scholarly journals Open Fora

Author(s):  
Vita Susak

Just half a century ago, Malevich’s name was familiar to very few people. On a wave of international interest to the avant-garde, he became a world-famous artist. Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) was born into a Polish family in Kyiv and created the Black Square (1915) in Moscow. These are the most important facts that todayallow three countries (Poland, Ukraine, and Russia) to consider him as their “own” artist. Art historians and curators actively research Malevich’s work, usually arguing that he belongs to the culture they themselves represent.This paper gives a brief overview of the discovery of Malevich in the West and of his late recognition in the USSR. It also deals with the growth of his popularity since the early 1980s, and provides examples of the current use of his name and work in cultural-political narratives. Malevich’s legacy has gone far beyond art history tobecome iconic in each of the three countries. Today the abstract visual language unseats realistic images due to its universal nature; pure abstract forms become incorporated with their three-dimensional configurations into urban spaces. Million-dollar prices at auctions encourage counterfeits, resulting in some huge scandals. Suprematist language is employed in a very broad range: from the tragic to the entertaining. Malevich becomes a “trump card” in national “decks.” It is precisely the international meaning of Malevich’s ideas that has caused national “competition” for this author.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211
Author(s):  
Patricia E. Chu

The Paris avant-garde milieu from which both Cirque Calder/Calder's Circus and Painlevé’s early films emerged was a cultural intersection of art and the twentieth-century life sciences. In turning to the style of current scientific journals, the Paris surrealists can be understood as engaging the (life) sciences not simply as a provider of normative categories of materiality to be dismissed, but as a companion in apprehending the “reality” of a world beneath the surface just as real as the one visible to the naked eye. I will focus in this essay on two modernist practices in new media in the context of the history of the life sciences: Jean Painlevé’s (1902–1989) science films and Alexander Calder's (1898–1976) work in three-dimensional moving art and performance—the Circus. In analyzing Painlevé’s work, I discuss it as exemplary of a moment when life sciences and avant-garde technical methods and philosophies created each other rather than being classified as separate categories of epistemological work. In moving from Painlevé’s films to Alexander Calder's Circus, Painlevé’s cinematography remains at the forefront; I use his film of one of Calder's performances of the Circus, a collaboration the men had taken two decades to complete. Painlevé’s depiction allows us to see the elements of Calder's work that mark it as akin to Painlevé’s own interest in a modern experimental organicism as central to the so-called machine-age. Calder's work can be understood as similarly developing an avant-garde practice along the line between the bestiary of the natural historian and the bestiary of the modern life scientist.


Leonardo ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Kirschenbaum

This paper documents an interactive graphics installation entitled Lucid Mapping and Codex Transformissions in the Z-Buffer. Lucid Mapping uses the Virtual Reality Modeling Language to explore textual and narrative possibilities within three-dimensional (3D) electronic environments. The author describes the creative rationale and technical design of the work and places it within the context of other applications of 3D text and typography in the digital arts and the scientific visualization communities. The author also considers the implications of 3D textual environments on visual language and communication, and discriminates among a range of different visual/ rhetorical strategies that such environments can sustain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-145
Author(s):  
O. A. Podguzova ◽  

Sergey Borisovich Yakovenko is the People's Artist of Russia, a famous musician, vocal teacher and Doctor of Art History. He entered a bright page in the history of Russian vocal art of the XXth century. Starting from the 1950s, as a vocalist, he was in great demand for chamber vocal performances, with some of them being composed by modern musicians. Yakovenko was able to operate freely with a whole stock of expressive means, inherent for avant-garde music, allowing him to take part in the most difficult performances of the latest vocal and vocal-instrumental compositions, which manifested his inclination to the theater, to the disclosure of the dramaturgy of works. S. B. Yakovenko’s stage talent declared itself in its fullness during the performance of mono- operas, among them "Diary of a Madman" by Yuriy Butsko (1968), which received a great resonance in the theatrical life of Russia. The general content of this article is the analysis of S. B. Yakovenko’s performing skill, which gave birth to a wide range of character images, generated by the protagonist’s imagination. After the analysis of audio and video recordings of the vocalist’s performances, as well as his numerous scientific works and conversations, the author discovers several important features typical for the performing interpretation by S. B. Yakovenko. These are his vocal-dramaturgical principles and vocal-theatrical direction. In Y. Boutsko’s opera "Diary of a Madman" the unique performance palette of S. B. Yakovenko allows the singer to create eight various, rapidly interchanging images, using exclusively the resources of his voice, while being on an empty stage without props and with little or no gesture or mime.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-211
Author(s):  
Nikola Dedić

This text attempts to mark the difference between traditional, modern, monodisciplinary and contemporary interdisciplinary approaches within the analysis of reception of media and artistic contents. Monodisciplinary approaches are connected with the classical basis of humanistic and social sciences which are related to the definition of culture based on opposition between mass and elite culture (art). Avant-garde and linguistic turn within social sciences in the 60s realized re-evaluation of the notion of culture-culture is not seen anymore as a sum of elite products of human spirit but rather as a production of cultural meaning, i.e. as a discourse. This turn enabled interdisciplinary turn within the sciences as aesthetics and art history and also enabled the emergence of contemporary interdisciplinary media theory.


2020 ◽  
pp. 36-40
Author(s):  
M. V. Ternova

The article analyzed concept of the study of art by Robin George Collingwood (1889-1943), a well-known English neo-hegelian philosopher. His significant part of the theoretical heritage is connected with the explanation of the nature of art and with the consideration of its condition during the period of the changing Oscar Wilde era to the era of Rudyard Kipling. The circle of problem such as content and form, character, image, mimesis, reflection, emotion, art and "street man" identified. All of them in Collingwood's presentation and interpretation significantly expanded the space of research not only English, but also European art criticism. The concept of study of art is "built" on the basis of an active understanding of historical and cultural traditions accented. The concept of art criticism of R.G. Collingwood – a famous English philosopher of the XIX-XX centuries, on the one hand, has self-importance, and on the other, although based on the traditions of contemporary humanities, still expands art history analysis of aesthetics through aesthetics and psychology. Recognizing the exhaustion of the English model of romanticism, R.G. Collingwood tries to outline the prospects for the development of art in the logic of the movement "romanticism – realism – avant-garde", which leads to the actualization of the problem of "mimesis – reflection". At the same time, the theorist's attention is consciously concentrated around the concept of "subject", the understanding of which is radically changing at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Theoretical material in the presentation of R.G. Collingwood is based on the work of Shakespeare, Reynolds, Turner, Cezanne, whose experience allows us to focus on the problem of "artist and audience". It is emphasized that Collingwood's position is ahead of its time, stimulating scientific research in the European humanities. The existence of indicative tendencies, which are distinguished in the logic of European cultural creation of the historical period, is emphasized.


2021 ◽  
pp. 219-228
Author(s):  
Lesia TURCHAK

The work of Ukrainian artists who have contributed to Ukrainian and international art, is not sufficiently disclosed. Their creative search impresses with versatility, interesting decision, continues to impress and inspire contemporaries. Purpose of the article — to find out the contribution of the Ukrainian avant-garde artist, set designer, teacher Oleksandra Ekster, to the Ukrainian and international fine arts. Oleksandra Ekster’s work has been the subject of research for decades. Scientists are interested in the painter’s art search, her contribution to Ukrainian avant-garde, scenography reforms, and teaching activity. Some sources may state that Ekster is a representative of Russian avant-garde. However, the artist grew up in Kyiv, obtained art education and promoted with her work not only Ukrainian but world avant-garde as well. The research of modern scientists (H. Kovalenko, D. Horbachova, T. Filevska, N. Stoliarchuk, M. Yur and others) makes it possible to review the artist’s life and artistic journey as well as her contribution to art history. The research methodology consists of a range of methods: historical, biographical, theoretical. The abovementioned methodological approach allows studying the question of historical data relating to the events in Ukraine that led to the emigration waves, finding out certain biographical facts and analyzing the artist’s creative activity.


Author(s):  
Iryna Ivashchenko ◽  
Viktoriya Strelchuk

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the interpretive theater direction of A. Prikhodka in the context of experiments with the representation of classical and modern texts. Methodology. Comparative and structural methods have been applied in order to reveal the versatility of the director's intention; the method of hermeneutic and the semiotic method, which contributed to the opportunity to explore the specifics of the director's representation; the hermeneutic method is dominant in the process of evaluating performances since it contributes to the perception of the production as an artistic whole, provided that the functionality of its individual components is understood; the method of semiotic analysis of postmodern stage works, etc. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that the specificity of the representation of classical and modern texts in the work of theatrical director A. Prikhodka is considered in the context of the trends of this process in the modern theatrical space on the basis of comprehensive art history, theater, and cultural analysis. The theoretical views of A. Prikhodka are analyzed, the factors of influence on the production process and its specifics are revealed; an attempt is made to consider the phenomenon of the representation of literary texts from the perspective of postmodern trends in the development of modern Ukrainian theater. Conclusions. The work of A. Prikhodka is characterized by the reworking of the literary source of the production at the text level, including, among other things, a significant substantive reworking - highlighting plot lines, building plot lines, a successive reworking of prose characters into dramatic ones, the emergence of new, non-fictional characters, etc. - turning into a unique a literary script for the author's embodiment of a stage composition with the help of specific means of director's expressiveness of postmodern, realistic and avant-garde theater. The study revealed that the creative representations of classical and modern tests by A. Prikhodka reveal the hidden potential of the literary source, giving it a new philosophical and worldview understanding. The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the interpretive theater direction of A. Prikhodka in the context of experiments with the representation of classical and modern texts. Methodology. Comparative and structural methods have been applied in order to reveal the versatility of the director's intention; the method of hermeneutic and the semiotic method, which contributed to the opportunity to explore the specifics of the director's representation; the hermeneutic method is dominant in the process of evaluating performances since it contributes to the perception of the production as an artistic whole, provided that the functionality of its individual components is understood; the method of semiotic analysis of postmodern stage works, etc. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that the specificity of the representation of classical and modern texts in the work of theatrical director A. Prikhodka is considered in the context of the trends of this process in the modern theatrical space on the basis of comprehensive art history, theater, and cultural analysis. The theoretical views of A. Prikhodka are analyzed, the factors of influence on the production process and its specifics are revealed; an attempt is made to consider the phenomenon of the representation of literary texts from the perspective of postmodern trends in the development of modern Ukrainian theater. Conclusions. The work of A. Prikhodka is characterized by the reworking of the literary source of the production at the text level, including, among other things, a significant substantive reworking - highlighting plot lines, building plot lines, a successive reworking of prose characters into dramatic ones, the emergence of new, non-fictional characters, etc. - turning into a unique a literary script for the author's embodiment of a stage composition with the help of specific means of director's expressiveness of postmodern, realistic and avant-garde theater. The study revealed that the creative representations of classical and modern tests by A. Prikhodka reveal the hidden potential of the literary source, giving it a new philosophical and worldview understanding.


Author(s):  
Isabel Wünsche

Faktura, literally "texture," is related to the Russian avant-garde’s preoccupation with the fundamental principles of the creative process. The term, applied to a work of art, addresses the way in which materials are used, the processes, the surrounding environment, and the artistic devices; it characterizes the textural structure of a work of art and the manner by which it was constructed. As a creative principle, it rejects a pictorial space based on perspective and the illusion of three-dimensional space projected onto a flat canvas. The Russian formalist critic Viktor Shklovsky considered faktura to be the single most important quality of an object of art as a constructed object: it was the evidence of its having been made. He applied the term to poetic writing as well as the visual arts; in both cases faktura offered a visual demonstration of the properties inherent in a material or construction: "The whole effort of a poet and a painter is aimed first and foremost at creating a continuous and thoroughly palpable object, an object with a faktura." The term faktura remained a fluid concept during the 1910s, its essential qualities being further defined and developed by members of the avant-garde from 1913 well into the mid-1920s. While faktura, as initially used by members of the early Russian avant-garde, was characterized by the use of natural materials and a holistic–metaphysical approach to art, it was later adapted by the Constructivists to conform to a strictly materialist ideology and utilitarian orientation in artistic production.


Author(s):  
Lisandra Estevez

Part of the Cuban vanguardia (or vanguard movement), René Portocarrero broke with the academic style of art that prevailed in Cuba in order to create a modern visual language that expressed his cultural identity. Born in Havana on 24 February 1912, René Portocarrero was one of the great second-generation artists of the Cuban avant-garde movement. Multi-talented, he was a painter of easel pictures, ceramicist, illustrator, muralist and set designer. Portocarrero’s early works were expressionist in style and explored a varied body of subject matter that was inspired by his native country.


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