RU 
EN Nadezhda Filicheva
Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Russia
The Avant-garde is now appreciated as an artistic school which belongs to the classical cultural heritage; this is an inherent part of the contemporary art. Though initially the avant-garde contradicted traditional values, nowadays it is no longer considered to be destructive to the classics. It naturally developed the idea of creativity, which is intrinsic to the art and was originally infused by the Creator in his “image and likeness” — human. The avant-garde glorified the artist, the beauty of colours, shapes, figures, rhythm and the diversity of patterns and textures.
One of the honourable representatives of the Russian avant-garde is Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, who created his works in a very authentic and distinctive manner. Petrov-Vodkin is not just an artist, whose art is based on religious and moral traditions, he is a philosopher. He sought to understand and to put into his art the idea of an individual, a thing and the universe in all their complexity, thus comprehending the laws of the objective reality.
“Bathing of a Red Horse” by K. Petrov-Vodkin is “a sign of the time”. The painting represents a small universe where we can see the riot of the red colour, which symbolizes pagan Rus’ and its antinomies: the symbol of sacrifice, love, the Holy Fire, passion, power, conscience and blood. This masterpiece of the artist expresses his reflection on the fate of the country, “its eternal battle”.
Feeling “moral poverty” of the world of hate and evil (revolutions, the First World War and the civil war in Russia), the artist creates a special theme of motherhood, a series of his Madonnas: “Mother”, “Tenderness of Evil Hearts”, “1918 in Petrograd”.
The painting “Mother” (1915) is characterized by a distinct clarity of composition and transparency of colours. Petrov-Vodkin took the iconic image for the easel painting in his religious-theme work (“The Mother of God of Tenderness of Evil Hearts”). The artist embodies an earthly feeling, which becomes sublime in its purity and strength. These paintings-hymns to family life, joy and holiness of motherly love are appreciated as significant for the world art.
The art and the religion are morally related in their mission to protect people and their memory. They enable us to understand the tragic background of the nation, embodied in the culture. The artist appeals to our love, mercy and sympathy, and reminds of the eternal values — the moral purity and beauty.
Anna Florkovskaya
Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov, Russia
In Moscow contemporary art of the 2000s religious subjects (connected with Christian tradition), both separate works and exhibition projects, take a noticeable place. The period of the 2000s can be defined as independent from the point of view of religious subjects’ evolution in Russian art of the 20th–21st centuries. The period from 1917 to the end of the 1980s, characterized by a ban on public exhibition of religious art, is replaced with the 1990s, when artists of different artistic directions including even the actual one, turn to religious subjects. At that time religious subjects were more often a reason for the art provocation; similar approach is characteristic for the 2010s. In this context interpretation of religious subjects in Moscow contemporary art of the 2000s differs from the previous period as there are attempts to start dialogue between actual art and the church as a public institute. A number of exhibition projects were made, such as “Deisis/Predstoyaniye”, 2004; “I Trust!”, “The evangelical project” by D. Vrubel and V. Timofeeva, 2008; “Dvoyesloviye / Dialogue”, 2010 and others. Of considerable interest are various interpretations of “images of the sacred” by the representatives of contemporary art: from manipulations with the iconographic images and symbols taken out of a semantic context of Christian tradition to experience of immersion in depths of personal experience and comprehension of a sacral image. Religious subjects in contemporary art of the 2000s are the experience of the appeal to the two-thousand-year cultural tradition capable of updating the modern art both on semantic and the formal level.
Nadezhda Kargapolova
Independent researcher, Moscow, Russia
Based on a student design bureau of the Aviation Institute and directed by professor Bulat Machmudovich Galeyev, the Institute for experimental aesthetics “Prometheus” in Kazan was probably the only center in the USSR and post-soviet Russia that was simultaneously engaged into theory, history and practice of “visual music”.
The center developed and created some new “light-musical” devices, arranged scientific work on studying a phenomenon of synesthesia and “color hearing”, and collected all available information on history and new achievements from all over the world. Unique scientific seminars, conferences and festivals “Light and Music” were held here. Kazan events gathered researchers from many countries. An interdisciplinary direction of the scientific problematics united specialists in many different fields. One of the main research activities of Kazan school was the study of synaesthetic experiments of followers of Scriabin’s light-music ideas in Russian art of the 20th century.
Ludmila Shekhurina
Saint Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, Russia
Western European architecture occupied an important place in graphic works of G. K. Lukomski (1884–1952) both of the pre-revolutionary period and of the period of emigration.
The artist often traveled to Europe capturing in his drawings and watercolors ancient monuments of Kiev, Warsaw, Prague, Krakow, Cologne, Paris, Rome, Venice, etc. His interest in architectural antiquities combined the study of architectural forms with a relentless desire to render them in his pictures.
From February 1934 to July 1935 in London and Paris a series of exhibitions of G. Lukomsky was arranged. Being an impressive array of depictions of ancient European synagogues it was surprising in its novelty. Exhibitions were held in a number of galleries: Leicester Gallery, The Royal Institute of British Architects, The Wildenstein Gallery, The Batsford Callery University Colledge (under the auspices of the Jewish historical society).
The exhibition was a huge success and was widely discussed in the press. The artist’s interest in architecture of synagogues was rooted in his childhood spent in the Ukraine. Then he was struck with originality of an old Jewish synagogue which he often recalled. Later, at the exhibition of “The World of Art” in St. Petersburg (1917) he represented 8 drawings depicting Ukrainian synagogues. Obsessed with the search for ancient architectural forms, Lukomski decided to go “in a thick Eastern European, Polish-Russian Jewry”.
Going into poor parts of Volhynia, Galicia, Polissia, the artist examined 144 synagogues and was delighted with their originality. In his opinion, the charm of this art lies in its “directness, naive archaism”.
Strikingly, the frescoes of the old Polish-Russian synagogues, examined and sketched by G. K. Lukomski, the nature and type of utensil, murals and scenery were a genuine response to frescoes and decorations of the third-century Jewish synagogue.
The success of his London exhibition was a serious and well-deserved award. The collection of his works was purchased by a group of major Jewish philanthropists with the further intention to give it to the Palestinian Museum.
Elena Ovsyannikova
Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy), Russia
A personal diary of an architect and restorer N. D. Vinogradov (1885–1980) appears very actual today. He carefully kept a daily diary starting from the revolution of 1905. Vinogradov witnessed most important events being in contact with major cultural actors of the epoch — architects, artists, culture managers and bureaucrats. Now his diary is especially precious as a precise historical document of the first Soviet initiatives in Moscow, such as Lenin’s Plan of Monumental Propaganda (curated by Vinogradov), activities of Heritage Preservation agencies, major restoration projects and demolitions.
The most interesting subject is an opposition between professionals and bureaucrats, which resulted in the “renewal” of the city through demolition of significant historical buildings, such as Kitay-Gorod Wall, Krasnye and Triumphalnye Gates, Sukharev Tower, numerous chambers and churches according to engineer Shestakov’s masterplan. Vinogradov’s diary reflected controversial process of Moscow reconstruction and showed a gradual rejection of participatory decisions in favour of autocratic and unprofessional.
- The link of times. Byzantine in contemporary art. On the example of Maksimov’s work
- The problem of Exhibiting Contemporary Sculpture in the Space of a Cult Complex. On the Example of the Exhibition Project «БЛАГОВЕСТNOW»
- The Iconography of the Last Supper in the Light of Christian Ontology and Anthropology
- Reconstruction of I. V. Stalin Avenue in Leningrad in the 1950–1955s as a Phenomenon of the Renaissance Culture