Kuindzhi: Luminosity of Russian Culture

Abstract

The article analyzes the work of Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi. According to the author, Kuindzhi’s paintings are not for the mind or distancing thinking, but for the soul. Kuindzhi's way of thinking is contemplation, not conceptualization. The article considers Kuindzhi's works through the prism of P. Florensky's metaphysics of light. According to Florensky, light is not just illumination or the inner principle of things, but the transcendent source of the world. So we have to understand what role the light plays in Kuindzhi's paintings. The author shows that Kuindzhi is not a pantheist who deifies nature and depicts the self-illumination of things, but the artist who sees the world as a symbolic reality. The author explores the work of Kuindzhi in the perspective of the philosophy of modern culture. We look at Kuindzhi today, in the 21st century. The 21st century differs from the 19th or the 20th century. Kuindzhi’s work means light, and the 21st century is the age of darkness. The author brings forth the problem of the collision of modern metaphysics of darkness in the Western tradition and the light-bearing Russian culture.