Religious and Ecclesiastical Art of Russia in the 20th—21st Centuries: Posing the Problem of Interaction

Abstract

The article is devoted to the cross-cutting consideration of the problem of dialogical interaction between two close phenomena of art related to religious themes: church, liturgical art, which participates in worship, and secular art on religious themes. The stages of their interaction in Russian art of the 20th—21st centuries are considered. The prehistory of this phenomenon dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when the division into religious and church art already existed in fact, but was realised only in the early 20th century in connection with the work of Mikhail Nesterov. Then, over the course of the century, we observe a series of stages of interaction between religious and church art in their convergences and divergences. The era of the Silver Age, with its heightened sense of the religious beginning in art and life, is replaced by times of state atheism, very heterogeneous, including with regard to religious themes. The time of 1920 —early 1930s is characterized by a relatively free artistic search in the sphere of religious themes. At the beginning of the Stalinist period, religious themes in both church and secular aspects were banned, and at the end of the period there was a revival. During the Thaw years, along with the persecution of the church in unofficial culture, a broad interest in religious themes in secular painting emerged and a gradual, albeit localized, rise in contemporary church art began. The late Soviet period is characterized by the gradual establishment and initial legalization of religious and church art. In the 1990s — 2010s, a broad revival and development of church art began, and the religious theme became the focus of attention, including contemporary contemporary art. Once again, as in the early twentieth century, there are conditions and artistic aspirations for a mutually enriching dialogue between church and religious art. The study of various aspects of this interaction in Russian art is an urgent and multifaceted task.