Kharkiv Art History School (1900s – early 2020s)

The article attempts to outline the activity of Kharkiv art history school from the time of its formation in the 1900s to the present day. The author reveals the main directions of research of university art history in Kharkiv, as well as figures of museum institutions who were engaged in the study of topical problems of art before the outbreak of Stalinist terror, when Kharkiv art history school was completely destroyed, and its representatives were either shot (F. Shmit, P. Fomin, K. Slipko-Moskaltsiv) or sent into exile (S. Taranushenko, P. Zholtovsky, D. Gordeiev, O. Berladina). It is emphasized that none of them ever returned to Kharkiv. This became a serious obstacle in the restoration of the scientific art history school in the city. This process lasted for a very long time in comparison with other artistic centers, Kyiv and Lviv in particular. The article reveals the traditions of art history science in Kharkiv, laid down in the first third of the 20th century before its destruction in the Stalinist period. The author also shows the changes in the organization of research activities in modern conditions, when university art history has become a thing of the past, and the scientific center has moved to the higher art institution of the city, which became the Kharkiv Institute of Art and Industry (the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts from 2001).The main directions of the development of art history in this higher educational institution of art in Kharkiv are revealed. It is shown that, first of all, Ukrainian studios were resumed as a separate direction and such an outstanding phenomenon of Ukrainian national art as M. Boichuk’s school, destroyed during the Stalinist repressions, was reconstructed. Separate pages about some figures of the glorious cohort of Ukrainian masters who, with their work, personified the bright and tragic era for the Ukrainian creative intelligentsia of the 1920s, namely artist-writer M. Zhuk as well as representatives of the avant-garde phenomenon in the artistic culture of the 20th century in Kharkiv (V. Yermilov, B. Kosarev, A. Petrytsky), were also revealed. Not only was the range of Oriental studies restored, but to some extent expanded, the study of Far and Middle Eastern art was introduced, and the study of Ukrainian art Judaica and Jewish art was brought to the wider modern world. In the Soviet period this was impossible due to the policy of the Soviet power. Ukrainian theater decoration art, Ukrainian school of art photography, contemporary art became new directions. The development of established traditions and deepening of the study of the sacred art and modern art forms are among the prospects for further directions.

Review of English-Language Research on Iconography of Late Antique Judaism (20th – 21st centuries)

The iconography of late antique Judaism became a research area in the second quarter of the 20th century. Before this time there was no such a large number of murals, mosaic pavements and other artworks available for examination. When scholars started considering monuments from late antique synagogues, they seek to find a relevant approach to studying the phenomenon of Jewish art in this period, its emergence and development. In the course of different periods in historiography of the subject various topics came to the forefront of research and became more important than the others. In the West this scientific area went through several stages in its development, while issues of iconography of late antique Judaism have not been on the agenda of the Russian-speaking scientific community till the present moment. This review of English-language major research seeks to compensate for the lack of a systematic view of the problem in Russian-language science, which is also touched upon in the present work. The subject of the present survey is historiography of Judaism iconography in the late antique period. The most cited English-language works on this subject are systematized in accordance with the periods of historiography and of the dominant direction of research. The review demonstrates three periods of historiography: early period with the stress on description; the second period with the question about existence and affiliation of Jewish art in late antiquity; and the latest period, observed in the present moment, that concentrates on systematic examination of art in general and some objects in particular. There are two main vectors of the study of the subject, which were formed by the end of the 20th century. The first is aimed at exploring symbols within the Jewish cultural paradigm without affecting the surrounding cultures. The second considers the symbols of Jewish iconography as included in the general cultural context of the regions of the Roman Empire, where worldviews were in constant interaction, and sometimes in opposition. Scientists have been developing both of these areas of research until present days. In the 21st century Jewish late antique iconography is an important area of research for Western science, which not only continues the development of problems indicated in the 20th century, but also formulates new ones, corresponding to modern trends in religious studies. The work shall attract the attention of readers to a significant number of little-known and highly specialized texts on the problem of the iconography of late antique Judaism.

Idyllic story in the creation of modern nations narratives, on the example of German, Jewish and Ukrainian painting

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of idyllic artistic plots related to German, Jewish and Ukrainian national narrative. Try to evaluate their motivating mechanism. The methodology is the use of ideological and plot analysis, methods of comparison and generalization. The scientific novelty is to expand the understanding of the plot content of some works of German, Jewish and Ukrainian art, in the context of their nation - creative motivation. Conclusions. The period of creation of modern nations became a great challenge for art. An important motivating role belongs to the creation of the image of the "ideal being", the mandate to which the new community promised. Thus, the nation-creative plot is, in one way or another, connected with sacralization sentiments. German painting in the Romantic era operated with paintings of idyll, which, however, contains memories of the Middle Ages as an era of even greater perfection. Thus arose the motivating potential of "return" to the epic of the past. Jewish art culture is characterized by a tradition of associating the ideal being with the holy city of Jerusalem, a "return" to which also has motivating potential. In Ukrainian art, there are also plots of natural idyll, but the situation of "ideal existence" is connected with the inner state of man - the warrior "Cossack Mamaу", who gains personal freedom for creativity. As a result of the study, it was found that idyllic plots associated with the creation of modern national narratives in German, Jewish and Ukrainian painting have a number of common and distinctive features. Common features include the presence of sacred content and solidarity of the surrounding community. Distinctive features are different vector of orientation of the motivating plot. In art related to the German narrative of ideal nation existence, vector can be described as epoch-centric, with the Jewish narrative as city-centric, and with Ukrainian as anthropocentric.

»Wir musizieren – trotzdem!« – Die Stuttgarter Jüdische Kunstgemeinschaft

The Stuttgarter Jüdische Kunstgemeinschaft (Stuttgart Jewish Art Society) existed only five years from 1933 to 1938 before the November Pogrom put an end to Jewish cultural work in Stuttgart. In just these five years, however, the Kunstgemeinschaft had become a nationally known and celebrated institution of Jewish cultural work – despite and in reaction to the National Socialists’ repressive policy of exclusion and surveillance. The Kunstgemeinschaft offered working alternatives for Jewish artists who had become unemployed and cultural events for the Jewish population excluded from society. In addition, the idea of »geistiger Widerstand« (intellectual resistance) found its way into the work of the Kunstgemeinschaft. But the real achievement of the Kunstgemeinschaft was its sheer existence in times of adverse and constantly changing political circumstances: it offered the Jews of Stuttgart and Württemberg a place of cultural enrichment and a home in difficult times.