Legacy of the Silver Age in the Artistic Works of the Painting Section of the Moscow City Committee of Graphic Artists (1970s—1980s)

Abstract

The article focuses on the creative interpretation of the Silver Age traditions in the paintings of the younger generation of Moscow unoffi cial art — “Semidesyatniki [Seventiers]”. Such an aspect has never been analyzed in a study of unoffi cial art before. Identifying the linkages with the national artistic tradition is an actual perspective for the studies of unoffi cial art, whose emergence is mainly associated with infl uence of the Western European art of the second half of the 20th century. The genesis of the unoffi cial art, in the “post-thaw” period, is closely related to the appeal to the art of the turn of the 19th—20th centuries — the largest epoch of the Russian art, closest to the artists of the second half of the 20th century — and was directly perceived through its representatives. The article outlines the circle of artists of the Painting Section of the City Committee (Gorkom) of Graphic Artists, whose works refl ected the thematic and stylistic principles of the Silver Age. The artistic principles of symbolism, such as the understanding of light and forms in space, were the basis of the teaching methodo logy in alternative pedagogy (V.Ya. Sitnikov’s Studio). The ability of the artists of Semidesyatniki to comprehend the symbolism and semantics of light, space, colour, as well as some of their stylistic and technical (stroke, smear) methods go back to the art of the “Blue Rose”. The infl uence of symbolism can be noticed in the interpretation of mythological and female images and artefacts of the Silver Age. The interest of the unoffi cial artists in the art of symbolism is related to the fi rst manifestations of postmodernism in the Russian painting, which indicates its earlier emergence and profound infl uence on various genres and directions of art.