect the smallest "molecules and atoms", from which form is built made; the picture should convey the forms of objects in a state of "organic growth". All these principles of his work are visible in almost any of his canvases ...

* Feast of Kings

Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin. Russian artist, art theorist and writer. Born in Khvalynsk (Saratov province) on October 24, 1878 in the family of a shoemaker; managed to get an art education with the support of local merchants. In 1905 he graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where V.A. Serov was among his mentors. He attended A. Ashbe's studio in Munich (1901) and private academies in Paris (1905-1908). In the same years, he traveled extensively in Western Europe and the Mediterranean, visited North Africa; later great importance he also had Crimean and Central Asian impressions. He experienced a variety of influences, both modern (French symbolism) and ancient (painting Ancient Rus' and Italian Early Renaissance) traditions. He was a member of the "World of Art" and "Four Arts" associations. Lived in Leningrad, and since 1927 in Pushkin. The main themes of his works are his own world, his own images-metaphors. He studied the icon, maybe that's why sometimes the moments in his paintings are eternal...

* Bathing the red horse

* Petrograd Madonna

Mikhail Larionov . Born in Tiraspol, Kherson province in 1881. He died in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, in 1964. The son of a military paramedic, Larionov spent his childhood years in southern Russia in Tiraspol, where he often returned later for summer sketches. In 1907, he turned to primitivism, based on the traditions of urban folklore - he painted paintings based on the creative processing of the figurative-plastic structure of signs, popular prints, painting trays and other types of folk art; the young artist became the initiator of a whole trend in Russian neo-primitivism art.

* Resting Soldier

And in 1912-14 Larionov became the creator of his own pictorial system of Rayonism, which preceded the era of non-objectivity in art. In his manifesto Luchism (1913), Larionov proclaimed: “Painting is self-sufficient, it has its own forms, color and timbre. Rayonism means spatial forms that can arise from the intersection of the reflected rays of various objects, forms highlighted by the will of the artist. LUCHISM - one of the early experiments of avant-garde painting, where the artist must reveal the form that is obtained from the intersection of rays emanating from various objects.

* Rooster

Aristarkh Lentulov- was born in the village of Voronye (Penza province) on 03/14/1882 in the family of a priest. He studied at the Penza Art School named after N.D. Seliverstov (18981900 and 1905), the Kiev Art School (19001904) and the studio of D.N. Kardovsky in St. Petersburg (19061910). He visited France and Italy (1911), in Paris he attended the La Palette Academy, where the cubists J. Metzinger and A. Le Fauconnier taught. He was one of the organizers of the "Jack of Diamonds" association (1910). Particularly famous were his images of ancient church architecture, translated into enchantingly festive and at the same time latent catastrophic spectacles, the temples seem to crumble here or, on the contrary, are created from the colorful elements. Contemporaries said about him that Lentulov writes in the technique of "faceted glass" (ill-wishers - "The optics of a faceted glass, after emptying it") because of the "brokenness" of the lines on his canvases.

Russian painting of the first half of the 20th century

The history of national culture is our spiritual wealth. Culture contains the memory of the people, through culture, each new generation, entering into life, feels itself a part of this people.

Culture develops continuously, and each generation of people relies on what was created by its predecessors.

Time and neglect of descendants led to the loss of many cultural monuments. But the history of Russian culture shows that in addition to losses, there were also finds and discoveries. Thus, many centuries later, The Tale of Igor's Campaign returned to our culture, and the spiritual significance of Russian literature was revived. Thus, ancient Russian icons were restored, which were discovered under several layers of late painting. The domestic non-Marxist philosophy is being mastered again, and the literature and art of the Russian diaspora of the 20th century coming into our culture.

The history of national culture is not limited to the national framework. An enormous contribution to Russian culture was made by representatives of other peoples, just as figures of Russian origin gave their strength and talent to the cultural development of the peoples of the USSR and other countries.

Russian culture was formed as one of the branches of the mighty tree of world universal culture. Her contribution to world cultural progress is undeniable: these are cultural scientific discoveries, and masterpieces of literature and art, and, perhaps most importantly, loyalty to humanistic ideals.

One of the brightest pages in the history of Russian culture is the painting of the first half of the 20th century.

1. At the turn of the century

In the history of Russian culture, the end of the XIX - the beginning of the XX century. was called the “Silver Age” of Russian culture, which begins with the “World of Art” and ends with symbolism. “World of Art” is an organization that emerged in 1898 and united the masters of the highest artistic culture, the artistic elite of Russia of those times. Almost all famous artists participated in this association - A. Benois, K. Somov, L. Bakst, E. Lansere, A. Golovin, M. Dobuzhinsky, M. Vrubel, V. Serov, K. Korovin, I. Levitan, M Nesterov, N. Roerich, B. Kustodiev, K. Petrov-Vodkin, F. Malyavin, M. Larionov, N. Goncharova and others.

Of great importance for the formation of the "World of Arts" was the personality of S. Diaghilev, a patron and organizer of exhibitions, and later - the impresario of the Russian ballet and opera tours abroad, the so-called "Russian Seasons". Thanks to the activities of Diaghilev, Russian art is gaining wide international recognition. The “Russian Seasons” organized by him in Paris are among the milestone events in the history of Russian music, painting, opera and ballet art. In 1906, the Parisians were presented with the exhibition “Two Centuries of Russian Painting and Sculpture”, which was then exhibited in Berlin and Venice. This was the first act of pan-European recognition of the "World of Art", as well as the discovery of the Russian painting XVIII- beginning of XX century. in general for Western criticism and a real triumph of Russian art.

Under the editorship of Diaghilev, from 1899 to 1904, the journal "World of Art" was published, which consisted of two departments: artistic and literary. It can be said that the "silver age" of Russian culture is a century of culture of high rank and virtuosity, a culture of remembering the previous national culture. The Russian culture of this time is a synthesis of the old noble and raznochin cultures. A significant contribution of the "World of Art" is the organization of a grandiose historical exhibition of Russian painting abroad - from icon painting to the present.

Next to the "World of Art", the most prominent trend at the turn of the century was symbolism - a multifaceted phenomenon that does not fit into the framework of a "pure" doctrine.

The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century is an important period in the development of Russian art, coinciding with three revolutions - 1905-1907, the February bourgeois-democratic revolution and the revolution of 1917, the time of the collapse of the old world. The surrounding life, the events of this extraordinary time determined the fate of art: it underwent many difficulties and contradictions in its development. At that time, the leading masters of realism, I.E. Repin, V.I. Surikov, V.M. Vasnetsov, V.E. Makovsky. In the 1890s, their traditions found their development in a number of works of the young generation of itinerant artists, for example, Abram Efimovich Arkhipov (1862-1930), whose work is also connected with the life of the people, with the life of the peasants. His paintings are truthful and simple, the early ones are lyrical (“On the Oka River”, 1890; “Reverse”, 1896), in the later, brightly picturesque, violent cheerfulness lives (“Girl with a jug”, 1927; all three in the State Tretyakov Gallery). In the 1890s, Arkhipov painted the picture "Washerwomen", which tells about the exhausting work of women.

Sergei Alekseevich Korovin (1858-1908) and Nikolai Alekseevich Kasatkin (1859-1930) also belong to the younger generation of the Wanderers. Korovin worked for ten years on his central painting “On the World” (1893, State Tretyakov Gallery). He reflected in it the complex processes of the stratification of the peasantry in the contemporary capitalized countryside. The most important parties life of Russia was able to identify in his work and Kasatkin. In his images of miners, one can guess that powerful force that will destroy the old world in the near future.

But in the art of this period, another trend was revealed. Many artists sought to find in life, first of all, its poetic sides, so they even included landscapes in genre paintings. Often turned to ancient Russian history. These trends in art are clearly seen in the work of such artists as A.P. Ryabushkin, B.M. Kustodiev and M.V. Nesterov.

The favorite genre of Andrei Petrovich Ryabushkin (1861-1904) was the historical genre, but he also painted pictures from contemporary peasant life. However, the artist was attracted only by certain aspects of folk life: rituals, holidays. In them, he saw a manifestation of the primordially Russian, national character (“Moskovskaya street of the 17th century”, 1896, Russian Museum). Most of the characters, not only for genre, but also for historical paintings, were painted by Ryabushkin from the peasants - the artist spent almost his entire life in the countryside. In their historical paintings Ryabushkin introduced some characteristic features of ancient Russian painting, as if emphasizing the historical authenticity of the images (“Wedding Train in Moscow (XVII century)”, 1901, State Tretyakov Gallery).

Another major artist of this time - Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (1878-1927) depicts fairs with multi-colored spoons and piles of colorful goods, Russian carnivals with riding troikas, scenes from merchant life.

IN early work Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov most fully revealed the lyrical aspects of his talent. The landscape has always played an important role in his paintings: the artist sought to find comfort in the silence of eternally beautiful nature. He liked to depict thin-stemmed birch trees, fragile stalks of grasses and meadow flowers. His heroes are thin youths - inhabitants of monasteries, or kind old men who find peace and tranquility in nature. Paintings devoted to the fate of a Russian woman (“On the Mountains”, 1896, Museum of Russian Art, Kyiv; “Great tonsure”, 1897-1898, State Russian Museum) are fanned with deep sympathy.

The work of the landscape painter and animal painter Alexei Stepanovich Stepanov (1858-1923) belongs to this time. The artist sincerely loved animals and perfectly knew not only the appearance, but also the character of each animal, its skills and habits, as well as the specific features of various types of hunting. The best paintings of the artist are dedicated to Russian nature, imbued with lyricism and poetry - “The Cranes Are Flying” (1891), “Moose” (1889; both in the State Tretyakov Gallery), “Wolves” (1910, private collection, Moscow).

The art of Viktor Elpidiforovich Borisov-Musatov (1870-1905) is also imbued with deep lyrical poetry. Beautiful and poetic are his images of pensive women - inhabitants of the old manor parks - and all his harmonic, music-like painting (“Pond”, 1902, State Tretyakov Gallery).

The talent of K.A. Korovin equally brightly revealed both in easel painting, primarily in landscape, and in theatrical and decorative art. The charm of Korovin's art lies in its warmth, sunshine, in the master's ability to directly and vividly convey his artistic impressions, in the generosity of his palette, in the color richness of his painting (“At the Balcony”, 1888-1889; “In Winter”, 1894 - both in the State Tretyakov Gallery ).

"World of Art" headed by A.N. Benois and S.P. Diaghilev, had a great influence on the artistic life of the country. The activity of this group was very diverse. The artists carried out active creative work, published the art magazine "World of Art", arranged interesting art exhibitions with the participation of many outstanding masters. The World of Art, as the artists of the “World of Art” were called, sought to familiarize their viewers and readers with the achievements of national and world art. Their activities contributed to the widespread dissemination of artistic culture in Russian society. But at the same time, it also had its drawbacks. The members of the World of Art sought only beauty in life and saw the fulfillment of the artist's ideals only in the eternal charm of art. Their work was devoid of the fighting spirit and social analysis characteristic of the Wanderers, under whose banner the most progressive and most revolutionary artists marched.

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870-1960) is rightfully considered the ideologist of the World of Art. He was wide an educated person and had great knowledge of the arts. He was mainly engaged in graphics and worked a lot for the theater. Like his comrades, Benois developed themes from past eras in his work. He was a poet of Versailles, his creative imagination caught fire when he again and again visited the parks and palaces of the St. Petersburg suburbs. In his historical compositions, inhabited by small, as if inanimate figures of people, he carefully and lovingly reproduced monuments of art and individual details of life (“Parade under Peter 1”, 1907, Russian Museum).

A prominent representative of the "World of Art" was Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869-1939). He became widely known as a master of the romantic landscape and gallant scenes. His usual heroes are like ladies who have come from a distant antiquity in high powdered wigs and lush crinolines and exquisite languid gentlemen in satin camisoles. Somov had an excellent command of drawing. This was especially true in his portraits. The artist created a gallery of portraits of representatives of the artistic intelligentsia, including poets A.A. Blok and M.A. Kuzmina (1907, 1909; both in the State Tretyakov Gallery).

In the artistic life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the artistic group “Union of Russian Artists” also played a significant role. It included artists K.A. Korovin, A.E. Arkhipov, S.A. Vinogradov, S.Yu. Zhukovsky, L.V., Turzhansky, K.F. Yuon and others. The main genre in the work of these artists was the landscape. They were the successors of landscape painting of the second half of the 19th century.

At the end of the 19th century, the work of outstanding Russian artists Ilya Repin (1844-1930), Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861-1939), Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (1896-1902) was formed. Their art most fully reflected the artistic achievements of the era. One of the most famous Russian artists of this period, Ilya Repin, achieved fame and honors with his paintings on biblical subjects and from the life of workers.

At the end of the last century, interest in still life began to awaken in Russian painting. The heyday of still life came in the 1910s. The nature of the new trends can be defined as the desire of artists to connect the still life - plot and painting - with the environment. "Dead nature" is taken out into the open air, that is, into the air, under the open sky, associated with the landscape, or, on the contrary, organically connected with the interior of the room. One of Korovin's early paintings "At the Tea Table" perfectly illustrates these new trends. Especially the connection between still life and landscape can be traced in the work of K.A. Korovin and E. Grabar. I.E. Grabar is an artist not only of a different generation, but also of a slightly different direction than K. Korovin, but he is also ranked among the best and typical representatives of Russian impressionism. Recalling his works, Grabar says that most of them were almost entirely "seen" by him in a real everyday environment. There were created "Flowers and Fruits on the Piano" (1904, Russian Museum), "Lilacs and Forget-me-Nots" (1904, Russian Museum). Very interesting paintings "Morning Tea" (1904, National Gallery, Rome). "Behind the samovar" (1905, State Tretyakov Gallery). The close connection between specifically still life tasks and the tasks of plein air painting, which was outlined, as something new, even in Korovin's painting "At the Tea Table", finds a place in the "Delphinium" (1908, Russian Museum). It is characteristic that even the large canvas "Untidy Table" (1907, State Tretyakov Gallery), created indoors, seems to have been painted in a garden - there is so much light and air in it. One of Grabar's most significant still lifes is "Chrysanthemums" (1905, State Tretyakov Gallery). Here, the internal unity of all objects, creating a single mood and a single emotional condition, solved with brilliant craftsmanship. The artist sets still lifes for the purpose of a special analysis of the color, shape, and materiality of the object. This is evidenced by the works "On a blue tablecloth", "On a blue pattern" (both 1907). This year's still lifes are generally marked by the variety and complexity of the tasks set, the search for new artistic techniques. This is no coincidence. Everything here speaks of the proximity of a new stage in the struggle for new artistic forms, which permeated the painting of the 1900s, still life becoming one of the leading genres, an arena for creative experimentation.

That understanding of still life, which we find in Grabar and Korovin, was by no means the only one. Among the few, first of all, should be called P. Bonnard, whose work of the 1900s can be considered as the final phase of the impressionistic vision of the subject

The world of Vrubel is an epoch in the history of not only Russian, but also world culture. Vrubel left more than 200 works. Among them are portraits, paintings, decorative panels, illustrations, sketches of theatrical curtains, sculptural works, building designs, striking in scope and breadth of creative range. Vrubel, inspired by the monuments of the past, created in many ways in his own way, and often created as an equal to the great masters of the past. Vrubel did not adhere to the official church canon, and that is why his Moses, with his spirituality, even the very type of face with huge eyes, turned out to be in tune with similar images from original works Byzantine art. In Vrubel's religious compositions, as it were, the true inner essence of ancient prototypes returns: great human content, emotional expressiveness. If we compare the images of Moses Vrubel with a fragment of an ancient fresco found in Kyiv during excavations at the site of the Church of the Tithes of the 10th century, then their inner, spiritual closeness is revealed. Moses Vrubel is not so much a biblical prophet as a being full of hidden passion and emerging doubt. Moses Vrubel is a rebel in potency. This is what he evokes associations with his Demon, his very existence, challenging people. The Demon Downcast (1902) is Vrubel's most tragic work. And if in the early canvas we feel the chaos of birth, in which hope lives, then in the defeated Demon, ruin reigns. No richness of colors, no patterns of ornaments hide the tragedy of a broken personality, his broken figure, having fallen from sky-high heights, is already visibly agonizing, infecting the whole world around him with the phosphorescent beauty of the last sunset.

Vrubel showed the rarest gift of a colorist in his painting "Toward the Night", created in 1900. The lyrical revelation of the landscape, as if enveloping the viewer with its colorful haze, is especially impressive in "Lilacs" in 1901.

Another artist whose work is closely related to the female image. This is Borisov-Musatov, favorably towering over the one-sidedness of the St. Petersburg graphic and Moscow, predominantly pictorial trends, which had become apparent by the beginning of the 20th century. His best paintings, such as "Pond" (1902), "Ghosts" (1903), "Emerald Necklace" (1903-1904), "Requiem" (1905), it is difficult to unconditionally rank as modern, if we understand by latest art with the firm intentionality of certain stylistic attitudes. In his works, the artist proceeded not from “style”, but from “mood”, from the desire to embody the harmony and beauty of nature and the sublime female soul.

Another artist from the "World of Arts" - Bilibin illustrated Russian folk tales and fairy tales of A.S. Pushkin. We can say that he, being the successor of the work of Vasnetsov and Polenova, represented that trend in Russian art, which was looking for support in national spiritual traditions, poetic world fairy tales and epics, in the figurative-plastic system folk craft. But at the same time, with the graphics of Bilibin, the influence of Japanese color engraving entered the Russian Art Nouveau. This influence was especially strong in the well-known illustrations created in 1905 for “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by A.S. Pushkin.

Practically his peer Roerich thought a lot about the national spiritual tradition. For him, it was associated with the historical events of antiquity, with the undiscovered mysteries of natural forces and beliefs. He wanted to embody all this in easel paintings and in large decorative panels, in stage design performances on historical themes, and in mosaics designed to enter the ideological and plastic image of the monument temple. In some respects, Roerich was close to Vrubel here - both of them went towards modernity in the desire to clothe their romantic ideas in a decorative system of stable plastic images, both saw the way to solve their artistic problems in the synthesis of various types of art. Roerich's monumental works in Talashkino are one of the examples that clearly characterize both the artist's creative thoughts and the compromise results that could be achieved in this area within the new style.

Above, we talked about the artists whose works shaped Russian modernism and determined its characteristic features. To Vrubel, one of the creators of Russian modernity, the new style seemed to be a means of gaining freedom for one's own creative will, a format for expressing one's artistic individuality. At the same time Serov in his later works(“The Abduction of Europe”, “Portrait of Ida Rubinstein”, all of 1910) moved towards modernity, seeing in it, on the contrary, disciplinary stylistic attitudes, a way of “self-restraint” of the individual.

Almost all major Russian artists of the 20th century experienced a strong and lasting influence of Vrubel. His manner of writing "colorful cubes" (according to F.I. Chaliapin) was sometimes interpreted as the threshold of cubism. However, Vrubel, who proved with his work that a deep comprehension of nature naturally implies a transition to the other side of its external appearances, stands at the origins of not one particular direction, but almost all avant-garde searches for Russian art of the 20th century.

2. Russian avant-garde

There is no doubt that “the path to the 20th century.” was controversial. Art Nouveau partly belonged to both the past and the future. Like the forerunner of modernism, the avant-garde was aimed at a radical transformation of human consciousness by means of art, at an aesthetic revolution that would destroy the spiritual inertness of the existing society, while its artistic utopian strategy and tactics were much more decisive, anarchic and rebellious.

Not satisfied with the creation of exquisite "centers" of beauty and mystery, opposing the base materiality of being, the avant-garde introduced into its images the rough matter of life, the "poetics of the street", chaotic rhythm modern city, nature, endowed with powerful creative and destructive power, he more than once declaratively emphasized the principle of “anti-art” in his works, thereby rejecting not only the former, more traditional styles, but also the established concept of art as a whole.

The range of directions is great. Transformations covered all types of creativity, but fine arts constantly acted as the initiator of new movements. The masters of post-impressionism predetermined the most important tendencies of the avant-garde; its early front was outlined by group performances by representatives of Fauvism and Cubism. Futurism strengthened the international contacts of the avant-garde, introduced new principles for the interaction of the arts (art, literature, music, theater, photography and cinema). In the 1900s and 10s, new trends are born one after another in a wide geographical range from Russia to the New World (with Moscow, Berlin, New York and other centers that are increasingly challenging the leading role of Paris as a trendsetter in artistic fashion). Expressionism, Dadaism, surrealism, with their sensitivity to the unconscious in the human psyche, marked the irrational line of the avant-garde, while in constructivism, on the contrary, its rational, constructive will manifested itself.

During the wars and revolutions of the 1910s, the political and artistic avant-garde actively interacted. The left forces in politics tried to use the avant-garde for their agitation and propaganda purposes, later the totalitarian regimes (primarily in Germany and the USSR) sought to suppress it with strict censorship, driving the avant-garde underground.

Under the conditions of political liberalism, since the 1920s, the avant-garde has been losing its former pathos of confrontation, entering into an alliance with modernity, establishing contact with popular culture. The crisis of the avant-garde, which by the middle of the 20th century had largely spent its former “revolutionary” energy, was an incentive for the formation of postmodernism as its main alternative.

One of the most prominent representatives of the avant-garde, Wassily Kandinsky, is one of the discoverers of the new artistic language of the 20th century, and not only because it was he who “invented” abstract art - he was able to give it a scale, purpose, explanation and high quality.

Another prominent representative is Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), who was really talked about not only in artistic circles, but also in the general press after the next exhibition, at which he showed the so-called Suprematist canvases, in other words, geometric abstractions. Since then, Malevich, unfortunately, has been considered only an artist of Suprematism and even an artist of one painting "Black Square". This glory was partly supported by Malevich himself. He believed that the "Black Square" is the pinnacle of everything. Malevich was a versatile painter. In the 1920s and 1930s, he painted a peasant cycle; shortly before his death, he began to paint portraits in the spirit of the old masters, landscapes in the spirit of impressionism.

Malevich, Russian artist, founder of Suprematism, one of the few in Russia who worked in the areas of cubism, futurism. He was undeservedly forgotten in the Soviet Union, although his work is one of the brightest pages in the world fine arts of the first half of the twentieth century. Kazimir Malevich participated in the famous exhibitions "Jack of Diamonds" (1910), "Donkey's Tail" (1912), one of the pillars of the Russian and then the Soviet avant-garde. Suprematism is based on the combination on the plane of the simplest geometric shapes painted in contrasting colors. The famous "Black Square" (1913) became a manifesto of non-objective, non-figurative art, the starting point of abstractionism. In 1919, the 10th State Exhibition was held under the title "Non-objective Creativity and Suprematism", and in December 1919 - January 1920 the 16th State Exhibition with a retrospective "Kazimir Malevich. His Way from Impressionism to Suprematism". The exhibitions featured both conceptual stretchers with blank canvases and the mysteriously meditative cycle of paintings "White on White" with "White Square on White".

The creations of Russian avant-garde artists of the beginning of the century blew up the artistic consciousness. And at the same time, Malevich's Suprematism appeared as a natural stage in the development of Russian and world art. Kazimir Malevich himself derived Suprematism from Cubism. At the exhibition where his first Suprematist paintings were presented, he distributed a pamphlet entitled "From Cubism to Suprematism". Later, he began to pay attention to even earlier sources of this trend. Almost all the painting that preceded the art of the 20th century was included in this stream, and Malevich believed that it was the art of geometric abstraction that crowned this powerful world movement.

The ideas of Suprematism were carried away by I.A. Puni, I.V. Klyun and others. Klyun, in contrast to Malevich, who a few years later violently rebelled against the aesthetic principles of the new era of symbolism and modernity, not only lingered longer, but also took out of it much more than Malevich: the attraction to linearity, to the decorative organization of the plane , to the rhythm. In Klyun's compositions, forms droop like flowers, peace or elegiac sadness reigns; Orientally curved, slowly moving figures, as if in a state of meditation ("Family"). Malevich seems to be rude, awkward next to him, his symbolist opuses sometimes look ridiculous - in Klyun they are quite “normal”, in line with the pictorial tendencies of the Moscow Salon society, of which he was one of the founders.

In the early 1910s, having become close to the circle of M. Larionov, Malevich created his own barbaric genre paintings that sharply deform nature. Kliun stays away from neo-primitivism. The period of cubo-futurism is perhaps the best in Klyun's work. His cubist paintings, exhibited at the Union of Youth exhibition in 1913. Klyunov's cubism is "more orthodox" than that of Malevich. Malevich often used the discoveries of others, but he knew how to transform someone else's beyond recognition. So he did with cubism, first combining it with the iconic tradition, then with futurism, and even later with the beginnings of Suprematism. Klyun, on the other hand, approached the new concept as if it were an unfamiliar mechanism: he disassembled the device, looked at what was inside, reassembled it and made it work.

Klyun's compositions are carefully finished, built, and coordinated. Theme - household appliances, dishes: ozonator, gramophone, jug. The subject is dissected, but carefully and delicately, it is quite recognizable, sometimes even enters into a simple plot: Kliun's Cubism is aesthetic, the author's goal is to make a high-quality work of art; Malevich's cubism is rather conceptual, the idea prevails in it. His best works are similar to the work of Malevich, but never surpass them. The feeling of symbolism of forms, its rectangles and ovals are not full of that significance, that "energy" that Malevich's painting radiates. The artist himself claimed that the analytical principle prevails in his nature, while the mystical principle prevails in Malevich.

At the turn of the decade, Suprematism becomes, if not a total fashion, then a very noticeable hobby in artistic circles, every master, one way or another, classifying himself as modern, sought to do something "Suprematist" in a fit of controversy, self-affirmation, admiration, finally. In the art of that time it was easy to find anywhere, if not black squares (Chekhonin, Chagall), then an obligatory geometric accent (Filonov, Kandinsky).

In the early works of Kandinsky, natural impressions served as the basis for creating bright colorful landscapes, sometimes with a romantic-symbolic plot content (“The Blue Rider”, 1903). Middle and second half of the 1900s passed under the sign of passion for Russian antiquity; in the paintings “Song of the Volga” (1906), “Motley Life” (1907), “Rock” (1909), the artist combined the rhythmic and decorative features of Russian and German Art Nouveau (Art Nouveau) with the techniques of pointillism and stylization popular popular print. In part of the work, Kandinsky developed retrospective fantasies characteristic of the masters of the “World of Art” circle (“Ladies in crinolines”, oil, 1909, Tretyakov Gallery).

The early period of the artist's work did not pass without a trace. Paradoxically, he saw his art as a development of the great traditions of the past. Symbolism and theosophy helped Kandinsky discover the romantic tradition, in 1911 he painted the painting “ romantic landscape". WITH romantic tradition“total artistic product” (“gesamtkunstwerk”), later edited in the spirit of the search for a synthesis of the arts of the modern era, the artist’s ideas about the synthetic nature of the arts, in other words, about their deep internal connection and interpenetration, are connected. His famous “Sounds” (1913) is a synthesis of poetic, musical and pictorial (these are 38 poems with 12 color and 54 black and white engravings).

His paintings of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary years had a wide stylistic range: continuing to create expressive abstract canvases (“Troubled”, Tretyakov Gallery, “Twilight”, Russian Museum, both 1917; “White Oval”, 1920, Tretyakov Gallery, etc.) , the artist also painted generalized realistic natural landscapes (“Moscow. Zubovskaya Square”, “Winter Day. Smolensky Boulevard”, both c. 1916, Tretyakov Gallery), did not leave painting on glass (“Amazon”, 1917; “Ladies in crinolines”, circa 1918, both in the Tretyakov Gallery), and also created paintings that combined figurative elements and decorative non-objective beginning (“Moscow. Red Square”, Tretyakov Gallery; “Moscow II”, private collection, Murnau, Germany, both 1916).

Kandinsky, like all major masters of modern times, was universal in his artistic activity. He was engaged not only in painting and graphics, but also in music (with early years), poetry, art theory. The artist designed interiors, made sketches of paintings on porcelain, designed models of dresses, created sketches of appliqués and furniture, was engaged in photography, and was interested in cinema. The extraordinary organizational activity of Kandinsky at all stages of his life is striking. It is already visible in the organization of the first association by him - "Phalanx" (summer 1901).

Filonov Pavel Nikolaevich (1883-1941), Russian painter and graphic artist. In symbolic, dramatically intense works, he sought to express the general spiritual and material patterns of the course of world history (“Feast of Kings”, 1913). From Ser. 1910s defended the principles of “analytical art”, based on the creation of the most complex, capable of endless kaleidoscopic deployment of compositions (“Formula of the Proletariat”, 1912-13, “Formula of Spring”, 1928-29). Filonov's students formed the group "Masters of Analytical Art".

Deep philosophical and cultural reflections of Filonov determined the artistic and plastic structure of the paintings “West and East”, “East and West” (both 1912-13), “Feast of Kings” (1913) and others. The theme of modern urban civilization, as opposed to the glorification of its European futurists, was presented by the Russian master as a source of evil, disfiguring people; anti-urban pathos determined the semantic sound of many paintings, including the works “Man and Woman” (1912-13), “Workers” (1915-16), the drawing “Building a City” (1913), etc. In another group of canvases, “Peasant family (Holy Family)” (1914), “Cowsheds” (1914), the cycle “Entering the World Heyday”, the second half of the 1910s, drawings “George the Victorious” (1915), “Mother” (1916) and other artist embodied his utopian dreams of the future reign of justice and goodness on earth.

Tatlin Vladimir Evgrafovich (1885-1953) Russian artist, designer, stage designer, one of the largest representatives of the innovative movement in the art of the 20th century, the founder of artistic constructivism. The most significant works were the canvases “Sailor (Self-portrait)” (1911, Russian Museum), “Fish Seller” (1911, Tretyakov Gallery). Tatlin quickly advanced among the Russian avant-garde artists; participated in illustrating futuristic books, in 1912 he organized his own studio in Moscow, in which many “leftist artists” were engaged in painting, conducting analytical studies of form. From that time until the end of the 1920s. Tatlin was one of the two central figures of the Russian avant-garde, along with K.S. Malevich, in competition with whom he developed his artistic discoveries, which formed the basis of the future constructivist movement.

In the art of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. the prerequisites for the formation of many major “isms” of the following decades were ripening, for fauvism, expressionism, cubism, abstract art and surrealism.

The countdown of new trends in Russian painting begins with the Blue Rose grouping. The program of the masters included in it was determined by the ideas of symbolism. M.S. Saryan found his "promised land" while traveling through the countries of the Middle East. A typical representative of Moscow symbolism, N.D. Milioti gravitated towards the musical sound of color.S.Yu.Sudeikin painted a lot of still lifes, paintings based on the motifs of the era of romanticism, executed in the style of “bast grotesque”. I. Mashkov, P. Konchalovsky, A. Lentulov, V. Rozhdestvensky, A. Kuprin), their friends and opponents M. Larionov and N. Goncharova took the next step towards creating the poetics of modern art. for creativity French masters: P. Cezanne, Fauvists, on the other hand - on Russian urban folklore: a city sign, a folk toy.

In the 1920s Numerous new groupings arise, uniting both artistic youth and venerable masters. Many of the older generations of painters are experiencing a kind of change of priorities. So, P.V. Kuznetsov, the leading master of the Blue Rose, departs from the detached, almost transcendental harmony of early canvases, but does not change his desire to poeticize scenes of simple labor. The features of subtle harmony, the organic unity of reality and poetic generalization are marked by the painting “Tobacco Women”, 1926, from the cycle “Crimean Tobacco Women”, on which the artist worked in 1925-1928.

Masters of the "Jack of Diamonds" organized the "Moscow Painters" association, which supported the idea of ​​synthesis of modern content and modern real form. "Their declaration stated: "In a socialist society, art devoid of the best traditions and cultural achievements will not find a place for itself." A new feature the work of Konchalovsky, Lentulov, Kuprin, who do not break with the former "Sezanism", includes the classical heritage of Russian and European culture.

In 1921, a working group of constructivists was created (K.K. Medunetsky, A.M. Rodchenko, V.F. Stepanova, V.A. and G.A. Stenberg). In the early years, constructivism was formed in close cooperation with the leftist trends in the visual arts (Suprematism, Cubo-Futurism), the formal aesthetic searches of its adherents proceeded at the intersection of painting, design and architecture. The main slogan of the constructivists was the revolutionary transformation of life, the search for new principles for designing the living environment. They affirmed the aesthetic ideals of simplicity, the utilitarian expediency of the objective world.

A.N. Samokhvalov, student of K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, came to art after the revolution, actively involved in artistic life. In the mid-1920s, he was busy searching for his own creative style, in which the painting system of his mentor would be enriched by the lessons of ancient Russian monumental painting.

The latest trends in Russian art of the 1910s brought Russia to the forefront of the international artistic culture of that time. Having gone down in history, the phenomenon of the great experiment was called the Russian avant-garde. This concept implies both earlier Cezannist, Fauvist tendencies, and the emergence of abstract art in the "Rayonism" of M. Larionov, and advanced systems of non-objective creativity: cubo-futurism, Suprematism of K. Malevich and his school, constructivism led by A. Rodchenko and V. Tatlin , Russian-German expressionism of V. Kandinsky. The world learned about the beginning of the era of self-expression of a creative person, not constrained by objectivity and nature, from the works of Russian artists almost earlier than from the masterpieces of the great French and Germans. The second decade of our century has placed Malevich and Kandinsky on a par with Picasso, Braque or Klee.

1917 changed everything. It didn't become obvious right away. The first 5 years - the heroic five-year period 1917-1922 - still left ground for hope. But soon the illusions dissipated. The drama of the destruction of the grandiose bastion of modernist art, created in Russia by genius and labor, manifestos and heated discussions of world famous masters, began. By the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, non-realistic trends were completely banned; some artists left for other countries; others were repressed or, succumbing to cruel inevitability, abandoned the avant-garde search. In 1932, numerous art associations were finally closed; the authorities created a single Union of Artists ..

3. Painting Soviet era. socialist realism

Until the 30s. there were still some differences between trends and aesthetic systems. After 1932 in the USSR, the division of art into “official” and “unofficial” was finally consolidated after the dispersal of all artistic groups and the beginning of the formation of a single Union of Artists, placed under strict ideological control. In the "underground" were all directions that do not meet the canons socialist realism: both avant-garde and more traditional, but unacceptable in the “ideological and thematic” sense.

“Quiet art”, trends in the art of the 20th century, subject to strict censorship and ideological pressure, when art, while remaining “legal”, participating in exhibitions, deliberately narrowed the range of motives, preferring pompous official themes lyrical landscapes, scenes of family life, custom portraits of friends and relatives. It usually differs from "unofficial art" in its stylistic "moderation", relative traditionalism. These tendencies are typical for many artists. Soviet period like L.A. Bruni, L.F. Zhegin, N.P. Krymov, M.K. Sokolov, N.A. Tyrsa, V.A. Favorsky, R.R. Falk, A.V. Fonvizin and others.

Bruni Lev Alexandrovich (1894-1948), Russian artist, in the 1910s and early 1920s. adjoined futurism and constructivism, creating counter-reliefs and pointless compositions. A virtuoso of drawing, a light spot of color, later moved on to more traditional painting and graphics (including landscapes of Optina Pustyn) in the spirit of “quiet art”. He was also a master of monumental painting (in 1935-48 he headed the corresponding studio at the Academy of Architecture), developing here the principles of free, rhythmically refined creativity alien to officialdom.

Zhegin (real name Shekhtel) Lev Fedorovich (1892-1969), Russian artist and art theorist. Son F.O. Shekhtel. Active member of the "Makovets" society. In his painting and graphics, he preferred simple landscape and genre motifs in the spirit of "quiet art", saturating them with a philosophically contemplative mood.

Krymov Nikolai Petrovich (1884-1958), Russian painter, People's Artist of Russia (1956), corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949). Master of a synthetic, harmoniously constructed landscape-picture (“Morning”, 1916; “River”, 1926).

Continuing the topic: http://krimov.ru/ - a site about the artist Nikolai Krymov.

Sokolov Mikhail Ksenofontovich (1885-1947), Russian artist, a remarkable master of Russian “quiet art” of the 1920s and 30s, a kind of “late romantic”. He created artistically expressive painting and graphics, full of historical reminiscences, subtle, contemplative poetry (manifested, in particular, in a cycle of miniature landscapes painted in 1939-43 at the Taiga station in Siberia, where Sokolov was in a concentration camp).

Falk Robert Rafailovich (1886-1958), Russian painter. Member of the Jack of Diamonds. Still lifes, landscapes (“Bay in Balaklava”, 1927), portraits are marked by color saturation, figurative expressiveness.

Lianozovo group, a group of Russian artists and poets, originally gathered in a barracks at Lianozovo station, where in the 1950s. lived O.Ya. Rabin. Her spiritual center was the family of E.L. Kropivnitsky, he himself, as well as his wife, son and daughter, are also artists (O.A. Potapova, L.E. Kropivnitsky, V.E. Kropivnitskaya). The group, which became one of the most significant centers of Russian “unofficial art” of the “Thaw” period, also included artists V.N. Nemukhin, L.A. Masterkova, N.E. Vechtomov, poets V. Nekrasov, G.V. Sapgir, I. Kholin. Their work, different in style, combined the lyrical frankness of “black humor”, sharp social satire with the trends of the resurgent avant-garde.

Rabin Oscar Yakovlevich (b. 1928), Russian artist. Member of the Lianozovo group, one of the leaders of the Russian "unofficial art". In 1978 he emigrated from the USSR, settling in Paris. For him, the most characteristic are urban and rural motifs that are minor in mood and color, painted in a dull scale, as well as still lifes that combine the features of the “black” grotesque with sincere lyricism. These works have become a kind of link between “quiet art” and Sots Art.

Kropivnitsky Evgeny Leonidovich (1893-1979), Russian artist and poet. Patriarch of "unofficial art", spiritual leader of the Lianozovo group. For his work of the mid-20th century, as well as for poetic, and pictorial and graphic, simple motives, sincerely lyrical expressionism interspersed with sad grotesque, are characteristic.

Since the prohibition of groupings, socialist realism has been declared a mandatory method of reflecting reality, although in all its descriptions it was impossible to detect signs of the structure of artistic language. Socialist realism, a term used in Soviet literary and art criticism since the 1930s. to designate the “basic method” of literature, art and criticism, which “requires from the artist a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development”, combined “with the task of educating the working people in the spirit of socialism”. The aesthetic concept of "realism" was combined with the definition of "socialist", which in practice led to the subordination of literature and art to the principles of ideology and politics. The main postulate of socialist realism was party spirit, socialist ideology. Attempts to expand the “theoretical base” of socialist realism with the ideas of “nationality” (in the late 1930s) and “socialist humanism” (since the 1950s) did not change the official status and ideological nature of the concept.

All artists were required to be members of the Union of Artists. Individual artists refused to join the Union. Their work remained outside the exhibition, museum and any other official life. Some were members of the Union only formally, earning a living by copying or design work. Some of them have received international recognition.

A striking example- Rodchenko, in 1925 participated in the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and the Art Industry in Paris in four sections and received a silver medal for each of them. But already in the 1930s, after the decree of socialist realism as the only style and method, Rodchenko's work was more and more often subjected to defamation. The persecution ended with the exclusion of the master from the members of the Union Soviet artists in 1951, restored in 1954. In the mid-1930s. returned to painting, writing a series of paintings on the theme of the circus and circus performers, from the second half of the 1930s. and throughout the 1940s. created decorative non-objective works. Since 1934, together with Stepanova, he designed representative albums and photo albums issued on the occasion of anniversaries and solemn events (“10 years of Uzbekistan”, 1934; “First Cavalry”, 1935-37; “Red Army”, 1938; “Soviet Aviation”, 1939, and etc.).

There is an opinion that: "The highest achievement of Russian art of the twentieth century is not the revolutionary avant-garde, as was believed for many years, but the art of socialist realism." This is the opinion of the British scientist Matthew Kullern Bone, who is a generally recognized authority in the field of Russian and Soviet art.

Here are a few quotes from articles by foreign art historians devoted to this period. "The art of the era of socialist realism can be divided into two components: the art of official iconography, glorifying the regime and its leaders, and parallel art, which is higher in quality, more poetic, freer and closer to the everyday life of an ordinary person. It is harmonious and free from schemes, especially in landscape painting". "Europeo" (Spain) - "Faces of the Slavic soul".

"IN political state, which requires uniformity, the similarity of the paintings would seem unsurprising. But you will, nevertheless, be surprised at the diversity contained within this similarity, the skill of artists who, despite the restrictions dictated by the state, in their works, in terms of the energy they generate and the degree of expressiveness, go far beyond the limits of the subjects prescribed for them.

The Academy of Arts of the USSR was founded in 1947, when the power of the Stalinist empire reached its zenith. Stalin personally appointed the first 28 members of the Academy, choosing them from more than 1,500 Soviet artists of the time. Membership in the Academy was the last and most honorable stage of the artist's professional career and provided many financial and social privileges. Soviet academicians formed the artistic elite throughout the entire Soviet period. They created the glory of Soviet art. Their paintings are included in the golden fund of many Russian state museums, including the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. However, the paintings of the famous masters of the era, the Stalinist academicians such as Dmitry Nalbandian, were forgotten for some time.

Dmitry Nalbandian is a famous artist in the 30s. In 1933, the artist received an invitation to go to Leningrad to work on the painting Speech by S. M. Kirov at the 17th Party Congress. In the autumn of 1935, the painting was exhibited at an exhibition of Moscow painters in State Museum Fine Arts and caused a wide public outcry: it was reproduced in the newspapers "Pravda" and "Izvestia", distributed in reproductions. The first serious success inspired the artist. However, the tragic death of Kirov somewhat suspended the progressive course of his career. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Nalbandian worked extensively, mainly in the genre of portrait, landscape and still life, and created many beautiful lyrical works. In 1944, Dmitry Nalbandian began to work on his famous "Portrait of I.V. Stalin", which became his springboard to dizzying glory.

Nowadays, interest in the works of that time is being revived. Experts are sure that "The art of the era of Lenin and Stalin is becoming a new area of ​​investment. One of the most popular names is Nalbandian. Once this art becomes well known in the West, prices for works will double or triple within a few years."

The works of many famous artists of the Soviet era are characterized as outstanding stylistic mastery - the product of one of the best academic schools in Europe, and that in many ways they continue the tradition of the great Impressionists of the 19th century.

The latest trends in Russian art of the 1910s brought Russia to the forefront of the international artistic culture of that time. Having gone down in history, the phenomenon of the great experiment was called the Russian avant-garde. This concept implies both earlier Cezannist, Fauvist tendencies, and the emergence of abstract art in the "Rayonism" of M. Larionov, and advanced systems of non-objective creativity: cubo-futurism, Suprematism of K. Malevich and his school, constructivism led by A. Rodchenko and V. Tatlin , Russian-German expressionism of V. Kandinsky.

The second decade of our century has placed Malevich and Kandinsky on a par with Picasso, Braque or Klee. 1917 changed everything. It didn't become obvious right away. The first 5 years - the heroic five-year period 1917-1922 - still left ground for hope. But soon the illusions dissipated. The drama of the destruction of the grandiose bastion of modernist art, created in Russia by genius and labor, manifestos and heated discussions of world famous masters, began.

By the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, non-realistic trends were completely banned; some artists left for other countries; others were repressed or, succumbing to cruel inevitability, abandoned the avant-garde search. In 1932, numerous art associations were finally closed; the authorities created a single union of artists. Until then, there were still some differences between trends and aesthetic systems. Since the prohibition of groupings, socialist realism has been declared a mandatory method of reflecting reality.

Now decades apart we perceive iconic paintings socialist realism through the prism of modernity. On the other hand, having long ago opened the veil over the deliberately hidden aspects of artistic history, we learned how, parallel to the official one, a “second culture” almost unknown to any of our contemporaries was glimmering - a modest prototype of the underground of the 1960s-1980s, which did not dare to openly oppose the despotic regime, but preserving for new generations the unbroken creative freedom of the Artist to the end.

Art culture. Russian artistic culture at the beginning of the 20th century

Russian artistic culture early 20th century was in a state of spiritual crisis associated with the mood of "boundary", the growth of individualistic tendencies, the denial of realism and sociality in art. According to M.V. Nesterov, the era of "universal reassessment of values" has come. One of the phenomena of that time was decadence - the dominance of decadent motives, hopelessness and rejection of life; it was most often inherent in modernist movements. The concept of "modernism" (fr. moderne - modern) implied new trends in literature and art that ran counter to the realistic traditions of previous years. The followers of modernism were looking for ways of self-expression of the individual in art, moving away from objective reality and defiantly refusing to reflect it truthfully. Neo-romanticism prevailed in literature, painting and music.

For Russian literature, the beginning of the 20th century. is a special period. At this time, the last years of the life and work of L.N. Tolstoy. In the novel Resurrection (1899), the writer condemned social injustice and expressed sympathy for the revolutionary forces. Tolstoy's break with the church (1901) turned Tolstoyism into a sect hostile to Orthodoxy. The work of A.P. Chekhov, who wrote his best novels and stories in those years - “My Life”, “Men”, “House with a Mezzanine”, “Lady with a Dog”, “The Bride”, as well as the dramas “The Seagull” and “The Cherry Orchard”, staged on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov's works became a chronicle of the life of the Russian intelligentsia at the turn of the century. Alien to "politics", Chekhov anticipated a new happy life for compatriots who should work "for the sake of a great future." Works by A.M. Gorky's "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash", "The Girl and Death", "The Song of the Falcon", "The Song of the Petrel", etc. sing of a person's desire for freedom and love, his readiness for self-sacrifice in the struggle for high ideals. Gorky proclaimed a new direction in literature - "heroic realism", which not only depicts life, but is also capable of being "higher than it, better, more beautiful." In 1906, Gorky wrote the drama "Enemies" and the novel "Mother". Expressing solidarity with the revolutionaries, he earned himself a reputation as a proletarian writer. At the turn of the century, Russian literature was replenished with the names of young talented writers - I.A. Bunin and A.I. Kuprin, who continued the realistic traditions of the 19th century.

Modernist trends - symbolism, acmeism, futurism - became a counterweight to realism in literature.

The principles of symbolism that arose in the 1890s were declared by D.S. Merezhkovsky and K.D. Balmont. Merezhkovsky considered the cause of the decline of literature to be the predominance of realism, opposing it with "divine idealism." The basis of the new art, in his opinion, was to be the "mystical content", expressed by "symbols". Symbolists - A.A. Blok, V.Ya. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont, A. Bely, F.K. Sologub, D.S. Merezhkovsky and others beckoned the reader with a fabulous ideal world living according to the laws of "eternal Beauty". Carried away by "pure" art, which delivers aesthetic pleasure to its creators, the Symbolists preferred individualism, narcissism and searched for a sacred world where their "elemental genius" would triumph. This brought them closer to the idea of ​​the "superman" F. Nietzsche. Symbolists moved away from social reality. In 1905, they enthusiastically accepted the “red banners of the revolution” (A. Bely), but this “revolutionary” attitude of theirs was only “aestheticized” rebellion, far from a genuine historical drama. Only the most talented of the Symbolists managed to rise above "pure" aestheticism. A.A. Blok wrote cycles of poems "Motherland" and "On the Kulikovo Field", referring to plots from folk life and Russian history. The work of Blok and A. Bely of those years was strongly influenced by the poetry of N.A. Nekrasov.

Acmeism (Greek "acme" - the highest point, flowering time) in Russian poetry arose as a reaction to symbolism with its denial of reality. The founders of acmeism were N.S. Gumilyov and S.M. Gorodetsky. In 1910, Gumilyov gave a "funeral speech" to symbolism, and in 1911 he created a literary circle - "The Workshop of Poets". Acmeists N.S. Gumilyov, A.A. Akhmatova, O.E. Mandelstam, M.A. Kuzmin, G.V. Ivanov and others turned to the real "earthly problems" with its aesthetic and sensual images. They considered poetry a profession, a craft (hence the name "workshop") and tried to rethink simple everyday truths, deliberately avoiding socio-philosophical quests. The lively response of the public met the first poetry collection of Anna Akhmatova "Evening". The academicism of her style, penetration into the world human soul, trust. Gumilyov was an outstanding acmeist poet. His poems on historical and natural-exotic themes have a unique chasing and accuracy. The ideal of a lyrical hero for Gumilyov was a self-sufficient and strong-willed personality.

In 1910-1912. Futurism appeared in Russian poetry. The name of this movement indicated the desire of its followers to be poets of the “future”. There were several circles of futurists. The largest one is the Cubo-Futurists - D.D. Burlyuk, V.V. Khlebnikov, A.E. Kruchenykh, V.V. Kamensky, V.V. Mayakovsky. The leader of the ego-futurists was I.V. Northerner. B.L. Pasternak and N.N. Aseev began their career in the futuristic circle "Centrifuge". Futurism proclaimed freedom poetic word, cosmopolitanism and the rejection of literary traditions in the name of a new word, a new style, a new hero, a new world. Khlebnikov declared himself "Chairman globe"and predicted the "rebirth of the language" - the creation of " abstruse language which will unite the nations. In the manifesto "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste" (1912), the Futurists called for Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy to be thrown off the "steamer of modernity", and at their congress in 1913 they created the Budetlyanin Theater, the symbol of which soon became Malevich's "black square". A special place was occupied by the work of Mayakovsky. His early poems are full of lyricism, wit, sincere protest against hypocrisy and social decay, as well as a willingness to participate in the practical creation of the new.

The real phenomenon of Russian literature of the early XX century. became "poets from the people" with a completely new aesthetic outlook. S.A. Yesenin, N.A. Klyuev, S.A. Klychkov, P.V. Oreshin, A.V. Shiryaevets, P.A. Radimov and others heartily sang of the nature, spirit and traditions of peasant Russia, the Orthodox faith of the people, their desire for a better life (the collections “Radunitsa” and “Rural Book of Hours” by Yesenin, “Pine Chime” and “Songbook” by Klyuev, “Songs” and “ The Secret Garden "Klychkov, lyrical and rebellious poetry of Oreshin). Peasant poets were members of various circles and societies - the monarchist in spirit "Society for the Revival of Artistic Rus'" at the Feodorovsky Sovereign Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo (1915), the "Krasa" group (1915) and the "Strada" society (1915-1917) in Petrograd . Until 1917, the theme of revolution and "class struggle" was not very noticeable in their work, although Klychkov participated in the Moscow uprising of 1905, and Klyuev was in prison for 6 months on "political" charges. Both poets sympathized with the revolutionaries. Klyuev admired their sacrificial service to the "holy cause", compared them with the first Christian martyrs and mourned the "scorched, perished, killed." Oreshin's poetic worldview was less sentimental. His hero was a destitute peasant peasant. "Poets from the people" are united in their ideas about the past, present and future of the Great Russian peasantry with its "birch-bark paradise" or, as in Klyuev, "hackneyed space" and their own "peasant Savior".

In the visual arts, the main creative union remained the Association of the Wanderers, which united the best painters of Russia. At the beginning of the XX century. it included V.I. Surikov, V.M. Vasnetsov, I.E. Repin, V.E. Makovsky, V.D. Polenov, I.I. Levitan, A.I. Kuindzhi and others. Their paintings are distinguished by a high-quality and truthful depiction of folk life, plots of Russian history, and native nature. The artists A.P. were close to the Wanderers. Ryabushkin, A.M. Vasnetsov, V.V. Vereshchagin and others. The traditions of this school were largely inherited by painters who gained fame at the beginning of the 20th century: M.A. Vrubel, V.A. Serov, K.A. Korovin, M.V. Nesterov and others.

Impressionism became a new trend in painting, prominent representatives of which were K.A. Korovin, V.A. Serov, I.E. Grabar, F.A. Malyavin and others. In their works they unbiasedly captured the dynamic and rapidly changing world around them. Serov's works are imbued with enthusiastic poeticization of man. Pupil I.E. Repin, Serov skillfully portrayed deep psychologism human images and also gained fame for his landscapes and historical paintings. Symbolism is represented in the work of M.A. Vrubel, who created his own fantastic fairy-tale world and strove to reveal the complex inner world of man, and V.E. Borisov-Musatov. Art Nouveau was developed in the creations of the World of Art: A.N. Benois, A.I. Kuindzhi, E.E. Lansere and others. Unlike them, the artists K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, M.F. Larionov and others followed the traditions of Russian lubok and icon painting. At the turn of the century close attention artists were attracted by the theme of Ancient Rus'. She found a vivid reflection in the works of V.M. Vasnetsova, N.K. Roerich, I.Ya. Bilibin. Philosophical understanding of the Orthodox fundamental principles of Russian life, the historical and spiritual heritage of the Russian people can be found in the early works of M.V. Nesterov.

After the revolution of 1905, radical modernist trends intensified in painting. In 1910, the avant-garde arose, which includes the futurism of A.V. Lentulov, abstract art by V.V. Kandinsky and K.S. Malevich, and others. In 1910-1911. avant-gardists formed the Jack of Diamonds society. According to Malevich, the avant-garde is the art of "pure" forms and non-objectivity. In 1915, at an exhibition in Petrograd, Malevich's conceptual creation, Black Square, was presented. Experiments by V.V. Kandinsky, R.R. Falka, P.N. Filonova, M.Z. Chagall and other avant-garde artists were devoted not to the specifics of the real world, but to imaginary schemes of the world order.

The theme of the life and social aspirations of the peasantry, its desire for a just social reorganization (“general prosperity”) on the eve and after the revolution of 1917 is comprehensively disclosed in the work of E.V. Chestnyakov and other folk artists.

The industrialization of the country led to a revolution in architecture. New building materials (reinforced concrete, metal structures) accelerated the pace of urban development and changed the appearance of cities. The architecture was dominated by modern and neo-Russian style. The neo-Russian style, following the traditions and spirit of ancient Russian architecture, harmoniously combined with modernist trends. Representatives of modern and neo-Russian style - F.O. Shekhtel, L.N. Kekushev, V.M. Vasnetsov, A.V. Shchusev and others were engaged in the construction of buildings, the purpose of which was determined by the needs of the era. Along with temples and mansions, these were railway stations, banks, stock exchanges, telegraph offices, factories, factories and shops that have become an adornment of Russian cities.

An important milestone in the history of the Russian theatrical art was the opening in 1898 of the Moscow Art Theater (MKhT), created by K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko - the creators of a new school of acting and directing. Stanislavsky suggested doing new theater"reasonable, moral, generally accessible." The first production of the Moscow Art Theater was a drama by A.K. Tolstoy's "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich", and at the end of 1898 the premiere of "The Seagull" by Chekhov took place, which later became the emblem of the Moscow Art Theater. The theater's repertoire consisted almost entirely of the dramaturgy of Chekhov and Gorky. In 1902, at the expense of patron S.T. Morozov, the building of the Moscow Art Theater was built (architect F.O. Shekhtel). The Moscow Art Theater has become an example of a skillful combination of classical theater traditions with the pressing needs of today. The experience of the Moscow Art Theater has gained great public importance, the desire to convey on stage the "truth of life" caused heated debate. The symbolists V.Ya. Bryusov and V.E. Meyerhold. Bryusov criticized the Moscow Art Theater for "unnecessary truth." Meyerhold contrasted the realistic and democratic principles of the Moscow Art Theater with the aesthetic experiments of a conventional theatre. In 1904, the Drama Theater of V.F. Komissarzhevskaya, close in spirit to the Moscow Art Theater and the democratic intelligentsia.

World-wide fame was brought to Russian ballet by the legendary ballerina A.P. Pavlova and the famous choreographer M.M. Fokin. The choreographic sketch "The Dying Swan" by the composer C. Saint-Saens was performed by Anna Pavlova and captured by the artist V.A. Serov, becoming a symbol of ballet art. In 1911, Diaghilev created a permanent troupe from the best ballet dancers gathered to participate in the Russian Seasons - Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Diaghilev's assistant was the tireless innovator M.M. Fokin, who saw in the ballet "the commonwealth of dance, music and painting."

Russian development musical art embodied in the work of outstanding composers and in the creation of a system of musical education. At the beginning of the XX century. new conservatories were opened in Saratov, Odessa and Kyiv. Forms of out-of-school musical education appeared: in 1906 in Moscow, on the initiative of S.I. Taneyev, a people's conservatory was opened.

In music, interest in the inner world of a person has increased, the “sign of the times” has been the strengthening of the lyrical beginning. The great Russian composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov - heir to the traditions mighty handful”, wrote lyric opera"The Tsar's Bride" (1898). Lyrical motifs are reflected in the works of S.V. Rachmaninov and A.N. Scriabin - graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. A master of original solutions, Rachmaninov, however, followed the traditions of the Russian classics and was a faithful student of P.I. Tchaikovsky. Creativity Scriabin was more complex, innovative and philosophical. Music by I.F. Stravinsky was successful on the ballet stage (the ballets The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring). The composer showed interest in the distant historical past of the Russian people, its folklore.

The Mariinsky and Moscow Bolshoi Theaters remained the centers of musical life. The greats performed here opera singers- F.I. Chaliapin, L.V. Sobinov, A.V. Nezhdanov. But the authority of the private opera S.I. Mamontov, then - S.I. Zimin. On the stage of Mamontov's opera, for the first time, the unique talent of the actor and singer Chaliapin was revealed, who, according to A.M. Gorky, the same "epoch" in Russian art, "like Pushkin."

Cinema has become a new and very popular art form. The first Russian film entrepreneur A.A. Khanzhonkov in 1907-1908. started production of domestic feature films. He built a film factory in Moscow, as well as the Khudozhestvenny, Moscow cinemas (now the Khanzhonkov house), etc. Among the first Russian feature films are Prince Silver (1907), Stenka Razin and the Princess (1908), Peter the Great" (1910), "Defense of Sevastopol" (1911).

Control questions and tasks

1. What are the main features of the political and administrative structure Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century?

2. What factors led to the transition from the class division of Russian society to class?

3. What are the results and socio-political consequences of the revolution of 1905-1907?

4. Based on the content of the Basic Laws of 1906, analyze the nature of the changes in the state system of Russia. Has this system become constitutional?

5. What are the reasons for the incompleteness of the Stolypin agrarian reform?

6. What motives guided Russia in choosing its foreign policy allies at the beginning of the 20th century? What were the difficulties in choosing allies?

7. What are the main contradictions in the development of Russian culture of the "Silver Age"?

Literature:

1. Power and reforms. From Autocratic to Soviet Russia / Ed. ed. B.V. Ananyich. M., 2006.

2. Diaries of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna: in 2 volumes / Ed. ed., comp. V.M. Khrustalev. M., 2012.

3. Kiryanov Yu.I. Right-wing parties in Russia. 1911-1917 M., 2001.

4. The first revolution in Russia: a look through the century. M., 2005.

5. Political parties of Russia. The end of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. Encyclopedia. M., 1996.

6. Repnikov A.V. Conservative concepts of the reorganization of Russia. M., 2007.

7. Tyukavkin V.G.. Great Russian peasantry and the Stolypin agrarian reform. M., 2001.

8. Shatsillo K.F. From the Peace of Portsmouth to the First World War. Generals and Politics. M., 2000.

9. Shelokhaev V.V.. Ideology and political organization of the Russian liberal bourgeoisie: 1907-1914. M., 1991.