Art on Both Sides of Reality. (Article I)

In a broad cultural and philosophical discourse, the comparison and differentiation of two layers of artistic reality in the 20th century, defining “the position of postmodern” (J.-F. Lyotard), are considered. It should be noted that in the 20th century art, without completely excluding the narrative-type artistic reality, was increasingly mastering the post-narrative artistic reality, but most often combined both artistic realities — modern and postmodern. The comprehension of art on both sides of reality presupposes the combination of narrative and post-narrative artistic realities as two layers of meaning covering the “vital reality” displayed and simultaneously overcome by them from both sides. The combination of “one’s own” text as the author’s narrative of life reality and the interweaving of “others” texts, ironically or creatively reflected in the form of a post-narrative texture, are put together as a two-layer text that contrasts “the life reality” in two ways. These provisions are confirmed by a number of literary examples.

Video Game Art Styles

The article examines the graphic styles that have arisen in the video game industry due to the technical features and development of this media. These styles are widely used and starting to go beyond the industry into the field of contemporary art. Despite the fact that pixel art is mainly used in the creation of video games, it has already become an independent form of visual style. Contemporary artists such as the Russian digital artist and designer under the pseudonym Uno Morales and the artist Natalya Struchkova turn to the pixel style when creating their works. Like the pixel art, voxel graphics has moved into the category of the game visual style, which employs an impressive community of digital artists. Low рoly graphics have modified from the main graphics of three-dimensional games, which look technically imperfect, into the category of an artistic style that forms a recognizable, attractive and unique geometric aesthetics of the image. We can trace the transformation of video game graphics, which have arisen as a result of technical constraints, into separate art styles: pixel art, voxel art, low рoly style, the minimalist style of the first classic video games. These styles are gradually becoming an independent visual unit that does not depend on the video game product as a whole.

“Tchaikovsky Called Me the First Performer of the Part of Lensky”. Unknown Memories by Pyotr Lodiy

The article analyzes the circumstances of the publication (December 1903, in the Chernomorskoe poberezh’e provincial newspaper) of the opera singer Pyotr Lodia’s memoirs about his meetings with Pyotr Tchaikovsky, unknown to contemporary researchers till now. The fact that Lodia had performed long before the premiere staging of fragments from the Eugene Onegin opera served as the basis for the singer, referring to the composer’s opinion, to consider himself the first performer of Lensky’s part. The text of this document is being published for the first time. Previously unknown biographical information about the singer’s activities in Novorossiysk is given. The work continues the research line of studying the connections between capitals and provinces at the stage of formation of professional musical culture in the southern regions of the country.

Сult and Critique of Raphael in the Late Nazarene Movement

The cult of Raphael is an important part of German romantic culture of the beginning of the 19th century. There were the Nazarenes who developed the cult of the Renaissance genius, and Raphael’s modern reputation is based on these romantic tradition. The article reveals special features of late romantic cult of Raphael, which caused the critique of the Italian master in the second half of the 19th — 20th centuries. The article discusses the art works of the Nazarenes (Franz Pforr, Peter von Cornelius, Franz and Johann Christian Riepenhausen). Special attention was paid to the art works and texts of the founder of Nazarene movement J.F. Overbeck of the 1830–1840s. This material was compared with the German art criticism of the same years, dedicated to the Düsseldorf Academy, an art school considerably influenced by the Nazarenes (A. Fahne, H. Püttmann). Typical for the Nazarene movement is the cult of Raphael as the main Christian painter, whose art is characterized as pure and harmonious. Other features of Raphael’s works, such as dynamic and emotional expressiveness of the form, were ignored or criticized. Such approach was firstly used in the J.F. Overbeck’s comment to the program painting The Triumph of Religion in the Arts (1829–1840) and developed in his later works (The Marriage of the Virgin, 1834–1836; The Lamentation, 1840–1845). This simplified image of Raphael became the subject of criticism for the next authors’ generation who supported the realistic searches of the masters of the mid-19th century. Nevertheless, Raphael’s works continued to be used as a standard for discussing of modern religious paintings.

Retro-Series About the Artists of Soviet Popular Music: Between Conventions, Past and Reality

The article deals with the dramaturgical and aesthetic patterns of the Russian TV series of the 2000s–2010s, which provide insight into the lives of famous Soviet pop music artists. The main characters in the biopics studied were inspired by Leonid Utyosov, Pyotr Leshchenko, Lyubov Orlova, Anna German, Lyudmila Zykina, Valentina Tolkunova, Alla Pugacheva, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Edita Piekha, Valery Obodzinsky and Muslim Magomaev. The article gives an overview of the similarities in the development of historical and biographical film genres in Hollywood and Soviet cinema. Moreover, a brief introduction to Soviet films about musicians is provided. The main part of the research is devoted to the issues of adaptation of Hollywood conventions of the music biopic genre In Russiania. Through the interaction of the Soviet past, Hollywood standards and contemporary Russian realities, the specific features of different narration types are revealed, the issue of authenticity is considered, and the status of pop music in the past and present is outlined. In addition, the types of dramatic conflicts and types of heroes are analyzed, questions of the commercial component in relation to Soviet popular culture are raised.

The Vitality of Viennese Art Nouveau

The article develops the problem of vitality in art on the basis of the so-called Viennese Art Nouveau, in particular on the basis of the works of Arthur Schnitzler, Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser and critical works of Hermann Bahr. The concept of vitality is seen as the foundation of that artistic anthropology, which united all types of art within the framework of Viennese Art Nouveau, giving them a single intention. The heightened interest in Man as a psychophysiological phenomenon, in the instinctive nature of man and the chaos of his inner — mental — life, in the borderline states of human existence in the space of the eternal antinomy of Eros and Thanatos — all this led to the unprecedented originality of the art of Vienna at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

Aesthetic Height of the Art and the Art Market: Essential and Imaginary Nature of Art Quality

A problem of perfection at art is analyzed in the article according to paradigm of the art market as a system of cultural, economic and social interactions of the art world. The author finds out the vitality of the artwork not only as its essential value but also defines the idea of its imaginary vitality. The latter is created by the art market participants, and it causes the commercial value of the artwork. The article makes an assumption about the division of art, at least of the Modern and Contemporary history, into two spheres — the art of “aesthetic experience” and the art of “commercial success”. While the art of “aesthetic experience” is aimed at finding and creating a new artistic language (the embodiment of new creative ideas, complex ethical and aesthetic problems), the art of “commercial success” follows artistic stereotypes, uses creative innovations in an adapted form, which is included in the cultural and aesthetic system familiar to the audience of art. This antithesis is analyzed in the article by the example of comparing a number of works by two artists of the same time. One is Mikhail Larionov, a prominent artist of the Russian Avant-Garde, and the other is Vladislav Izmailovitch, a typical representative of Salon and Late Academic art. Considering the specific historical aspects of vitality in art, the author analyzes several examples. Firstly, the late oeuvre of the Russian artist Ilya Repin as a metaphor for the “joy of the risen”. Secondly, the Easter rarities of the House of Faberge, which have changed their status over the past century from a home memorabilia to a cultural myth and became an object of the art market nowadays. Thirdly, the exposition of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2019, where authors and curators exploited the vitality of Dutch and Flemish art of the 17th century as the personification of contemporary creative pursuits.

Warriors of Steel: Representations of Machinery and Technology in British Heavy Metal of the 1980s

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal is a remarkable phenomenon in British cultural history of the 1980s. Trying to identify themselves and to indicate their reaction to the social and political context in the UK, young musicians turned to the representation of fantastic worlds. The language of the “fantastic” in early British heavy metal was primarily associated with themes of mechanization, heroics, epics, mythology, fantasy and science fiction. The musical form was often emphatically epic and majestic, designed to create an audio picture to the lyrics. Visual representations — large-scale, spectacular, often theatrical live performances — played an important role in the representation of the “fantastic”. The semiotic element consisted of the signs and symbols of heavy metal (mascots, occult themes, mythological creatures, technocratic motives), which were reflected not only in the design of album covers and the metal bands names, but also in the clothes and behavior of musicians and their fans. The paper examines the specifics of the fantastic language of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands and, first of all, the representation of technogenic motives: how machines and robots were depicted, what techniques were used to create machine soundscapes, how this topic was played up within live performances, and finally, what cultural significance did references to machines and technology have.

Waters of Palestine in the Series of Oriental Sketches by V.D. Polenov. The Natural and the Symbolic

The article is devoted to the series of Oriental sketches created by V.D. Polenov during his journey to the East in 1882. The main object of the study are the landscapes belonging to the second part of the artist’s trip, after he leaves Jerusalem and moves from the Dead Sea, along the Jordan, to Lake Genisaret and further north to the limits of the Biblical lands. During this time the “set” of stable landscape motifs to which the artist refers in his sketches changes. The artist’s own movement from the place of Christ’s execution and passionate journey to the lands of his ministry and birth corresponds to his move from the solid and cave motifs to the waters in his sketches. And the water motif itself undergoes various changes correlating to Christian symbolism of the places Polenov visits. The internal theme of the series of field sketches from the Holy Land is associated with the semantics of the Gospel cycle.

Marilyn’s Dyptich: The Evolution of the Image from Pop Art to Thrash Art (to the 95th Anniversary of the Birth of the Actress)

Marilyn Monroe is already a mass culture personage. Andy Warhol created an image that removes us from the original source, on the basis of impressions associated with the life of a real person. The diptych has turned into a kind of template that can be easily filled with different meanings. The author of the article reflects on the characteristic features of this template, which is often used by contemporary artists to reproduce. The question of the citation of this diptych in the culture of the second half of the 20th century is quite well studied. But the experience of a specific kind of appropriation of this image by artists of the new millennium has already accumulated. Among them, the masters of thrash art are of particular interest: Vik Muniz and Jane Perkins. It is significant that they do not refer to the numerous photographic and film images of Marilyn Monroe. They refer specifically to the template created by Andy Warhol. They play with it, translating the substantive problems of this famous diptych into the plane of design.