The paper examines the work of an artist of the silver age, Raisa Kotovich-Borisyak (1890–1923), a student of K. Petrov-Vodkin. Her work is examined through the idea of her attitude to cultural tradition as a value. The choice of the angle of approach was determined by an actual creative search of the artist. The artist took part in the “Art World” (“Mir iskusstva”) exhibitions (1915, 1917) and in a number of other exhibitions in Moscow in 1918–1919, and posthumously her works were exhibited in the Historical Museum (1923, 1924), “Zhar Tsvet” and “30 Moscow artists” (both in 1924). In the beginning of the twenties, she was a researcher in the Chief Museum (“Glavmusei”) in Moscow, the curator of the Novodevichy Monastery Museum. Rediscovery and study of the artist’s work took place with two personal exhibitions in 2000, prepared by the author of this paper, together with the journal “Our Heritage” (“Nashe naslediye”), and the publication in 2005 of her diary “The Little Book of Great Bear”, inspired by her contacts with bright and creative persons. The memory of this circle of the intelligentsia of her time is preserved in the portraits by R. Kotovich-Borisyak. Self-portraits and portraits creatively implemented the synthesis of classical, iconic and avant-garde elements. Visual impression and intellectual perception harmoniously complemented each other. Their contents, in the phrase of I. Pearce, are what the work discloses involuntarily, but never parades. The artist giving a lot of attention both to color and to drawing has a variety of works to her credit. Her inspired landscapes are many-faceted, a prominent place belongs to the theme of the city — a kind of urban landscape colored by the creative vision of the artist. The pictures devoted to religious and mystical themes were inspired by the images of people and events of the epoch, of wars and revolutions disclosed to her as visions, sometimes calm and enlightened, sometimes full of frightening premonitions. They expressed her connection with the religious and philosophic quest of the silver age and her attitude to life: ethic and aesthetic comprehension of reality.

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