Issue 27 (2017, 3) Summary

ARTICULT #27 (3-2017) September-October

SUMMARY

THEORY OF ART

POSTTOTALITARY PERIOD IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN CINEMA: RELIGIOUS TRADITION AND MASS MENTALITY. SECOND PART
UDC 130.2+7.01
Author: Hrenov Nikolai Andreyevich, Dr.Habil. in Philosophy, Professor, Chief Researcher at the Department of Arts and mass media of the State Institute of Art Studies (5 Kozitsky pereulok, Moscow, Russia, 125000), e-mail: nihrenov@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6890-7894
Summary: The second article analyzes the transformation of mass religious representations from the Soviet era to the present day and their reflection in the cinema. It is proved that Russian cinema clarifies the conclusions about the specifics of the mass religious mentality undertaken by Russian social thought (messianism, apocalyptic program). It is also shown that a number of paradoxes of Russian religiosity, such as idealism, threatening to turn into nihilism, like social transgression threatening to turn into radicalism, are uncovered in cinematography supplementing observations made by Russian religious philosophers. Detailed analysis of the films, first of all, “Leviathan” by dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev, makes it possible to clarify the boundaries of the social effects of religiosity and the influence of Russian religious consciousness on aesthetic preferences of common people, and thus on the ways of representing these preferences in art.
Keywords: Soviet cinema, contemporary Russian cinema, mass consciousness, social cinematography, religion in art, Russian religious philosophy

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FOREGROUND COMPOSITION AND LINEAR RECEPTION OF PICTURES
UDC 7.01+7.017.9
Author: Filippov Sergei Alexandrovich, Ph.D. in Art Studies, researcher at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (9 Mokhovaya street, Moscow, Russia, 125009), e-mail: s_a_filippov@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6032-6641
Summary: The conventional system of the central (Renaissance) perspective is based on the angular values of the apparent objects in the picture. Thus, we habituated to the angular reception of the picture plane and usually neglect its apparent linear sizes. However, the linear sizes, having various semantics (social, sacral or narrative value of depicted objects, their size or distance to them), played an important role not only in the pre-Renaissance systems of perspective, but in the Renaissance system too. The linear cultural reception is presented in this system both in rudiments of antecedent systems and in original forms. Among the original forms the point of special interest is so-called foreground composition where foreground objects have strong scale contrast with objects in the background. This type of composition (especially, its reverse version, when the background has exaggerated scale), probably, objectivates some properties of human visual space.
Keywords: cognitive art theory, perspective systems, cultural reception of the flat visual arts, visual space, life size, history of painting, Sergei Eisenstein

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HISTORY OF ART

“TOY, PUPPET, MYSTERIOUS WORLD”: IMAGES OF PUPPETS IN THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER BENOIS
UDC 7.04+7.036
Author: Zavyalova Anna Yevgenyevna, PhD in Art Studies, leading research associate of the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of Russian Academy of Arts (21 Prechistenka street, Moscow, Russia, 119034), e-mail: annazav@bk.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2704-0486
Summary: The article is on sources in literature and art of puppet images in the works of Alexander Benois. The article traces differences in the development of this image. In his book The Russian school of painting in the 19 century and in the gouache King's Walk Benois followed the European literary tradition to represent puppets as weak-willed and dependent. But in graphic works Italian comedy. Love Memo, Winter Dream, Wedding Walk, Chinese Pavilion. Jealous man Benois created image of independency of the seemingly living puppets, aiming to rethink the 18 c. French and 19 c. German works.
Keywords: Alexandre Benois, Constantin Somov, Russian art of the late 19 and early 20 century, Art Nouveau, puppets

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THE ART OF KUZMA PETROV-VODKIN AT ITALIAN AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS. TO THE INTERNATIONAL PERCEPTION OF RUSSIAN ART IN 1910–1930s.
UDC 7.036+7.091.8
Author: Gribonosova-Grebneva Elena Vladimirovna, PhD in Art Studies, research fellow at the Chair of Russian Art History, Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University (27-4 Lomonosovsky Prospekt, Moscow, Russia, 119991), e-mail: gribonosova-grebneva@yandex.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6714-5683
Summary: The large-scale exhibitions of Russian art, which took place in Malmo in 1914, in Venice in 1924, 1928, 1932, 1934, in Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Vienna, and other European cities in 1927–1928 and 1930, were conducive to its acceptance into the world art context, allowing him to show certain important features of similarity or distinction from the arts of other countries, as well as were demonstrative for the growing interest of both the public and the press to Soviet art works. In this aspect the work of Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin seems to have particular importance, as uniting traditional Russian art and European erudition. The press reports of those exhibitions, held in Petrov-Vodkin’s Moscow archives, show wide range of opinions and evaluations, and provide reasons for spotlighting particular art figures and Petrov-Vodkin as the most often mentioned.
Keywords: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, International art exhibitions, Russian and Soviet art, international press reports, paintings, graphic works

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SUBJECTIVISM AND DISGRACE. VENICE BIENNALE OF 1956-1977 IN THE SOVIET CULTURAL PRESS
UDC 7.072.3+7.091.8
Author: Vinogradova Ekaterina Igorevna, graduate student of the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture I.E. Repin (17 Universitetskaya nab., Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 199034), PhD candidate, Grenoble Alpes University (621, avenue Centrale, 38400 Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France), e-mail: tekarinka@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1863-7451
Summary: The article is devoted to the problems of the consecration of art presented at the Venice Biennale during the Khrushchev thaw of the 60s. The author examines the development of the critical thought of Soviet art magazines in relation to their relationship to Soviet and Western art in an international capitalist event. Particular attention is paid to the evaluation of realistic and abstract art at the Biennale. An analysis of the articles of the cultural press of the sixties makes possible to broaden the notion of the participation of the USSR at the Venice Biennale and the Party's policy regarding the reception of abstract art.
Keywords: Venice Biennale, Soviet art, cultural press, art criticism

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CONTEMPORARY ART

ONTOLOGY OF “CONTEMPORARY ART”
UDC 001.8+7.01+7.036-38
Author: Schtein Sergey Yuryevich, PhD in Art Studies, assistant professor, Chair of the Cinema and Contemporary Art Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, Russia, 125993), e-mail: sergey@schtein.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4419-1369
Summary: The article is dedicated to translation of the term “contemporary art” from language format into ontological scheme format possible if we use activity approach and methodical ontologization under execution of special methodological strategy through conditions of permanent reflexive-methodological work developed in relation to the subject area general as uniform equally for art studies as disciplinary objectivity, and for various types of specific art studies discourses. The resulting construction allows us to overcome the predetermined discursiveness of language definitions connected with the term “contemporary art”, considering them as a product of specific reflexive and research activity in relation to real existence, distinguished from existing and potential knowledge concepts, getting in this research an expression in the mood of the structural elements of their ontological schemes.
Keywords: contemporary art, ontology of contemporary art, activity approach, ontologization, permanent reflexive-methodological work, methodology of art studies, art theory, the science of art

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“CELEBRATION? REALIFE”: INSTALLATIONS BY MARC CAMILLE CHAIMOWICZ
UDC 7.038.55
Author: Shuvalova Anna Stanislavovna, PhD, postgraduate student, Chair of the Cinema and Contemporary Art Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, Russia, 125993), e-mail: a.shuvalova@ncca.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4478-0240
Summary: The article analyzes the installation practice of the artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz. Following an overview of the history of creation and spatial organisation of his works “Celebration? Realife” and “Enough Tiranny”, the author proposes an interpretation of their titles and their possible readings. Then the article explores the tactics of audience engagement which points to the relational dimension of the artwork. This observation allows to consider the artist’s practice as precedent for the principles of relational aesthetics of the 1990s. However the proposed collaboration assumes antagonistic interaction and bears a potential rather than actual nature. The innovative for 1970s approach of Chaimowicz consists in blurring the line between private and public space, and the transformation of the author’s role. In the concluding part the article discusses the particular site-specific nature of the installation which correlates with the tendency to occupy non-exhibitional spaces with art which has outspread during those years. Finally the athor proposes some conclusions on the place of Chaimowicz’s work in the history of contemporary art.
Keywords: Marc Camille Chaimowicz, installation, relational aesthetics, site-specificity

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CINEMA

CRITICISM OF THE “SEXUAL ISSUE” IN THE SOVIET CINEMA OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1920s – EARLY 1930s.
UDC 791.43-2
Author: Smagina Svetlana Aleksandrovna, Ph.D. in Art Studies, Senior Researcher, Film Art Institute at the All-Russian state institute of cinematography of S.A. Gerasimov (3 Wilhelm Pik street, Moscow, Russia, 129226), e-mail: smsval@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8502-5383
Summary: Soviet cinema is very responsive to the public interest in the “sexual issue”, this topic becomes not only the hottest and most demanded at the Komsomol meetings, but also in a fairly short time spills into a catastrophic in its engagement and scope “theory of a glass of water”, advocating free sexual relations. The article is devoted to films that not only cover the relationship between the sexes in Bolshevik Russia, but also criticize the new proletarian morality: The Third Meshchanskaya (1927, dir. A.Rohm), The Parisian Shoemaker (1927, dir. F.Ermler), The Court must continue (The Parade of Virtue, 1930, dir. E.Dzigan).
Keywords: cinema history, Soviet cinema, “sexual issue”, “Chubar case”, Roem, Dzigan, Ermler, gender, gender studies of cinematography

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“BABETTE'S FEAST” BY GABRIEL AXEL: TO THE QUESTION OF GENRE
UDC 791.43-2
Author: Kaplun Marianna Viktorovna, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher Associate, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (25а Povarskaya street, Moscow, Russia, 121069), e-mail: tangosha86@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2427-2855
Summary: The article examines the genre of the film “Babette's Feast” by Gabriel Axel as a screen adaptation of the self-titled novel by Danish writer Karen Blixen. Such genres as religious drama, costume melodrama and heritage film are considered. A comparative analysis of Karen Blixen’s and Jane Austen’s works is given in the context of the literary tradition and cinema adaptation.
Keywords: screen adaptation, heritage film, novel, melodrama, literary adaptation

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HISTORY AND THEORY OF CULTURE

THE NEW AMERICA OF ALEXANDER BLOK AND ANTONIN LADINSKY
UDC 168.522+82-15
Author: Arustamova Anna Al'bertovna, Dr.Habil. in philology, professor, Perm State National Research University (15 Bukireva street, Perm, Russia, 614990), e-mail: aarustamova@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3079-0253
Summary: The article discusses the permanence of the new America topic in the Russian culture as compilation of two issues: technocratic utopia and ideal mood of new world. It is proved that idealistic tendency of this topic provided not with consideration of the object, but with reconceptualization by this poets and thinkers their own destiny as part of the human development. Substantiation of this topic required deep rethinking of such concepts as labor and wandering, possible only in the Blok’s aesthetic program, although it was anticipated by the previous self-consciousness in Russian culture. The study of the transformations of this topic in the Russian emigre literature makes possible to explain significance of the main cultural concepts for Russian intellectual reflection, if we examine concepts of path, wandering, labor, memory and salvation, anticipating potential of intercultural dialogue around these concepts.
Keywords: utopia, image of culture, poetry and culture

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THE FEATURES OF CHRONOTOPE IN NABOKOV’S SONNETS
UDC 82-193.3
Author: Pogrebnaya Yana Vsevolodovna, Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Stavropol State Pedagogical Institute (417 “A” Lenina street, Stavropol, Stavropol Krai, Russia, 355029), e-mail: maknab@bk.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9974-9147
Summary: Nabokov's sonnets of the period 1916-1924 form single artistic unity through tendency to cyclization. The article analyzes the semantics of the categories “top” and “bottom”, “past” and “present”, material and transcendental worlds in Nabokov’s sonnets in the aspect of evolution of this genre-strophic form.
Keywords: Nabokov, sonnet, genre-strophic form, transcendental in art, other world in art

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CHRISTIAN SUBTEXTS IN ANNIBALE RAMA BY P. VOLPONI
UDC 82Volponi.07
Author: Makarov Dimitri Igorevich, Dr.Habil, professor and head of the Department of General humanities, The Urals State Conservatoire named after M. P. Mussorgsky (26 Prospekt Lenina, Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, 620014), e-mail: dimitri.makarov@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3902-6190
Summary: The article raises the problem of Biblical and Christian subtexts in Italian post-modernist writer Paolo Volponi’s short story Annibale Rama (1965). Despite the story being a technocratic anti-utopia in the post-Fordist spirit, certain allusions to the Biblical and Gospel motives can be detected in its ideological and imagery structure. Thus, for example, an assistant of the main hero is presented as a transformation of the Gospel image of the pious criminal. A reference to the Platonic notion of thinking and thought as light (Resp. VI, 507d-509b), which was so prominent in Plotinus and St. Gregory of Nyssa, features in the story. Special subject for consideration in the treatment of Volponi’s artistic universe is formed by some consonances between the Byzantine patristic tradition (Anastasius of Sinai, early 8th century) and Annibale Rama, the theme of contingent and Providence being reflected in a remarkable way in the story. If the universe of the story is a “one-person” one (L. Doležel), then, the hero, i.e., Annibale Rama, turns out to be a mediator between the sacred and the profane, licit and illicit, Renaissance-like occult and Biblical and Christian foundations of the European cultural tradition, which is alluded to by his very name.
Keywords: Paolo Volponi, Plato, Plotinus, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Anastasius of Sinai, anti-utopia, thought as light, contingent, Providence, post-Fordism, technocracy, the pious criminal, Bible as the meta-text of the European culture

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DECAY OF LIFE AS ART RULE IN THE MIDDLE-LEVEL RUSSIAN IDEALISM
UDC 159.9.016.133 Author-1: Markov Alexander Viktorovich, Dr.Habil. in philology, full professor, Chair of the Cinema and Contemporary Art Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, Russia, 125993), e-mail: markovius@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6874-1073
Author-2: Martianova Svetlana Alekseevna, PhD, associate professor, Head of the Chair of Russian and Foreign Philology, Vladimir State University named after A.G. and N.G. Stoletovs (87 Gorky Street, Vladimir, Russia, 600000), e-mail: martyanova62@list.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6917-0118
Summary: The characteristics of Russian thought at the beginning of the twentieth century as a decadent or resisting decline do not explain the internal principles of its formation as part of European modernity. This article shows for the first time how mature and developed system of ideas produced certain biographical programs that require cultural transcoding of existentialism as decline. The article proves that the culture of the epoch required systemic thinking at the middle level of production of philosophical texts. Consideration of the middle production of texts makes it possible to see whole series of projects of Russian modernist philosophy, such as lifebuilding, “decadent” sensitivity, Florensky's mathematical metaphysics or the philosophy of language, as necessary stemming from the middle-structured understanding of the subject. It is proved that systematizing thought, which claimed to be an expression of universal experience, fell into the trap of language contradictions. Particular attention is paid to the art history observations of representatives of Russian idealism and to the cultural consequences of these observations.
Keywords: philosophical system, religious philosophy, decadence, life-building, biographical programs, Russian idealistic philosophy, Russian avant-garde

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PSYCHOLOGY OF CULTURE AND ART

AESTHETIC PARADIGM IN A TRANSITIVE WORLD
UDC 159.99
Author-1: Martsinkovskaya Tatiana Davidovna, Dr.Hab. in Psychology, full professor, director of the Institute of Psychology named after L.S. Vygotsky, Russian State University for the Humanities (6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, Russia, 125993), e-mail: tdmartsin@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2810-2554
Author-2: Orestova Vasilisa Ruslanovna, Dr.Hab. in Psychology, full professor, Chairperson of the chair of the psychological studies of person, Institute of Psychology named after L.S. Vygotsky, Russian State University for the Humanities (6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, Russia, 125993), e-mail: v.r.orestova@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9566-1826
Summary: The role of culture in harmonizing emotional experience of personal being in time and space of the modern world is considered. The concept of socio-psychological transitivity is disclosed. The role of the aesthetic paradigm is analyzed; it is shown that its functions are related to the stabilization of the picture of the human world, the crystallization of emotional experiences connected with the world and oneself, forecasts of probable ways of society development. It is proved that in stable periods the most significant is the crystallization of people's experiences and perceptions about the surrounding world and about themselves. In the periods of transitivity, the prognostic role of art becomes the most important.
Keywords: culture, art, aesthetic paradigm, transitivity

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PROBLEMS OF METHODOLOGY

THE UNDERSTANDING OF AESTHETICAL ASPECT IN GLITCH ART
UDC 7.01
Author: Zhagun-Linnik Elvira Valer’evna, assistant, Chair of the Cinema and Contemporary Art Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities (6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, Russia, 125993), elvira82@yandex.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1291-9271
Summary: The article addresses the problem of comprehension of glitch artefact as an aesthetic phenomenon in contemporary culture. The historical correlation and the course of developing avant-garde/modernist concepts and glitch practices are traced in the article. The active phase of utilitarian usage of glitch-images aesthetics set against the critical factor in glitch art is defined, which proves that the value of any glitch art artifact is first of all connected with the context and the idea of its realization.
Keywords: glitch, glitch aesthetics, glitch art

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