Ballet by Pavel Goncharov and Modernism: at the Intersection of Two Methods of One Style

Abstract

The article explores the creativity work of Pavel Goncharov (1886–1941) – a ballet artist and a painter who is not as well-known among masters of Russian modernism, but is an interesting author of the late 19th to early 20th century, who created a unique series of graphic works dedicated to Russian ballet. By focusing on the artistic characteristics of the modernist style, the author notes that it began its development in architecture, decorative and applied arts, graphics, and extended to choreography, including classical dance. The interaction of related arts (graphics and ballet) led to the formation of synthetic visual images, which are analyzed in the article in morphological, stylistic, and compositional contexts. Using primarily historical and cultural and typological research methods, the author identifies a number of directions in Pavel Goncharov’s visual creativity: character actor images, sketches for the Firebird ballet, autolithographs for Fyodor Lopukhov’s The Greatness of the Universe dance symphony, and book graphics for ballet publications. Analogies are drawn with the aesthetics of the painters of the World of Art movement, whose graphic works included a theatrical concept, manifested in the drawn silhouette imagery, striking poses and gestures, actorly sensibility, and theatricality of costumes. The conclusion is drawn that the dance plasticity of modernism, borrowing many elements of graphic language at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, created versatile artistic and stylistic techniques, one example of which is the figurative format of Pavel Goncharov’s works, possessing an individual system of expressive means.