Individual Artists Research Articles

From Pugacheva to Pussy Riot

Abstract The officially sanctioned popular music genre of Soviet estrada has traditionally been an industry where both male and female performers have been able to achieve high levels of success and public exposure. Meanwhile, within the genres of underground and unofficial popular music – rock, punk, and rap – the male-dominated gender disparity has been much more pronounced. This article investigates the reasons behind this dynamic within a Russo-Soviet context. In dialogue with Judith Butler’s notion of gender performativity as well as recent scholarship on gender in Western rock and punk movements, the present essay considers the evolution of performative strategies of female artists in Russo-Soviet popular culture. The discussion spans the Soviet, late-Soviet, and post-Soviet historical periods, focusing on the gendered performative dimensions in the musical careers of Alla Pugacheva, Yanka Diagileva, and the art-punk collective Pussy Riot, in an effort to account for the glaring dearth of female performers in traditionally “transgressive” popular genres. I present the argument that Russian and Soviet women performers working in rock, punk, and rap, or when forging new directions in estrada, have evolved to mitigate the genres’ prescriptive masculinity by relying on performing “otherness” as a conduit to mass appeal, celebrity status, and acclaim for artistic individuality.

Philip Roth

Philip Roth

Chasing Resilience for the Arts Sector : American Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on American society broadly and within that, arts were one of the hardest hit sectors. Amidst the ongoing trajectory of the pandemic, the concept of resilience became a frequent concern. This article examines the many dimensions and facets of resilience and provides snapshots and examples of many kinds of efforts that have been taken to foster and enhance resilience for the arts sector in the United States, with a focus on the case of New York City, arguably America’s cultural capital. The first section explores the scale and scope of the pandemic’s ongoing impact on individual artists and the NY arts sector. The second section provides an overview of key examples of how the arts sector itself sought to assist its members during the first year of the pandemic. It also explores key efforts of national, state, and local governments to provide survival and relief assistance to individual artists, arts organizations, and cultural industries. The final section looks at tentative reopening and recovery efforts, including rethinking norms, expectations and practices as resilience begins to move toward adaptation and sustainability. It concludes with observations on future challenges in cultivating and finding resilience.

The Expansion of New Media Art in Indian Visual Art Practices: An Analysis

Artistic creativity thrives in line with cultural contours and individual artist intent. The Digital age is a postmodern reality. The postmodern era is either on the verge of its conclusion or it has almost concluded. Galleries and museums are far from exempt from the effects of these technological transformations. By the mid’90s a number of young artists had begun to make installations and site-specific art objects even as others continued to work in the conventional mediums of painting, sculpture, and print-making. Notion of pluralism and multiculturalism infect the artists of the 90’s, as there is a confident borrowing from all cultures and frequent crossovers. Artists like Ranbir Kaleka, Shilpa Gupta, Sheba Chhachhi, Thukral and Tagra, Jitish Kallat and many more are blurring the gap between the art and cutting edge technology with their inter/multidisciplinary approaches in their art practices.

Comic Empires: Imperialism in Cartoons, Caricature, and Satirical Art

Comic Empires: Imperialism in Cartoons, Caricature, and Satirical Art

Defining Conjunto Quantitatively: Classical and Modernist Styles in a Texas-Mexican Genre

Defining <i>Conjunto</i> Quantitatively: Classical and Modernist Styles in a Texas-Mexican Genre

The Divine Feminine in Mormon Art

The Divine Feminine in Mormon Art

Stylistic Approaches in Portraiture Painting: Analysis of Selected Portraiture by Contemporary Kenyan Artists

Portraiture painting remains an important and popular sub-genre in art where artists paint portraits as a response to various motivations. Some artists paint for the fun of it, or what is often referred to as art for art's sake, where they are more captivated by the flow of vivid colours, tones and textures which they capture with their brushstrokes to study pertinent aspects of the face; others wish to study the likeness of their subjects in detail as they appear on the reference photographs; others are interested in the narrative that they perceive to be apparent in the portrait; others are interested in particular facial expressions that denote certain human feelings. These expressions are incorporated in their portraits to draw attention to given circumstances and emotions such as anger, despair, joy, scepticism, displeasure or anxiety as the case may be. Others are obsessed with the peculiarity of facial details and the study of absolute likeness or even surpassing likeness to create hyperrealism. Others do not think that these absolute details are necessary and are only interested in those aspects that capture the transient face. In all these motivations, there is one common denominator that is often the foremost motivational factor; the individual artist’s stylistic approach. Whatever reason or motivation for embarking on portraiture, the major driving factor is always the application of personal style. In this regard, whether the personal style is hyperrealism, realism, abstract, expressionism or even stylized, artists work within the realm of their personal styles that make them feel comfortable and helps them not only to meet their immediate artistic objectives but to enjoy their work. Artistic styles are different in approach but aim to achieve the same goals in different ways. Subsequently, artists respond to these styles differently and utilize those that they subscribe to in order to meet their artistic objectives. Likewise, the respective audiences or viewers also respond to these styles differently, such that in any circumstance, there is no style that is superior to the other as such, since each style appeals differently to the multitude of viewers and meets its purpose within its own stylistic confines. In examining portraiture, what is ultimately important is to determine whether painted portraits carry the impetus in their own right as works of art to elicit certain desired responses from the audience. It is also important to examine the extent to which the artist’s intent is significant in this elicitation. This paper examines portraiture from different Kenyan artists to determine their stylistic approaches, their particular motivations and the essence of such varied approaches in the comprehension of the purpose of painted portraiture. The paper also examines whether, in this context, the portraits featured carry a visual message. The paper examined selected portraits from a number of practising Kenyan artists in Nairobi, Kenya where many of them are based. The portraits featured do not necessarily cover all styles of portraiture.

THE IMAGE OF THE MOTHERLAND IN THE POETRY OF FARIZA ONGARSYNOVA

The article examines the image of the Motherland in the poetry of the Kazakh famous poetess Fariza Ongarsynova. Here is revealed the connection of poetess’s poems with folklore works. It is argued that Mangystau, the poetess’s small homeland, is the source of her poetic inspiration. The idea is substantiated that the image of a small homeland occupies a special place in the work of the Kazakh poetess. It is also noted that the lyrical hero of the poetess's works feels like a part of his native land, its nature and destiny. Thanks to the study of the characteristic poetic feature of Fariza Ongarsynova, it is possible to recognize her poetic skill. Artistic individuality, ideological and thematic themes of poetry, contribution to the national artistic tradition, the corresponding place and figurative character occupied in modern Kazakh poetry will be studied.

Architectonisation: The Spatio‐Temporal Rhythms of Contemporary Sculptural Practices

AbstractSuzanne Cotter is Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Here she explains some of the artistic installations and performances she curated while Director of the Alvaro Siza‐designed Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal. She reflects on exhibitions she curated with three individual artists whose work engages with concepts of architecture as an aesthetic and social language of agency.

“Real war ammunition:” Artists for Victory, the National War Poster Competition, and the Hostile Imagination on the United States World War II Home Front

“Real war ammunition:” Artists for Victory, the National War Poster Competition, and the Hostile Imagination on the United States World War II Home Front

Quantifying NFT-driven networks in crypto art

The evolution of the art ecosystem is driven by largely invisible networks, defined by undocumented interactions between artists, institutions, collectors and curators. The emergence of cryptoart, and the NFT-based digital marketplace around it, offers unprecedented opportunities to examine the mechanisms that shape the evolution of networks that define artistic practice. Here we mapped the Foundation platform, identifying over 48,000 artworks through the associated NFTs listed by over 15,000 artists, allowing us to characterize the patterns that govern the networks that shape artistic success. We find that NFT adoption by both artists and collectors has undergone major changes, starting with a rapid growth that peaked in March 2021 and the emergence of a new equilibrium in June. Despite significant changes in activity, the average price of the sold art remained largely unchanged, with the price of an artist’s work fluctuating in a range that determines his or her reputation. The artist invitation network offers evidence of rich and poor artist clusters, driven by homophily, indicating that the newly invited artists develop similar engagement and sales patterns as the artist who invited them. We find that successful artists receive disproportional, repeated investment from a small group of collectors, underscoring the importance of artist–collector ties in the digital marketplace. These reproducible patterns allow us to characterize the features, mechanisms, and the networks enabling the success of individual artists, a quantification necessary to better understand the emerging NFT ecosystem.

The Work of Visual Art in Liturgy

Liturgy and the arts make similar claims about inviting people to take a journey beyond price; to bear witness to the world as it is and as it should be; to experience truth and beauty even in tragedy; and to remind them of their intrinsic right to exist. This similarity leads many people to believe that the arts are essential to good liturgy. It also is the source of the suspicion that visual art, in particular, is a worldly distraction from the serious work of the people. The work of visual art in liturgy is not to decorate, not to give a platform to individual artists for their personal expression, not to serve as empty representations or diagrams of intellectual ideas. Rather, it is to bring all our senses into worship as the living Body of Christ, broken and poured out for the need of the world.

Polish Music in Zagreb Between the Two World Wars (as exemplified by the Croatian Music Institute)

Bilateral diplomatic and economic relations between Poland and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) between the two world wars have been presented quite comprehensively in numerous studies. The same cannot be said, however, about research into cultural relations between the two states. This may be attributable partly to the fact that cultural cooperation is harder to trace, since most of the projects during that period were ‘grassroots’ initiatives undertaken for the benefit of eminent individual artists and academics, and on their responsibility. It was only gradually that institutionalised forms and mechanisms of cooperation familiar from later decades were implemented. There are no synthetic or even fragmentary studies concerning cooperation in the field of music.&#x0D; This report, based on my archive research to date, is intended as a contribution to gradually filling the gaps in our knowledge about the reception of Polish music, starting with Croatia’s main city of Zagreb. I analyse the music presented by the main concert organiser in Zagreb at that time, the Croatian Music Institute, with regard to the presence of Polish works. The appendix contains all the decipherable surnames of Polish composers, with a list of works performed – mainly from the nineteenth century or rather conservative more recent compositions. The music of Karol Szymanowski, Poland’s pre-eminent contemporary composer, was performed throughout this twenty-year period, but neither the composer himself nor the more discerning local music lovers were satisfied with how it was represented in Zagreb. Apart from discussing Polish works presented at the Institute, the author also mentions outstanding Polish musicians who performed in Croatia’s biggest city between 1918 and 1939, promoting Polish repertoire.

Crkvena umetnost i javnost u Kneževini Srbiji (1830-1882)

In the Principality of Serbia in the 19th century, the Orthodox Church represented a significant entity and had a privileged position as a state and national institution. This all affected its place in public life, as well as the public control of all the church activities regarding the churches' construction, equipping, painting, and renovation. Thus, the aesthetical criteria, demands, and effects of the cultural and scientific public were a tremendous factor in making church art common during the 19th century. The public had an influence on art development through various forms in the Principality of Serbia, and some of the instruments were both daily and periodical (printed) press. The public's attitude towards the church art was stated in the press and humongously affected the people's consciousness of the Church and church art's significance in relation to the state and nation, as well. Also, the ordering parties' tastes had thus been formed, which also had an impact on the complex mechanisms of the general church art trends during the 19th century. This kind of practice was characteristic of 19th-century Europe and Russia, and from there it was also accepted and developed in Serbia. Despite the fact that in the 19th century the Serbian people had lived in the territory of three states - the Ottoman Empire, the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia, and Austria, the periodical literature and newspapers had been available to the Serbian social and cultural elite at the mentioned territories. Since the press had not been strictly limited by the state boundaries, a wider reading audience had been familiar with the information and attitudes about art presented in both the newspapers and periodical literature, which were printed in Serbia and Austria, as well. The newspapers coming out in the period 1830-1882, such as Šumadinka, Srbske novine, Novine Čitališta beogradskog, Sion, Podunavka, Golubica, Orao, and others, contained different aesthetical attitudes on the church painting and architecture, but also considered various problems on the topics of erecting and painting the churches. The public significance of the works regarding the construction and equipping of the churches had been highlighted. Certain models of the church architecture and painting had been promoted, along with the individual artists' works. By reading the daily and periodical press, the reading public had been informed about the church heritage from the past through the reports about medieval churches and some debates on their renovation. Finally, the public of experts promoted, by using the (printed) press, certain advisable behavior models, such as the contribution activities towards the Church which were seen as the ultimate patriotic endeavor.

CATtalk: An IoT-Based Interactive Art Development Platform

Interactive art has been significant advanced by the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber physical interaction technologies, which enables the participants to engage with the art devices. Several tools and platforms have been proposed to create the art devices. However, the interactive artworks are typically developed with these art devices in ad hoc approaches, and the artists need to spend significant programming efforts to integrate the art devices. This paper proposes CATtalk, a platform to create and maintain interactive artworks. The novel idea is to treat all art devices in an interactive artwork as IoT devices that can be transparently reused by reconfiguration in CATtalk. Therefore, the artworks developed independently by individual artists can be quickly integrated to create new interactive applications. Through CATtalk’s no-code and low-code mechanisms, the artists can manipulate CATtalk with little or no programing efforts. CATtalk offers a built-in mechanism so that any person in the audience can play with an interactive artwork with his/her smartphone. We also conduct analytic analysis, simulation and measurements to ensure that the interactive art performance in cross-country remote stages are not affected by the communications delays. In our measurements, the average local and remote communication delays are about 0.01 and 0.05 seconds, respectively. If the art performance is designed such that the average delay between two actions of a local (remote) performer is longer than 0.1 seconds, then the probability of out-of-sequence actions is less than 0.01%. That is, the local dancer should perform slower than the remote dancer. Such delay analysis for remote interactive art performance has not been conducted in the literature.

ВЫСТАВКА СОВРЕМЕННОГО ФРАНЦУЗСКОГО ИСКУССТВА В МОСКВЕ (1928) ПО ДОКУМЕНТАМ РГАЛИ И ОР ГМИИ ИМ. А.С. ПУШКИНА

The cooperation of the new Soviet art and the artists of Russian emigration is a subject of particular interest. The period of the 1920s became a unique in the history of art when the new Soviet avant-garde artists, as well as artists who remained at home and those who decided to leave and not return, got along at international exhibitions within the Russian section. Russian art was still perceived as a single whole, geographical boundaries did not play a role, and the abyss of “non-return” had not yet opened between the creators themselves. The last chords in that still general composition were some art exhibitions that have become iconic. One of them was the exhibition of modern French art in Moscow (September – November 1928), which is the focus of the article. The organization of the exhibition brought together efforts of highranking officials of the USSR and France (A.V. Lunacharsky, E. Herriot), major cultural institutions (State Museum of New Western Art, Tretyakov Gallery, State Academy of Art Sciences), private French galleries and art dealers, as well as individual artists. On the basis of archival documents from the funds of the RGALI and the Archive of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the author restores the events associated with the preparation, organization, negotiations and participation in the exhibition of emigrant artists.

ПОНЯТТЯ АРХЕТИПУ ЗА КАРЛОМ ЮНГОМ У МИСТЕЦЬКОМУ ДИСКУРСІ ТА ВИКОРИСТАННЯ АРХЕТИПІВ У FASHION-ІНДУСТРІЇ

In this article the author study and analyzes archetype concept. There were analyzed: the main archetypes, their reflection in design, fashion art and fast fashion. The scientific novelty of the work is based on an attempt to systematize the main types of archetypes by the nature of their manifestations in the fashion sphere, highlight the dependence of the character and mental characteristics of the person on the internal archetype and its impact on the perception of external archetypes. In addition, the paper analyzes the main archetypes in art and their dependence on current trends and tendencies. The author considered the main vectors of influence of archetypes embodied in fashion on society and its main groups. Also, the methods, tools and patterns used to embody archetypes and their elements in the fashion industry were analyzed. The connection between the use of archetypes in the fashion industry and marketing strategies was analyzed as well. Thus, it was proved that the successful visualization of individual details related to the key archetypes that correspond to the moment of its development, allows you to reach a larger audience and get more than just a response to the fashion as an art. It also directly affects the sales growth and commercial success of individual designers and artists. The analysis of archetypes, their embodiment in fashion and perception by spectators and consumers was carried on the foundation of the appropriate methodological basis. The author also used a wide range of sources of information, which allowed taking into account various factors and make the study more in-depth and thorough. Among such sources, data on the modern fashion performances, shows and collections, in particular, the achievements of Ukrainian designers, are especially important. The work is based on the principles of objectivity, historicity and is considered on the basis of analysis not only of the source base, but also of research achievements of scientists, from Carl Jung himself to his modern followers and opponents.

GRAMMAR OF THE IDIOSTYLE IN POETRY (on the example of Georgy Ivanov`s poems)

The article deals with the study of the grammar of idiostyle in poetry. Theoretical basis of the study of grammar of poetic idiostyle based on the material of poetry is the doctrine of the inner form of a word and language features, the theory of morphological field and achievements of functional grammar, modern developments in the field of linguistics, linguopoetics, and poetic aesthetics. In the structure of the poetic text, a unit of any of the levels is capable of possessing expressiveness, being an expressive unit, interacting with other levels. The semantic and functional enrichment of grammatical means in the poetic language of the 19th-20th centuries has an individual-author character, based on the systemic grammatical potential of the national language. As a consequence, these enriched units and categories form the grammatical system of poetic language as a subset of the national language. “Poetic cognition” is verbal in nature. The tools of “poetic cognition” are the artistic word and the structure of language as a system of connections and relations between linguistic units. Linguopoetic mechanisms of grammatical meanings actualization and neutralization in poetic language are based on general linguistic characteristics of morphological categories and on the regularities of poetic functioning, the selection of neutral and marked grammemes. In addition to the violation of the grammatical norm, poetic language has a variety of artistic techniques and forms patterns, the basis of which is morphological selection and the formation of homogeneous groups, series, texts and their fragments, morphological attraction (assimilation of some morphological units to others). Besides, verse localization is a means of isolating and neutralizing the semantics of a certain unit. Within the framework of general poetic patterns in each text and “idiostyle” an authorial system of morphological selection and attraction is formed, which forms units and unities. The dynamics of the development of techniques and poetic means can be considered both within the framework of an individual work and in the comparative dimension, at the level of describing the idiostyle of an individual artist and in the idiostyles of different authors. Grammatical selection creates a variety of morphological dominants in individual works.

Traditions of National World Formation in the Poetics of Yakut and Korean Prose by Ariadna Borisova “The Land of the Udagans” and Lee Hyun Soo “New Tales of Gisaeng”

The article compares peculiarities of poetics of the olonkho novel “The Land of the Udagans” by the Yakut writer Ariadna Borisova and the legendary novel by the South Korean writer Lee Hyun Soo “New Tales of Gisaeng”. The study of traditions of the national world image based on the materials from different ethnic cultures from the gender perspective revealed the artistic individuality of authors representing the world of the Arctic and Southeast Asia. The comparison of the works by Yakut and Korean writers revealed the life-giving role of women in society and its crisis. The heroines represent a typological model of female fate in different images. Women are carriers of the traditional cultural and moral values based on the family value. The text-forming role of artistic details is significant. It makes the text real, reducing the distance between the author and the reader. Describing the real world of the heroines, their way of life, the space of their houses, the writers strive to outline the female everyday worldview and the national picture of the world