Issue 61 (2026, 1) Summary

ARTICULT #61 (1-2026) January-March

SUMMARY

ART CHANGES SKIN: THE CORPORAL TURN OF THE 1990S AND VALERY PODOROGA'S METHOD IN AN ENACTIVIST PERSPECTIVE
Research article
UDC 7.01+7.038.54
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-5-25
Received: August 06, 2025. Approved after reviewing: January 20, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Timofeenko Anastasiia Igorevna, postgraduate student, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: timofeenko123@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0009-0004-2509-7467
Summary: In the 1990s, as the Soviet symbolic order was dismantled, Russian researchers and artists consistently problematized and conceptualized the body in terms of disciplines and political anatomy, bodies-without-organs, body techniques, body projects, and so on. This article examines surface bodies or skin in its interactions with the environment. These bodies are present in Russian art of the 1990s but have not yet been fully recognized and been the subject of specialized research. There skin is not just an anatomical shell, but a key surface of existence and a site of crystallization of body-environment connections. To examine bodies on their skin surfaces the author uses the body-landscape approach of philosopher Valery Podoroga, which he developed to decipher the diversity of body-environment relations in literature and which his student Dmitry Testov reinterpreted in the terms of enactivist epistemology. This paper describes the skin of Moscow Conceptualism to demonstrate the modes of corporeality with which artists in (post-)Soviet Moscow engage. It analyzes strategies for working with skin in Moscow actionism, where, instead of sensitive membranes, artists invent anesthetized armor. Alternative projects to actionism are presented, where skin acts not as an insensitive covering, but as a contact surface. Through an examination of bodily metamorphoses in (post-)Soviet art of the era of transition, the article reveals how such different modes of existence as a radical rejection of the world for its reconstruction and an ecological attunement of the individual with the environment in the spirit of enactivist epistemology emerge and become reality on the surface of the skin.
Keywords: 1990s art, conceptualism, actionism, skin, Valery Podoroga, enactivism, corporeality

For citation:
Timofeenko A.I. “Art changes skin: the corporal turn of the 1990s and Valery Podoroga's method in an enactivist perspective.” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 5-25. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-5-25

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LENINIANA IN DIPLOMA WORKS OF STUDENTS OF THE PAINTING FACULTY OF THE I. E. REPIN LENINGRAD INSTITUTE OF PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE (LIZhSA) IN THE 1930s–1950s.
Research article
UDC 378.016:7+7.036+75.041.5
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-26-44
Received: January 15, 2026. Approved after reviewing: March 13, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Spiridonova Vasilina Andreevna, PhD Candidate, St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named Ilya Repin (Saint Petersburg, Russia), e-mail: vas.spir@yandex.ru
ORCID ID: 0009-0000-4807-2749
Summary: The article examines the phenomenon of Leniniana within the context of the Soviet higher art education system of the 1930s–1950s. The formation of canonical images of V.I. Lenin is viewed as a result of state policy that institutionalized art education through the All-Russian Academy of Arts (VAKh) and later the USSR Academy of Arts. The study's originality stems from its focus on an unexplored corpus: the graduation projects of painting students from the I.E. Repin Leningrad Institute (LIZhSA). This material allows for tracing the methodology of composition training and the formation of the historical genre from within the educational system. It also reveals the continuity of pre-revolutionary academic traditions (the “Repin school”). The article contributes to understanding the mechanisms behind the formation of the Soviet artistic canon. It demonstrates the interconnection between state cultural policy, the institutional structure of education, the preservation of professional traditions, and the creation of a key ideological narrative in visual art. At the same time, the analysis of student works shows that even within strict ideological frameworks, there was an opportunity for individual creative interpretation.
Keywords: I.E. Repin Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (LIZhSA), diploma work, Leniniana, Soviet painting of the 1930s–1950s, All-Russian Academy of Arts, USSR Academy of Arts, “Repin school”, historical-revolutionary painting, Socialist Realism, higher art education in the USSR

For citation:
Spiridonova V.A. “Leniniana in diploma works of students of the painting faculty of the I.E. Repin Leningrad institute of painting, sculpture and architecture (LIZhSA) in the 1930s–1950s.” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 26-44. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-26-44

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“SOVIET EXPRESSIONISM” IN THE PRE-WAR WORKS OF NIKOLAI VITING (1910-1991)
Research article
UDC 7.036.7(47+57)+7.071.1
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-45-60
Received: February 16, 2026. Approved after reviewing: March 14, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Zabilo Ekaterina Viktorovna, PhD student, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: zabilo22@yandex.ru
ORCID ID: 0009-0002-0439-269X
Summary: The article examines in detail the process of the origin and formation of expressionism in the space of Russian and Soviet art of the first half of the 20th century. The various assessments of this trend and the degree of its influence on Russian culture are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the period of the 1920s and 1930s, the time of the evolution and transformation of expressionism and its representation in Soviet art. The author's research focuses on the work of Nikolai Iosifovich Wieting (1910-1991), whose paintings, graphics and diary entries are excellent evidence of the attention of Soviet young artists to the art of German expressionism and the development of an independent Soviet line of this trend. The article also raises the question of terminology related to this phenomenon: "Soviet expressionism" as a stylistic trend within Soviet modernism.
Keywords: N. Viting, Soviet Expressionism, Soviet Modernism, social history of art, Soviet painting

For citation:
Zabilo E.V. “"Soviet expressionism" in the pre-war works of Nikolai Viting (1910-1991).” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 45-60. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-45-60

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THE SITUATION OF PERFORMANCE ART: TOWARDS AN ANALISYS OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY PHENOMENA IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Research article
UDC 7.01+7.038.531
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-61-75
Received: June 11, 2025. Approved after reviewing: February 09, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Zamyslova Vera Alekseevna, postgraduate student, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: vzamyslova@hse.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0948-0031
Summary: The article addresses the methodological problem of analyzing performance as an interdisciplinary phenomenon that blurs the boundaries between art and everyday life. The aim of the study is to develop an analytical framework based on the sociological frame theory of Erving Goffman. The research material comprises contemporary art practices examined within the paradigm of performance studies. The primary research method is frame analysis, which allows for the reconstruction of the conditional "frames" that define a performance situation. By applying this approach, the author reveals the mechanisms of constitution and transformation specific to this situation, determining the dynamic relationship between its key elements: space, action, and the spectator.
Keywords: performance, contemporary art, frame analysis, Erving Goffman, performance studies, interdisciplinarity, spectator

For citation:
Zamyslova V.A. “The situation of performance art: towards an analysis of multidisciplinary phenomena in contemporary art.” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 61-75. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-61-75

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NOSTALGIA IN THE PROJECTS OF RUSSIAN ARTISTS: A UTOPIAN DIMENSION
Research article
UDC 7.038(470)
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-76-91
Received: November 11, 2025. Approved after reviewing: March 24, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Tarasova Ekaterina Dmitrievna, PhD student, National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: tarasova.wk@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0009-0005-9985-128X
Summary: This paper is dedicated to nostalgia in contemporary Russian art from 2010 to 2025. The author identifies a distinct strategy within this trend: the utopian dimension. This means projecting an ideal of social order onto different historical moments. What makes this strategy specific? The research draws on the theoretical concepts of Svetlana Boym (nostalgia), Zygmunt Bauman (retrotopia), and Hermann Lübbe (the “contraction of the present”). The author examines various approaches to the utopian dimension through exhibitions by Alexey Gintovt (“Moscow-Center”), Taisiya Korotkova (“Dark Forest”), Pavel Otdelnov (“Industrial Zone”), and Danini (“Drive D:”). The analysis also focuses on two major projects: Sergey Sonin and Elena Samorodova’s “Utopia and Uchronia” and Rinat Voligamsi’s “Dvoyegorsk.” Using Svetlana Boym’s typology of restorative and reflective nostalgia, the author defines the specificity of this strategy. It involves a mediated influence on the future through the way artists work with the past.
Keywords: utopia, nostalgia, home, past, contemporary art

For citation:
Tarasova E.D. “Nostalgia in the projects of Russian artists: a utopian dimension.” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 76-91. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-76-91

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WHEN AND HOW FILM COLOR BECAME MODERN?
Research article
UDC 791.43.01+791.43.03+791.44
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-92-105
Received: February 18, 2026. Approved after reviewing: March 10, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Filippov Sergei Alexandrovich, Ph.D. in Art Studies, researcher at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: s_a_filippov@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6032-6641
Summary: Although the primary driver of global cinema’s transition to color in the mid-1960s was the spread of color television, a crucial contributing factor was the significant improvement in color rendition in the negative-positive system. This paper examines the history of this improvement and reveals that a key event was the Eastman Kodak Co. release of a pair of negative 5251 and positive 5385 film stocks in 1962. These stocks, when used together, produced actually modern color reproduction (though, of course, inferior in other characteristics). However, this did not always produce modern color rendition in films of the 1960s – apparently due to the use of obsolete positive and, especially, intermediate film stocks.
Keywords: film history, cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, color cinema, history of color in cinema, color rendition, color film stock, Eastman Kodak Со

For citation:
Filippov S.A. “When and how film color became modern?” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 92-105. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-92-105

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INTONATIONAL GESTURE IN THE SPECTRUM OF SPEECH GESTURES: ANDREI BELY AND MICHAEL CHEKHOV
Research article
UDC 792.028.3
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-106-115
Received: December 16, 2025. Approved after reviewing: February 09, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Eliseeva Polina Evgenievna, PhD in Art Studies, assistant professor, Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: krinit@mail.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9346-2949
Summary: The subject of the study is the correlation between rhythm and internal gesture in poetry and theater. An interdisciplinary approach is used, combining the theory of acting, philology, and psychology of art at the present stage. The article correlates two terms for the first time: Andrei Bely's Intonational gesture and Michael Chekhov's Psychological gesture. The novelty lies in expanding the understanding of the similarity between the concepts of these figures beyond reflections on sound and color, as well as recognizing the concept of intonational gesture as a type of speech gesture. It is argued that Intonational gesture is perceived by the poet and Psychological gesture is perceived by the actor as an intonational-sound, semantic, and gestural image which, while preserving the vector of communicativeness, materializes in the final creative product and is accessible to the reader or viewer. However, intonational gestures arise at the moment the text is created by the author, while actors, interpreting it, create their own image at the moment of stage action, their own psychological gestures. The parallels identified can be used in actor training and their creative work, including in teaching stage speech, in the analysis of the author's text and its interpretation.
Keywords: internal gesture, Intonational gesture, Psychological gesture, speech gesture, speech generation, metaphor, embodied cognition

For citation:
Eliseeva P.E. “Intonational gesture in the spectrum of speech gestures: Andrey Bely and Michael Chekhov.” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 106-115. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-106-115

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THE FORMATION OF THE CONCEPT OF THE “IMPULSE TO EMPATHY” (EINFÜHLUNG) IN THE ARTISTIC THEORY BY WILHELM WORRINGER: THE NEW AGE PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT AND DEMARCATION FROM EXPRESSIONISM
Research article
UDC 7.01
DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-116-127
Received: December 03, 2025. Approved after reviewing: January 27, 2026. Date of publication: March 31, 2026.
Author: Gumerova Roksana Faritovna, PhD student, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), e-mail: pictorialart.grf@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0009-0006-5283-2724
Summary: This article constitutes a continuation of the research of the conceptual origins of Wilhelm Worringer`s artistic theory. In elucidating the concept of empathy (Einfühlung), Worringer makes explicit reference to the concept developed by Theodor Lipps. However, Worringer gives the concept its own content, and Lipps` concept appears in a reduced form. The possibility of such a reduction is provided by the very concept of empathy, which is rooted in New Age philosophy. The concept of the impulse to empathy is presented as the opposite pole to the concept of the will to abstraction, drawing on the ideas of David Hume, René Descartes, George Berkeley, John Locke, Benedict Spinoza. By invoking the tenets of New Age philosophy, Worringer underscores the significance of sensory experience in the concept of the impulse to empathy, thereby positioning it as a cognitive process. The transformation of the concept of empathy in this manner enables Worringer to present the concept of the will to abstraction as the subsequent stage in the development of the theory of cognition, which provides the logic for the construction of his methodology. However, the reduction of the concept of empathy carried out by Worringer clearly demonstrates its semantic divergence from the Expressionists' interpretation of empathy.
Keywords: Wilhelm Worringer, abstraction and empathy, psychology of perception, psychology of art, Einfühlung, German Expressionism

For citation:
Gumerova R.F. “The formation of the concept of the "impulse to empathy" (Еinfühlung) in the artistic theory by Wilhelm Worringer: the New Age Philosophical context and demarcation from Expressionism.” Articult. 2026, no. 1(61), pp. 116-127. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2026-1-116-127

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