Larionov’s Rayonism and Val del Omar’s Cinematic Technique “Tactile Vision”

Abstract

The article for the first time presents a comparative analysis of pictorial Rayonism by the Russian painter M. Larionov and the cinematic technique “tactile vision” by the Spanish film director J. Val del Omar. It also provides a theoretical foundation of using the artistic lighting techniques and features of their practical application. J. Val del Omar’s original lighting system “tactile vision” was analyzed by the example of his film “Fire in Castile” (1960), where he used it for animation of baroque religious sculptures. The concept of “tactile vision”, based on the understanding of vision as a developed sense of touch, made it possible to convey in the film not only the visual appearance of objects, but also their internal emotional dynamics. The article demonstrates that the Rayonist paintings by M. Larionov represent a complex dialectical synthesis of various ideas and practices and are open to more than one interpretation. Despite the artist’s desire to create non-objective painting, in a number of his works there is a connection with the subject of the picture at the visual level or at the level of the general idea of the object. This brings Rayonism closer to the “tactile vision”. The article shows that both artists created their concepts based on the analysis of visual perception. But they understood the possibilities of human vision in different ways, which determined the choice of sensuality mechanisms for creating artworks. It is revealed that the model of the cinematographic system of artistic light pulsation invented by J. Val del Omar coincides with that one of M. Larionov’s Rayonism in a number of structural indicators. Despite the fact that the ontological guidelines of these models differ when studying the possibilities of light, their functionality turns out to be close, and therefore their aesthetic effects allow for productive comparison within the framework of art criticism analysis.