NON-Realism of Alexander Burganov

Abstract

Modern Russian sculpture, at its best, has long since moved away from direct depiction and has learned to speak about painful issues exclusively in the language of plastic arts. In this regard, a natural question arises - what is the "realism in sculpture" concept today? In the 1960s, sculptors were free to use themes and found inspiration in the surrounding reality. However, for Burganov, the feeling of freedom, the primary impulse of the era of the 60s, became the beginning of the search for a symbolic language in the reflection of reality in contrast to the representatives of the "severe style". The master closely interacts with reality, sensitively reacting to what is happening, which he repeatedly spoke about in his interviews. It seems possible to show how Burganov transforms the real into a symbol on the example of House, Pieta, Shooting a Hero, War and Peace and several other works. In the process of analysing the plastic techniques used by the sculptor, it was possible to identify several patterns at the time when the artist works on the "opposition" principle: realistic images, being in opposition to each other, begin to form the world of symbolism and surrealism. In the analysis process, a number of topical problems are revealed: is realism in sculpture a reflection of the realities of life? Or a correctly depicted human body? Perhaps it is the artist's reaction to the ongoing event, regardless of the figurative plastic techniques used? Or is realism an official aesthetic when a work is based on a serious programmatic composition? Summing up these studies, we offer another term - “symbolic realism”, which, in our opinion, is most clearly capable of reflecting the quintessence of Alexander Burganov's creative method. This study aims to look at Alexander Burganov’s work from a different point of view, combining what the sculptor does with his reflections and objective analysis of his creative method, and to update the question of the concept of the realistic in modern Russian sculpture.