The role of mask in art culture of the Russian Silver Age

Abstract

The subject of this article is the role of mas in art culture of the Silver Age as a peculiar era of the “Russian Renaissance”. The term was introduced by N. A. Berdyaev and is present in a number of hisp philosophical writings. The object of this research is the Silber Age, perceived by the author as a somewhat mythological concept. Within the history of Russian culture “Golden Age” is attributed to the time of Pushkin, while “Silver Age” is a period of the bloom of modernism at the turn of XIX-XX centuries, when creative revival coincided in the visual and scenic arts, literature, music, science, and social life. The goal of this work consists in the analysis of dynamics and interconnection between artistic pursuits of the era of Russian modernism and the role of mask in this process The research results testify to the fact that in the Silver Age art prevails the cult of mask as a so-called challenge, protest against reality, which defined its special role in the works of painters, theatrical designers, symbolist poets, avant-garde filmmakers, whose experiments were aimed at determination of the new forms of relationships between art and the public. The relevance of study is substantiated by “interchange” of eras: new trends in development of sociocultural sphere of turn of XX-XXI centuries, when mask came into the people’s everyday life, and the image (persona) becomes an intrinsic part of communication process.