20th Century Art Research Articles

The Russian musical art of the early 20th century: Summary

The Russian musical art of the early 20th century: Summary

Бытовая живопись и портрет: на границе жанров

The article highlights a trend in Russian and Western painting concerning the boundaries between genre and portraiture. In the article the author refers to such pieces of art as a mixed ‘everyday genre with portraiture’, though some other definitions are also taken into account. The article contains a historical survey of this mixed genre encompassing times from the Late Middle Ages to the 19th century. The author focuses on the 19th century realism as a sum of the earlier European pictorial art manifesting to be the Protorealistic tendency. A special subject matter of the article is the psychological and social identity of the depicted characters. Another issue discussed is a fate of the ‘everyday genre with portraiture’ mix in the context of the terminal stage of the academic genre system and the widening stylistic range in the 19th-century fine art.

Short Communication: A novel hypopigmentation for southeast Pacific humpback whales

Southeast Pacific humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate annually to breeding grounds in Machalilla, Ecuador, and Uramba Bahía Málaga, Colombia. This species usually displays a black/ grey body colouration with its dorsal and caudal fins exposed above water. Between 2005 and 2023, whales in these regions were studied and photographed on 1,627 days. Results indicated that 29 whales have novel body markings, including white spots, irregular circles and sinuous lines, which resemble the paintings of 20th Century artist Jackson Pollock. While this novel ‘Pollock‐style’ pigmentation does not appear to cause health problems, we recommend further studies to evaluate its origin and effects.

An Escape to Pure Existence

In this brief exposition, I embark on an exploration of the essence of values through the lens of 20th-century art. Art, with its inherent lack of definitive utility, offers a fertile ground for multiple interpretations within its designated realm of meaning. Through a retrospective analysis spanning two centuries of cultural evolution, I seek to unravel the drivers behind shifts in Western mentality and lifestyle, particularly the growing detachment from reality in secular societies, moving towards a realm of pure existence. Enriched with theological and philosophical references, my discourse encourages readers to extract insights from various cultural domains. I frame the human experience within four conceivable stages of interaction between existence and reality, advocating for the fourth stage as my preferred state – one that achieves harmony between existential challenges and moral imperatives, fostering a balance between needs and ethical obligations. Keywords: God, reality, existence, philosophy of art, aesthetics, value, content

Watercolor spreading in Bridget Riley's and Piet Mondrian's op-art placed in the context of recent watercolor studies.

The watercolor effect (WCE) is a striking visual illusion elicited by a bichromatic double contour, such as a light orange and a dark purple, hugging each other on a white background. Color assimilation, emanating from the lighter contour, spreads onto the enclosed surface area, thereby tinting it with a chromatic veil, not unlike a weak but real color. Map makers in the 17th century utilized the WCE to better demarcate the shape of adjoining states, while 20th-century artist Bridget Riley created illusory watercolor as part of her op-art. Today's visual scientists study the WCE for its filling-in properties and strong figure-ground segregation. This review emphasizes the superior strength of the WCE for grouping and figure-ground organization vis-à-vis the classical Gestalt factors of Max Wertheimer (1923), thereby inspiring a notion of form from induced color. It also demonstrates that a thin chromatic line, flanking the inside of a black Mondrian-type pattern, induces the WCE across a large white surface area. Phenomenological, psychophysical, and neurophysiological approaches are reviewed.

Портретное творчество О.Л. Делла-Вос-Кардовской в контексте русского искусства 1900–1930-х годов

The article focuses on portrait works by Olga Della‐Vos‐Kardovskaya — from her first significant paintings in this genre (e.g. Portrait of Nikolay Gumilev, 1908, State Tretyakov Gallery) to the last ones dating back to the late 1930s. This aspect of the master’s activity has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive research. Meanwhile, there has been a growing interest in the creative work of Olga Della‐Vos‐Kardovskaya, which is evidenced by the fact that her paintings are presented at many major exhibitions in Russia. First of all, these include her portraits, which reflect various trends in the Russian fine art of the early 20th century and the Soviet art of the 1920s‐1930s. The author of this article suggests dividing Olga DellaVos‐Kardovskaya’s portraits into three main types: representative, chamber, and typified portraits. The last group includes a subtype — children’s portraits. The artist created portraits of the three types throughout her entire creative biography. This division allows defining the features of the master’s portraiture and considering her paintings and drawings in the context of art development in the first three decades of the 20th century. As a result, it is possible to draw a conclusion that despite radical changes in the country and in the artist’s life, her portraiture remained almost unchanged during the 1900s‐1930s. In comparison with the pre‐revolutionary period, in her later works there appeared new character types, but the representation principles and artistic techniques remain the same. The most striking differences are found in her children’s portraits, which in the pre‐revolutionary work of Della‐Vos‐Kardovskaya were associated with idealistic retrospective tasks (children were depicted in 19th‐century interiors, wearing old‐fashioned costumes) and became ideologically loaded in Soviet times.

B-Wheel – Building AI competences in academic libraries

Academic libraries have moved swiftly to grasp the challenges and opportunities of the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The body of academic and practice-based literature is growing fast, showing how libraries are exploring their role in Information Literacy (IL) and AI, ethics and AI, and how they vigorously test and adopt various AI-powered tools for their services. Across these accounts, librarians express concern about their competence, skills and knowledge of the new technology and its implications for the research community. In this article, we present a holistic process model called the B-Wheel that addresses the phenomenon's complexity with approaches adopted from design thinking ideologies. We propose design approaches as an alternative strategy for academic libraries that want to avoid partial optimisation of AI skills and to ensure more generative competency building in their organisation. We drew inspiration for the B-Wheel model from the principles and pedagogy of the 20th-century Bauhaus art and design school in Germany. The article focuses on the model's features and its elements, constructed through workshops in Scandinavian research libraries. We also present experiences from the first use case in a University Library in Scandinavia. We propose that the main principles of the B-Wheel process model – a holistic design approach and learning by doing – are transferable across and beyond academic libraries.

Compromise and Challenge: Morisots Mother-Child Paintings in 19th-Century Paris

For Paris, the 19th century is unique and precious. The changing regimes, the establishment of capitalism, and the progression of industrialization reshaped the city's landscape and society. As these changes led people into modern society, new challenges appeared accordingly, and the most significant one was the decline in birth rates. New lifestyles and issues altered people's thinking and focal points. Consequently, transformations in artistic expression emerged. In the vibrant tapestry of 19th-century French art, the new mother-child paintings, born to solve population problems of the industrialization process, witnessed the career paths of female artists and their feminine movements. Female artists like Berthe Morisot used this theme to gain professional recognition in the patriarchal society and to reflect and redefine their complex social roles as women in the transforming society, subtly challenging the conventional gender norms. This paper delves into how societal transformations influenced Berthe Morisot and the theme of her paintings, examining her works as a lens to explore her accomplishments.

Aesthetic Verdicts

This article examines the landmark 1878 defamation case of Whistler v Ruskin, a pivotal legal battle that underscored the complexities of adjudicating art criticism under defamation law. The trial arose from John Ruskin’s scathing critique of James McNeill Whistler’s work, which led Whistler to sue for libel, seeking validation not just of his art but of his artistic philosophy. Despite the public fascination and Whistler’s tactical use of the trial as a platform for self-promotion, the jury’s award—a derisory farthing—hinted at their view of the lawsuit as frivolous. This case emphasizes the intrinsic challenge of legal systems grappling with subjective art valuation and critiques, the evolving norms of defamation, and the implications for the freedom of speech. While Whistler nominally won, the repercussions for both men were significant, affecting their finances, reputations and positions within the art world, and the trial’s legacy continues to inform the discourse around art, law and cultural value. Keywords: James McNeill Whistler; John Ruskin; Victorian libel law; defamation; art criticism; aesthetics; 19th-century British art; fair comment.

Смеховое начало и комизм в советской кинокомедии 1960–1970-х

The author of the article notes the influence of the research of Russian folklorists and cultural historians on the interpretation of the 20th century art and captures the humanitarian trend towards searching for primarily archetypal situations and images in contemporary art, Soviet film comedy included. The article highlights the importance of the concepts by V. Propp and M. Bakhtin for the current perception of works of art and urges us not to limit ourselves to this, but to place new accents — to look for differences between the ancient and modern worldviews, between the impersonal solutions to dramatic situations and characters types, on the one hand, and the author’s aesthetics and individual interpretations of the world and man, on the other hand. Based on the material of the comedy films by L. Gaidai and E. Ryazanov, the fairy tale film An Ordinary Miracle by M. Zakharov, the author shows how far the artistic messages of these directors are from the archaic concepts of laughter and comedy, from the ideas of carnival freedom and harmony, which, however, does not deny the use of satire drama structures, palliata, and paired archetypical characters. This refers to the cultural layering of the images of Shurik, Nina, Saakhov, and the comical trio of the Coward, the Fool and the Pro. In addition, the article analyses the role of the water element in the comedy The Irony of Fate... and gives a detailed interpretation of the non-normative behaviours of Zhenya Lukashin and Ippolit possessing only external signs of carnivality. Conclusions are drawn about the dramatic heuristicity of laughter in the comedy films by Gaidai and Ryazanov, which had adaptive psychological functions and also contributed to the internal self-reflection of the Soviet audience.

TOWARDS THE MULTIFUNCTIONALITY OF ART: RIGA OF 1901

The issues related to local artistic expressions are raised in the context of the paper. The focus is on the cultural events that took place in 1901, with a special emphasis on the visual arts. In 1901, the 700th anniversary of the city of Riga was celebrated with a great flair. The celebrations and related events made a high impact on different classes of society. The phenomena observed in the context of socio-culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries call for a more detailed examination of whether visual arts is becoming more multifunctional, or whether visuality is used in a conceptualised manner in different areas of life. The events of art life analysed in the article prove the expansion of the functions of art. In the context of the anniversary exhibition, the social, ideological, educational and entertaining functions, as well as the highest function of art: art for art’s sake, are characterised. The functions of art mentioned in the article are not the only functions; however, they allow us to see the multifunctionality of the 20th century art. The visual design of the 1901 anniversary exhibition is dominated by Art Nouveau, which, taking into account the idea of synthesis of art relevant to this style, ensures multifunctionality. The anniversary exhibition expands on a larger scale, and every element is essential for the conception of the exhibition. The overall vision of the exhibition, ideological content, structure, visual design, music, entertainment – the entire programme of the exhibition serves a common goal: to position Riga as a modern, European centre of economics, trade and culture in a contemporary modern form.

Художник Святослав Воинов: христианское искусство в эпоху модернизма

This paper explores the life and art of Svyatoslav Voinov (1890–1920), a modernist painter and a drawing artist from St. Petersburg, barely remembered today but nevertheless a remarkable example of both art and spirituality of his time. Both paintings and drawings of Voinov lay bare a distinctive character of the period when symbolism and modernism crossed ways. His art offers a glimpse on a unique creative atmosphere of the period of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War (1917–1922), the time when his most significant work was done. Voinov’s art is typical for religious currents in the Russian art of early 20th century. It is closely linked to their preceding formative period but was also influenced by the modernist discovery of the aesthetic value of Russian icons. Voinov’s art is rooted in a complex synthesis of tradi-tional icon-painting and symbolism grafted with newer expressionistic and futuristic trends, such a synthesis being typical for quite a few Russian artists of the period. What makes Voinov and his art unique is that he aspired to cross the boundaries of purely secular spirituality and offered an original and effective example of how modern visuality can work together with ancient tradition of icon painting. Voinov transcends the contours of narrative formulas of religious themes and boldly moves towards the theology in paint. The drawings and compo-sitional sketches of Svyatoslav Voinov were examined by the author in the collections of the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia). Some of the drawings are published here for the first time.

Canons and Networks. 19th-Century Danish Art in Paris

Collections of Danish Golden-Age art are quite rare outside of Scandinavia, especially when it comes to those developed in accordance with a well-thought-out strategy established through the international cooperation of scholars. An important exception is the large group of Danish drawings, oil sketches, and artists’ correspondence found in the Fondation Custodia – Collection Frits Lugt in Paris, gathered by art historian and longtime museum director Carlos van Hasselt (1929–2009). As director, van Hasselt provided an interesting model of collecting, as his pursuit was not motivated by a particular investment strategy. His collection may, in a sense, be viewed as the material result of a network, one which he established and which brought together Danish researchers and museologists, as well as international art dealers. The aim of this article is therefore to investigate how a network may inform and help determine a particular collection practice, to trace how van Hasselt became an agent of the Danish art establishment, and to provide a critical overview of this collection, which became a satellite representation of the canon of 19th-century Danish art in Paris. Analysis of Carlos van Hasselt’s archive will provide critical reflections on the ways in which the collection was built and developed, and how it may serve as an example of the international dissemination of canons.

Paul Klee’s progressive dyspnea: A series of historical and clinical vignettes, part V

Paul Klee (1879–1940), the 20th-century Swiss-German artist, suffered and died from complications of systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma). This is the fifth in a series of clinical and historical vignettes wherein Klee’s cardiopulmonary symptoms are described with an emphasis on how progressive dyspnea impacted Klee’s life.

Музыкальное искусство России начала ХХ века: Альтернатива

The essay is devoted to characterizing a trend opposed to the onslaught of contradictions, disharmony and various destructive influences brought along by the new century in the Russian musical art of the early 20th century. This trend was embodied in the composers’ turn to the humanistic traditions of the past, as well as in the constructive and positive aspirations of modernity. The desire to defend the principles of humanism was mainly associated with the spiritual values of the Classical era. In particular, the author provides insight into the formation of neoclassicism in Russian musical art starting with the late works by P. Tchaikovsky (the orchestral suite “Mozartiana” (1887)). Special attention is paid to the works by S. Taneyev (the cantata “At the Reading of a Psalm” (1912-1915)), N. Myaskovsky (String Quartet No. 4 (1909-1910)), S. Prokofiev (Symphony No. 1 (1917)), Z. Paliashvili (the operas “Abesalom da Eteri” (1910-1919) and “Daisi” (1919-1923)). As a result, it is concluded that the sphere of humanism and harmony, despite being hardly a central trend in the context of the musical and artistic process of the 1910s, was, however, undoubtedly significant, clearly reflecting the reaction to the deforming trends of modernity. The fundamental shift in worldview that occurred in the 1910s – the first half of the 1920s was expressed in the weakening of the considered trend, the growth of contradictions.

Музыкальное искусство России начала ХХ века: Девальвация

This essay is dedicated to the complexity of the position of the classical concept of humanism and harmony at the beginning of the 20th century, marked by its obvious displacement from the forefront of artistic processes and its opposition to tendencies associated with various "non-classical" manifestations. The unfolding events not only vividly symbolized the passing civilization but also foreshadowed the entry into a zone of colossal conflict and tragic sense of the world. The author identifies typical antitheses presented in the musical art of the early 20th century at the level of individual compositions, the level of the work of specific composers, and at the level of musical art as a whole. As a result, the preconditions for the emergence of dissonance are determined, including the antithesis of "objective – subjective," sometimes pushed to the brink of "objectivism – subjectivism."

Sketches for the Illustrations of the Novel Don Quixote de La Mancha in the Creation of Pavel Șillingovski and Ilie Bogdesco

This article compares the preparatory drawings for the illustrations of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s novel Don Quixote de La Mancha by Pavel Șillingovski and Ilie Bogdesco, two famous artists, whose work represents the successive stages in the evolution of graphic during the 20th century. The series of drawings represents different attitudes towards the process of illustrating literary works. In order to achieve the proposed objective, we have resorted to theoretical concepts, present in the science of “art history” and described by the Viennese theorist Walter Koschatzky, as well as the published diary of I. Bogdesco, which complements the artistic creation inherited from the artist. In addition, has been described and analysed, the historiography, including very recent, in which the series of works, proposed for investigation, is published. The sketches for the illustrations allow us to see how the image of the famous hidalgo passes through 20th century art. In addition to this, we also make a brief incursion into the artistic context in which these two personalities worked. Through this modest theoretical approach, we wish to join the series of events and publications commemorating the centenary of the birth of the great graphic artist Ilie Bogdesco.

An Insight on the Inconsistency of the Theoretical Construction of Avant-garde Concept in 20th-Century Art

This paper analyses avant-garde art theory through the concept of originality, understood as shock. The initial hypothesis is that this theoretical construction is a misunderstanding because it neglects the body during the experience lived before the work of art. It reminds us that if we are aware of our presence, it is thanks to the fact that we are psychosomatic individuals. Even so, we tend to evaluate the work of art from philosophical reflection rather than from analysing the form that excites us. It shows how the materialisation of the work of art sought by the avant-garde should have destroyed our cognitive baggage. It concludes that it only succeeded in initiating a tendency in art towards rhetoric that reaches the present day, where theoretical constructions are the only works of art. The emptiness of this avant-garde art theory concerning the touching causes its inconsequentiality, being left without any other pretension as only art. The author relies on the fact that we understand ourselves as people through our subjection to what we see to make us understand that looking without feeling is a contradiction.

The Awakening of Female Vorticism in Jessica Dismorr’s Textual and Visual Representations

Vorticism was a London-based avant-garde movement of art and literature in the early 20th century. Launched by Wyndham Lewis with “The Vorticist Manifesto” in 1914, Vorticism employed the depiction of an image’s movement and exalted the dynamism of the wartime machine age. Inspired by Futurism and Cubism, Vorticism is often considered masculinist, excluding women from the textual and visual canons. The British avant-garde poet and artist Jessica Dismorr (1885-1939) was one of the two female members of Vorticism. She contributed to the movement with her textual and artistic representations from its commencement to its demise; however, she was long overlooked by literary and aesthetic critics. This article, from intertextual, aesthetic and feminist perspectives, investigates how the textual and visual narrators in Dismorr’s prose-poems “June Night” (1915) and “London Notes” (1915) and her painting, Abstract Composition (c.1915) problematize the exclusion of women in London’s male-dominated city and public spaces and argues the relationship between urbanization and “Female Vorticism.”

Art History as a New Discipline at the Estonian University in Tartu after the Long 19th Century

The article is the first attempt to present the beginnings of Estonian professional art history in the 1920s in a regional and global context. The author strives to situate the University of Tartu (Dorpat) in the pan-European network of universities, where art history had gradually become regarded as a new discipline during and after the long 19th century. Art history is rooted in the Age of Enlightenment, with Johann Joachim Winckelmann retrospectively named the father of art history. But it was about a half century after his death that art history was incorporated into a general subject of aesthetics taught at universities. It took another fifty years for art history to become a separate discipline in the modern universities of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and another half century to receive a separate chair at the Estonian national university in Tartu. The development of art history as a discipline at the University of Tartu is analysed on a very granular level, based on primary sources from Estonian and Swedish archives. During the 19th century art and its history were used to the ends of national politics and in search of national identities. In Estonia, this was hindered by the activities of another ethnic group, the Baltic-Germans, who had been the ruling class in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire. The first professor of art history at the Estonian University of Tartu, Helge Kjellin, wanted to bridge the gap between Estonian and Baltic art history. He attempted to merge these two concepts and define the territorial concept of Estonian art from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. He also defined this as a proper field of study for Estonian art historians. However, after his departure from Estonia, art history was neglected and irrelevant for the Estonian University and the Estonian Republic. Science and academic professions were regarded as a masculine field of activity until after the Second World War. Only the lack of men, who had died in the war, enabled women to start seeking a more equal place in the academic world worthy of their intellectual ability. Despite there being many capable female students among those who studied art history with Kjellin, the first female professor of art history in Estonia, Krista Kodres, was elected to the Estonian Academy of Arts only in 2003.