“Pure” art, proclaiming values ​​that are independent of social and historical problems and trends, is a beautiful but unrealistic phenomenon.
It is impossible to create in isolation from everyday life, without paying attention to the ideas prevailing in society - formal and informal. Russian art of the 20th century was influenced by powerful changes in the social system, unknown to any other country.
The beginning of the century, the search for new ideas
100 years of the XX century for the entire civilization was an era of unprecedented upheaval. By the end of the 20th century, scientific and technological progress squeezed time and space for the entire planet, social conflicts in a limited region grew into planetary shocks. The culture and art of Russia of the 20th century, like all the social activities of Europe and America, has a temporary attachment to the most important events of modern history.
The magic of numbers denoting the beginning of the reckoning of a new century always gives rise to the expectation of change, the hope of a new, happy time. The nineteenth century, which created worldwide fame for Russian culture, was a thing of the past, leaving behind traditions that could not disappear overnight.
"The World of Art" was the name of the association of artists that arose in 1898 and existed intermittently until 1924, without which it is impossible to imagine fine art in the first quarter of the 20th century in Russia. The “world artists” didn’t have one common worked out style - painters, graphic artists, sculptors each went their own way, having agreement in their views on the goals of art and its role in society. Many features of this view were expressed by the genius of Mikhail Vrubel. The formal core, the basis of the association were L. S. Bakst, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, E. E. Lansere, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, K. A. Somov. At different times, J. Bilibin, A. Ya. Golovin, I. E. Grabar, K. A. Korovin, B. M. Kustodiev, N. K. Roerich, V. A. Serov and other masters took part in it.
All of them recognized the primacy of professionalism in art, the enormous role of creative freedom and independence of the artist from social dogma, while not denying the value of art in human life, protesting against the inertness of academicism on the one hand and the excessive politicization of painting among the Wanderers on the other. Criticized by supporters of traditions, “The World of Art” could not fit into the turbulent process of the birth of “proletarian” painting, but had a huge impact on all the visual art of the 20th century in Russia - both those who worked in the USSR and those who ended up in emigration.
Modern
The last decades of the nineteenth century became the period of the emergence of a new style, which left a mark in the work of masters of fine art and architecture. He had his own characteristics in certain regions of Europe, where he was even called differently. In Belgium and France the name "Art Nouveau" was fixed, in Germany - "Art Nouveau", in Austria - "Secession". Other names are known that are associated with the most famous artists of this style or companies that produce furniture, jewelry and other products in a similar direction: Musha style, Guimard style in France, Liberty in Italy, Tiffany style in the USA, etc. Russian art 20th century, architecture in particular, know it as a modern style.
After a long period of stylistic timeliness, Art Nouveau has become one of the most expressive and visually shaped art movements. The vegetative, flowing nature of the lines of the rich decor, in combination with the geometrically simple and expressive forms of large volumes, attracted the freshness and novelty of artists and architects.
Fedor Osipovich Shekhtel (1859-1926) - the star of Russian architectural modernity. His talent gave national features to a cosmopolitan style in fact, Shekhtel's masterpieces - Yaroslavsky Station, Ryabushinsky's mansion - these are creations of the Russian architect, and in general, and in details.
Pre-revolutionary vanguard
The process of searching for new forms of art, and more - its new essence - was relevant for art throughout Europe and America. The art of Russia of the 20th century contains several truly revolutionary periods, when the work of several reformers pointed to new directions in the development of artistic thought. One of the most striking and impressive was the inter-revolutionary time from 1905 to 1917. The features of avant-garde art in Russia were caused by the crisis in Russian public life after the tragedies of the Russo-Japanese war and the 1905 revolution.
The numerous avant-garde movements and creative associations that arose at this time had similar generative causes and similar goals of the artistic search. The futurists and cubo-futurists, the Jack of Diamonds and the Blue Rose, Kandinsky and Malevich’s Suprematism, who had a powerful influence on the main types of art of the 20th century in Russia, looked for new worlds in various ways, expressed the crisis of old art that had lost touch with reality, preceded the onset of a global upheaval .
Among the new ideas born by the avant-garde was the idea of ​​a synthesis of the arts. Theatrical art of Russia of the 20th century contains such pages as the famous performance - the manifesto of the new art “Victory over the Sun” (1913). It was the result of the general creativity of the futurist poets A. Kruchenykh, M. Matyushin, V. Khlebnikov, and the decoration was done by Kazimir Malevich.
The artists of P. Konchalovsky, K. Petrov-Vodkin, I. Mashkov, N. Goncharova, Marc Chagall enriched the art of Russia of the 20th century with their searches, became the authors of paintings that have received worldwide recognition. And this recognition began in the tenth years of the 20th century, in the era of the birth of avant-garde painting of recent history.
The formation of Soviet art
After the October Revolution, Russia got the opportunity to open up new horizons to public life in public life, including in art. And at first, conditions were created when the value of each gifted person grew immeasurably, and generators of new creative ideas came to the fore.
How does art history interpret that time? The 20th century, Russia, the turbulent twenties is an unprecedentedly active artistic life of numerous creative associations, among which stand out:
- UNOVIS - “The affirmators of the new art” (Malevich, Chagall, Lissitzky, Leporskaya, Sterligov). Based on the basis of the art school of Vitebsk, this association was an apologist for the artistic avant-garde, offering to search for new themes and forms for art.
- “Four Arts” - the course in line with the “World of Art” The main goal is to show the tremendous expressive possibilities of architecture, sculpture, graphics and painting. The need for high professionalism and creative freedom was declared. The most prominent representatives: the architect A.V. Shchusev, the graphic artist V.A. Favorsky, the sculptor V.I. Mukhin, the painters K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, A.P. Ostroumov-Lebedev and others.
- “OST”, “Society of Easel Artists”. She considered the main thing to show signs of the onset of a new peaceful life, the construction of a modern young country by means of advanced expressive, but simple and clear stylistics. Leaders: D. Sternberg, A. Deineka, Yu. Pimenov, P. Williams.
- “Circle of artists” (Leningrad). Following the official course, the development of the "style of the era." Active members of the group: A. Samokhvalov, A. Pakhomov, V. Pakulin.
- AHRR - “Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia” - an association that became the basis of the Union of Artists of the USSR subsequently created, an active guide to the ideological direction of the art process, an instrument of party propaganda, the heirs of the Wanderers. At the head were I. I. Brodsky, A. M. Gerasimov, M. B. Grekov, B. V. Johanson.
Constructivism
In the programs of the most prestigious educational institutions preparing architects, there is always a study of the topic "Russian Constructivism - the Architectural Avant-Garde of the 20s". It is of great importance for understanding building art, the ideas proclaimed by the leaders of that direction are very relevant for any time. The surviving buildings of Konstantin Melnikov (architect's house in Krivoarbatsky Lane, Rusakov's club on Stromynka, garage on Novoryazanskaya street, etc.), the Vesnins brothers, Moisei Ginzburg (Narcomfin House on Novinsky Boulevard) and other stars of Russian architectural business - the golden fund of Russian architecture.
Functionalism, the rejection of unnecessary embellishment, the aesthetics of the building structure, the harmony of the created living environment - these ideas became the basis for solving new problems posed to young architects, artists and specialists in the field that became known as industrial design. They had to build a massive housing for new cities, work clubs for the comprehensive development of the individual, to create facilities for work and leisure of a new person. The amazing achievements of the avant-garde of the twenties cannot be circumvented by studying the art of Russia in the 20th century. The architecture of Europe and America since then has been largely based on them. It is sad that these progressive ideas turned out to be the least popular in their homeland, and the Stalin Empire is considered by many to be the greatest achievement of Soviet architecture.
The art of the era of totalitarianism
In 1932, the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued on the work of creative associations. The turbulent era of various currents and trends ended under the influence of the gaining power of the state machine, controlled by an ideological apparatus in which sole power was gaining strength. For many years, the art of Russia of the 20th century, like much in the life of the country, began to depend on the opinion of one person - Joseph Stalin.
Creative unions have become a means of subordinating artistic thought to unified ideological standards. The era of socialist realism in painting has come. Gradually, any deviations from the official course began to be declared criminal, dissent fell under real repression. Accusations of departing from the party line have become a method of solving creative discussions. The progressiveness of this is very doubtful. How would the theatrical art of Russia of the 20th century develop, for example, if the great stage reformer Vsevolod Meyerhold had not fallen victim to repression?
The nature of artistic talent is complex and inexplicable. The images of the leaders were embodied with great skill and sincere feeling. None of the most brutal repressions could prevent the emergence of truly talented artists, for whom the main thing was self-expression, regardless of ideological framework.
In architecture, the time has come for the “Stalinist Empire”. The search for avant-garde artists has been replaced by a return to proven canons. The power of communist ideology was embodied in the spectacular examples of processed neoclassicism - the Stalinist “skyscrapers”.
The art of the war
There is time in the history of our country that has become the greatest tragedy and stage of unprecedented spiritual upsurge. The art of Russia in the 20-21 centuries has received one of the main topics that allowed expressing the greatness of the Russian folk character, the depth of feelings that can be mastered by an individual and huge masses during historical upheavals.
The Great Patriotic War from the first days found expression in visual images of amazing strength. Poster I. Toidze "Motherland is calling!" raised to defend the country better than any commanders, and the "Defense of Sevastopol" Deineki shock anyone, regardless of the ideas that he shares. The Seventh Symphony of Dmitry Shostakovich is also impressive, and the musical art of Russia of the 20th century paid tribute to the theme of the war against fascism no less than other forms of creativity.
Thaw
After the Great Victory, the next most powerful historical factor in influencing public life in the USSR was the death of Stalin (March 1953) and the 20th Congress of the CPSU, which raised the issue of exposing the cult of personality. For a while, for artists, as well as for the whole society, it was inspired by the freedom of creativity and new ideas. The generation of the “sixties” is a very specific phenomenon; it left a memory of itself as a short breath of fresh air, taken before plunging again into the swamp of measured, regulated, regulated existence for decades.
The first experiments of the “second wave” artistic avant-garde - the works of E. Belyutin, Yu. Sooster, V. Yankilevsky, B. Zhutovsky and others - at the exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists, were harshly condemned personally by the new leader of the country N Khrushchev. The party again began to explain to the people what kind of art they needed, and artists - how to write.
Architecture was ordered to deal with excesses, which was rightly explained by the economic difficulties of the post-war period, the time came for mass housing construction, the time of the "Khrushchev", which somewhat removed the acuteness of the housing issue, but disfigured the appearance of many cities.
The art of "developed socialism"
In many ways, the art of Russia in the second half of the 20th century is largely a story of the confrontation between the artistic person and the prevailing ideology. But even in the atmosphere of ideological regulation of each piece of spiritual space, many artists found ways to slightly modify the prescribed method of socialist realism.
So, masters who formed their beliefs in the twenties: N. Romadin, M. Saryan, A. Plastov and others were a real example for the young. The painting by the former member of the OST art association Yu. Pimenov, “Wedding on Tomorrow Street”, painted in 1962, has become a symbol of society’s hopes for renewal.
Another striking phenomenon in Soviet painting of that time was the formation of a "severe style." This term denoted the work of G. Korzhov, P. Ossovsky, Smolin brothers, P. Nikonov and others. In their paintings, written in different genres (everyday, historical), a hero appeared who did not need instructions, busy with understandable and necessary work. He was portrayed without unnecessary details and coloristic refinements, capaciously and expressively.
Of particular importance is the work of such a master as Viktor Popkov. The civilian sound of his canvases contains a general humanistic, almost religious message, rare for Soviet art, and the pictorial style has roots from the time of the Italian Renaissance.
Nonconformism
The official domination of "socialist realism" forced informal artists to seek their way to the audience or resort to emigration. M. Shemyakin, I. Kabakov, O. Rabin, E. Unknown and many others left. These were artists of the 20th century of Russia, who were carriers of spiritual values ​​born of the avant-garde of the beginning of the century and who returned to their homeland after the collapse of communist ideology.
And during her reign, internal emigration appeared, giving rise to the popular motive of a crazy, ever-drunk artist, an inhabitant of psychiatric hospitals, driven by authorities and the leadership of creative unions, but highly valued by independent Western experts. A. Zverev, a legendary person for Moscow in the era of developed socialism, was a typical carrier of such an image.
Polystylistics and pluralism
Freed from the state dictates of the Soviet era, the 20th century fine art in Russia entered the global process as its inseparable part, which has properties and tendencies that are common to it. Many forms of creativity, familiar to the West for a long time, were quickly mastered by domestic artists. The words "performance", "video installation", etc., have become familiar in our speech, and among the most significant contemporary masters of world renown are artists of diametrical views: Z. Tsereteli, A. Shilov, T. Nazarenko , M. Kishev, A. Burganov and many others.
The turbulent, unpredictable recent history of the country, which occupied a sixth of the earth's land, looks in its mirror - the art of Russia of the 20th century - and is reflected in it by thousands of unforgettable images ...