2015 World Art of the 20th Century and Contemporary Art

The urge to act guided by a method was something absolutely indispensable for the American art critic Clement Greenberg. Even before having become an art critic, Greenberg claimed that certain artists, like Rouault, Kandinsky, Soutine, Van Gogh, and many others could not be considered truly modern because they did not have a method. The aim of this paper is to discuss how Greenberg’s method as an art critic was built as a synthesis of Cubist aesthetics, understood by him as the aesthetics of flatness. While the Impressionists cared only about purely visual sensations, the Cubists were mainly concerned with generalized forms and the relationship between surfaces and volumes, describing and analyzing them in a simplified way, omitting the color and the accidental attributes of the objects that served as models. Inspired by Cezanne, they aspired to define structure of things which inevitably remain under the accidents of momentary appearance, and in doing so, cubists violated the standards of appearance to show the same object from more than one point of view on the same picture plane. So, instead of having discovered a way to fully describe the objects on a flat surface, they start to rethink the whole structure of a painting.
In the modernist art the notion of space as a space that connects things rather than separates them did appear. At this point, a picture surface started to be perceived as a material object, which resulted in the need to give an aesthetic form to its irreducible planarity as an object. Consequently, the planarity became the most important premise of the modernist painting. Picasso and Braque started this process when they began to deconstruct both objects, such as the background, and plans which were becoming increasingly frontal. As these faceted plans were not closed, the objects and the background began to interpenetrate, resulting in a lack of distinction between empty spaces and occupied spaces. Around 1912 or 1913, the synthesis replaced the analysis, the faceted planes gave way to larger forms, and gradually the object or parts of it began to resurface in the flat surface of what we might call “background”. The planarity of the surface came to be affirmed in a new and more radical way: the object is not crumbled under the pressure of a shallow space, but is opened in a flat surface.

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Paul Sourikoff belongs to the generation of Soviet painters whose professional carrier started in the 20–30s of the 20th century in the USSR. He was a member of the circle of the young and talented people whose painting wasn’t acknowledged by the official authority and that is why it has been forgotten and unclaimed for many years. During their not very long life many of the painters of this so-called Pleiad were able to create brilliant works of art, which amaze us with their mastery, real sincerity and lyric. The main part of their works suffered a tragic fate: sometimes they destroyed their works themselves, sometimes their relatives being not able to value the painting disposed of it and some of their works vanished during World War II. Very often just a few works of a painter have survived till now. And in this case each finding like a photo of some of their works or a review of their exhibition in old newspapers let alone the chance to find their canvas enables us to view their creative activity in a new light.
I am going to present a picture called “The children’s party” (1928) by Paul Sourikoff in my report. The picture was considered to have disappeared many years ago. But I happened to find it in one of the regional museums of the Urals in June 2015. I am planning to speak about the picture within the framework of the whole creative activity of Paul Sourikoff as well.

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Traditionally, up to a certain time the Western art identified itself by the relation or opposition of the art systems which were being formed inside it with imaginative models of classic eras. The situation changed in the early 20th century, when the Europeans discovered a layer of cultural formations that had previously seemed primitive, frozen in their archaic forms, and in terms of advanced civilised Europe pertained only to the people who stayed at the primitive level of development. The way to integrate foreign aesthetics in the European consciousness was pushed by anthropologists and ethnographists. But in order that the samples that had previously been considered only as artefacts, serving for practical purposes, “acquire citizenship”, it was necessary to convince the public consciousness that these samples represented aesthetic values, had the beauty and image-bearing expressiveness. A crucial role in solving this problem was to be played by avant-garde artists. French artists were the first to see attributes that were consistent with the emerging features of the new art in the so-called primitive forms. At that time, when French avant-garde artists began to explore the aesthetics of traditional and primitive forming, the Italian art still continued to feed on the ideas of Secession and use figurative stylistics of ottocento. The Italians came to the development of the “African style” later and indirectly — through the experience of French artists. C. Carra got infected with the virus of Negrophilia from his Parisian friends. He agrees that an image-bearing system, which should not only be reco­gnized, but also adopted, can be found in a foreign material. M. Campigli also showed interest in traditional cultures. While approving of elements of the new aesthetics, the Italians, closely related to the national tradition, yet often returned to the native Mediterranean art formations. Thus, Carra tried to connect the style of l’art negre and harmony of the Italian primitive, and Campigli drew inspiration from samples of the Minoan culture. For Italian artists both monuments of the Dark Continent and samples of native art formations were rather a catalyst for emergence of a new style than a plastic model for it.

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In the framework of the submitted report two key issues are to be covered. A retrospective analysis of the Art Nouveau in Italy will be carried out in its first part, which will be followed by the survey of this movement development (its “living”) in the context of contemporary culture — both as a concept and as an applied tool. The emphasis will be made on Liberty-style architecture, which has so far been neglected, and on a special movement in fine art photography which exists in modern Italy and is fully devoted to this type of architecture.

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The perception of Italy by Russian emigrant artists of the 20th century is connected with the image of the country formed by the early 1900s. In the 20th century Italian theme was revealed in the art of N. N. Lochoff and V. D. Falileev, whose works have not yet been thoroughly investigated in Russian emigrant context.
Lochoff, a copyist who had no artistic education, created a gallery of copies of canvases and frescoes of the Renaissance artists. Lochoff studied the technique of medieval artists by himself, made paints according to ancient recipes, elaborately copied brushstrokes and the texture of canvases. Not only did he imitate individual style of the artists, but also contributed his own artistic sense to the paintings, revealing the peculiarity of the Renaissance originals. Lochoff is a rare example of a copyist who achieved self-realization only in this profession.
Unlike Lochoff, Falileev was a professional artist. He was one of the first masters to appreciate artistic qualities of linocut and the first to transfer a print to the linoleum. Falileev created etchings after Rembrand’s, Veronese’s and Pussen’s paintings. In 1924 Falileev emigrated to Sweden, then to Berlin and, finally, to Italy (1938). During his Roman period he actively participated in exhibitions. Falileev created paintings dedicated to the Roman theme (landscapes of modern Italy), but still his favourite theme was Russian nature.
To sum up, Lochoff’s art was entirely focused on Italy, whereas in Falileev’s art Italian theme co-existed with the Russian one. Both artists were interested in the Renaissance (Lochoff — through copying, Falileev — through creating etchings), however their perception of Italy was not the same. While Lochoff was attracted by the eternal masterpieces, Falileev concentrated mostly on Italy of the 20th century. Both painters were innovators. For both of them the emigration was an impulse to the creative growth. From the point of view of unique technique the image of Italy was brightly revealed in the creations of Lochoff and Falileev.

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Symbolism of the materials, as a part of alchemy, was an important element of the Middle Ages’, and later on, of the Renaissance philosophical ideas. Its legacy, without doubt, had an influence not only on the art of these epochs, but also on the Romanticism of the 19th century, and subsequently on the concepts of such modern German artists as Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys. As a matter of fact, the artists themselves say that the Middle Ages and the Renaissance motives play a very significant part in their works — they are often inspired by DÜrer’s prints or Robert Fludd’s studies, or medieval incunables. Their paintings and installations are filled with lots of references to alchemists’ insights (for example, “Auschwitz Demonstration” 1968, by J. Beuys), numerology, astrology, or Renaissance religious/mystical texts — for instance, A. Kiefer’s installation “Breaking of the Vessels” (1990) was based on the subject-matter of the Lurianic Kabbalah. Also they use the problem of the Romantic interpretation of alchemy when working with such narratives as “Faust” by Goethe (Kiefer’s 1980s series of paintings “Your Golden Hair, Margarethe” — “Your Ashen Hair, Sulamith”).
To sum up, the main subject of the presentation will be the question if there is a connection between the Renaissance alchemists’ philosophy and the artistic views of these particular artists in works produced between the 1960s and 1990s.
Many western scholars, such as B. Buchloh, M. Biro or D. Kuspit have already addressed some of these problems, using the works of T. Adorno, M. Heidegger, W. Benjamin.
Research into this matter is a perspective way of studying correlations between artistic and philo­sophical concepts of the Renaissance and postmodernism.

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French artist Jean Dubuffet is the creator of a term “art brut” (most of the art brut collection made by the artist, are works of psychiatric patients). Despite the fact that the definition of this concept has rather vague borders, the principle of allocation of art brut in special preferences becomes more logical if we consider it in the context of the theoretical work of the artist and his views on a social function of art. On the basis of such texts of Dubuffet as “Art Brut is preferable to cultural arts”, “Anticulturals positions” and others the report addresses the problem of art as an independent linguistic system. Dubuffet argues that contemporary culture is based on absolute trust to the existing means of expression, the origins of which he sees in antiquity, and to the written language in particular. So, on the one hand, affecting this subject, the artist joins the great debate on the crisis of Western culture, which transformed its language in a rigid system that determines the quality and categories of thought of each member of its society. The problem was discussed by the artist’s friends such as A. Artaud, J. Paulhan, M. Blanchot and others. This theme can be clearly illustrated by the series of portraits of Dubuffet and his interpretation of the concept of beauty, which, according to the artist, is to be contrasted with the ancient ideals.
On the other hand, in Dubuffet’s texts it is possible to discover lots of common traits with the structuralist approach to language learning. One of the most obvious ones is the artist’s definition of the concept of art through the word “langage”, that is according to F. de Saussure, through the concept of “speech activity”. Thus, the artist wanted to emphasize the importance of pictorial language as an integrated, comprehensive activity, as a communicative, cognitive process, rather than aesthetic one. Dubuffet also addresses such issues as objectivity of pictorial language, the problem of professionalism, communication of artistic image with reality, and others.
All this allows us to reveal a completely different aspect of art brut. Art brut allows one to describe the artistic activity as an innate characteristic of every person, free language, which is far from the accepted classical aesthetics. After all, it was only through the development and authoritarianism of Western culture and of its mechanisms of production that art started to be defined as a language only of the “talanted” people.

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The aim of this paper is to present the participation of Russian architects and sculptors in the emerging and development of the Art Deco style in Serbian architecture, to point out eminent masters and significant monuments, as well as their territorial and quantitative representation. The study is based on analyses of the realized projects, relevant and accessible documents found in archives, museums, publications, photo documentation and private collections.
Art Deco architecture was one of the dominant stylistic phenomena in Serbia between the two world wars. The decorative premises made this essentially modern style suit the refined artistic taste of Serbian social elite, that engaged this style in creation of an image of its representative identity. In this period Belgrade enrolled architects arriving from Russia, who followed local artistic demands oriented toward decorative but modern architectural form. Art Deco in Serbia was based on moder­nization of construction and building form, nevertheless focused on the facade styling, enriched with ornaments, stylized reliefs, sculptures and fine-detailed ironwork.
Architects Medvedev, Stashevski, Papkov were adherents of the style of softened, rhythmical and ornamentally-rich architecture and developed a specific version of ornamental Art Deco. Roman Verhovskoj repeatedly interpolated elements of Art Deco style in his works, which are especially pronounced in sculptural decor of the ossuary constructed for the perished Russians in Belgrade. Vladimir Zagorodnjuk enriched many public and appartement buildings with reliefs. Viktor Lukomski designed the Palace of the Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the State hotel on Avala.
Russian artists’ sculptural oeuvre of Art Deco style in Belgrade ranges from memorials to the fallen soldiers to the representations of dance that adorned the entrance of cinema “Belgrade”. Creating the interior of the most elite cinema in the city, architect Grigorij Samojlov brought to Belgrade the spirit of Hollywood and the style of elaborate Art Deco, thus marking Belgrade’s place on the “architectural” map of the world — the one comparable in importance to that of Paris, New York, Madrid, Casablanca, Havana and Mumbai. Art Deco architecture marked the period between the two world wars, becoming the most explicit form of positive creative global connections. In emanations of this style in Serbia, Russian artists were of great importance.

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“Leonardo’s lessons suggesting that the pupils should draw what they see on an old cracked wall — valid, but rather characteristic for everyone — are still not understood in all the depth”, — A. Breton wrote. The idea of an incidental image used in order to find inspiration or some replies to requests of the unconscious was actively applied in the surrealist art. In the surrealist photography the motif of “an old paranoid wall” (using A. Kamien-Kazhdan’s term) received various readings.
A photographer can snatch out complete pictures from the reality (some works from Brassai’s series “Graffiti” 1933–1956), showing how a wall texture participates in creation of the image, or easily read forms (E. Medkova “Eye” 1962, “Torso” 1965, K. J. Laughlin “The magic mountain” 1955). Thus, a title serves as a reference point for a viewer’s interpretation of the work.
The surface with a rich texture and incidental images can also be represented as an aesthetically valuable object, approximating abstraction. A viewer is frequently not given any obvious prompts — he is offered a chance to develop his own “talent of paranoid interpretation”, as A. Breton put it (F. Sommer “Found painting” 1949, works from A. Nozicka’s cycle “Complementary evidences” 1958–1961).
A picturesque texture of a wall can also be used by a photographer as an element of a work (for example, as a background) quite often acquiring historical and cultural references which a viewer should read (F. Sommer “Max Ernst” 1946, K. J. Laughlin “The head in the wall” 1945).
All these works are united by such key surrealist concepts as the found object, automatism and associations. Thus the application of “Leonardo’s lessons” allowed surrealist photographers to show that surreality is the immediate part of the reality which needs only to be uncovered and understood.

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Korean contemporary art is not a well-developed subject in Russian art studies. Despite the wide spread of globalization today, Asian art is still considered as a separated part of art history. This fact indicates the problem of exclusion of Asia from Eurocentric world context. Therefore, the importance of overcoming the mutual alienation seems to be obvious.
Installation art is one of the leading art genres nowadays. It is almost impossible to imagine an exposition of contemporary art without installation art pieces. However, it was not always like this. When the genre of installation emerged (known as “Environments” then), such art works could only be shown in limited marginal exhibition spaces. And it was only with time that it became official.
In post-war South Korea, the situation with installation art was similar. First experiments in installation were made by non-official artists and groups who were opposite to both political regime of military dictatorship and official art styles such as ‘dansaekhwa’. The significant contribution to the development of installation art in Korea was made by artists Lee Seung Taek, Kim Kulim, Lee Kun-Yong and art groups, such as AG, ST, TA-RA, Meta-Vox, Nanji-do etc.
In this paper, we will review the emergence of installation art in the 1970–1980s South Korea on the example of experimental art practices, compare its development with the history of Western installation and determine its influence on further development of contemporary art.

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