Alyona V. Grigorash
(Stroganov Moscow State University of Industrial and Applied Arts, Russia)

The “Document of German Art” Exhibition (1901) in the Context of the Opening of the Darmstadt Colony: Gesamtkunstwerk or Synthesis of Arts?

The article is devoted to the history of the Colony of artists at Darmstadt in the epoch of Modern in Germany. Examining the program texts of the Colony members the author provides detailed description and analysis of the buildings created at Darmstadt under the influence of the arts interaction idea. On the basis of differential approach to the usage of notions Gesamtkunstwerk and synthesis of arts the author proposes in this article a hypothesis that Gesamtkunstwerk could be completed and so fulfilled solely in a particular estate while synthesis of arts — as a phenomenon — more relates to the exhibition practice whereof Darmstadt Colony exhibition of 1901 is a bright example.