Laws of the Physical World in Illustrations by V. Yankilevsky

Abstract

The article is devoted to illustrations by V. Yankilevsky for the popular science publication "Knowledge is Power" during its special heyday in the 1960s. The research aims to discover the conceptual and artistic specifics of these works and at the same time to fit them into the broader context of the artist's work, while solving the task of determining their place within the author's world of images. The author paid special attention to the consideration of the main topics with which V. Yankilevsky worked, and the ways of their implementation. In particular, these are such author's conceptual codes as: energy tension, the antithesis of "living-dead", images of breakthrough and infinity. This problem has not yet been covered in the scientific literature, since the focus of attention in it is mainly focused on the painting and easel graphics of the master, while V. Yankilevsky's illustrations remain a marginal phenomenon for discourse. This article will serve as a beginning to fill the gap that has formed. The main result of the conducted research is the discovery of the consonance of the images of the artist's main creative work and the commissioned illustration in the popular science publication "Knowledge is Power", which was possible thanks to the topics raised there that go beyond everyday experience and are weakly amenable to the laws of established censorship. At the same time, significant differences were found: in particular, the absence in the illustrations of the most important problem for easel painting and graphics by V. Yankilevsky of the interaction of male and female archetypes.