Nature Of Art Research Articles

Nadezhda Dobychina (1884–1950)

Abstract The opening of the first commercial art gallery in Russia by Nadezhda Dobychina (1884–1950) heralded surprising female dominance in the national art business sector, which appears even more remarkable considering that up until the early 1910s art dealers were virtually absent from the archaically pre-capitalistic Russian art market. On that account Dobychina’s Art Bureau, which opened in St. Petersburg in October 1911 was an entirely pioneering business project. Dobychina laid the groundwork for several innovative approaches which foreshadowed many aspects of modern gallery practice. Exhibitions in her Art Bureau were accompanied by talks, disputes, concerts and performances, bringing artists and public in a close contact with each other and thus providing a useful forum for the exchange of views and ideas. Dobychina’s Art Bureau aimed at showcasing the most original and distinctive artistic trends in Russia and abroad, ranging from realism, symbolism and post- impressionism to provocatively cutting-edge avant-garde. In a short span of less than a decade she organised the first exhibitions in Russia of Wassily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall and famously exhibited Malevich’s Black Square in the ground-breaking 0.10 exhibition, which was held at the Bureau in 1915. Over the years Dobychina has also assembled an important collection which included works of the World of Art and Avant-garde artists. The Art Bureau emerged as the most influential and ideologically independent centre of the contemporary art in Russia, which in turn secured artistic dialogue between Russia and Western Europe.

Understanding China’s infrastructure activities in Africa through artistic practice and exhibition

The infrastructure-led development model initiated by China under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has faced domestic and international challenges. By focusing on a national travelling art exhibition featuring Chinese railway construction in Africa in 2023, this paper examines the role that curatorial and exhibition practices can play in (re)shaping public geopolitical understandings of China-Africa relations. Exhibiting over 200 artworks collected from both China and Africa, this art programme not only forms a nuanced, personal and storied narrative of China’s overseas development work in Africa but also tactically responds to current internal and external criticism of the Chinese government’s global ambitions channelled through the BRI. This work extends the ongoing interest geographers have at the intersection of the visual arts and critical geopolitics.

Portuguese cinema and its discontents: a view from the film archive

ABSTRACT The article revisits the main arguments and underlying premises of the protracted debate on ‘national art cinema’ that has shaped Portuguese film studies for many decades. Drawing on international scholarly work on national cinemas and on my own experience as a researcher in the National Archive of the Moving Images (ANIM) of the Portuguese Cinematheque (Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema), I argue for a definition of ‘Portuguese cinema’ that takes into account the vast collections of non-fiction films that have been excluded from this debate. My proposal entails a shift away from prescriptive to descriptive understandings of Portuguese cinema, thus recognising its diversity, in the past as well as in the present. I therefore endorse a conception of national cinema that takes heed of wider and deeper historical processes, international ‘constellations’ and other (often contested or unacknowledged) traditions and practices. The argument builds on the analysis of Adriano Ramos Pinto – Vinho do Porto (attributed title), a short non-fiction utility film made in the late 1930s that belongs to ANIM’s holdings.

Research on the Influencing Factors of Art Intervention in the Environmental Graphics of Rural Cultural Tourism Space

In the development of rural revitalization, the art intervention in rural cultural tourism has become a hot topic recently. With the advent of the new media era, it is particularly important to study the factors that affect the artistic value of environmental graphic design. This study proposes six dimensions of environmental graphic design for rural cultural tourism through literature analysis and experience summary, which are refined into 21 impact indicators. It is based on the case of the environmental graphic publicity of cultural tourism in Chongqing Nanshan Cattle Village, using the SBE beauty evaluation method to evaluate the influencing factors, while using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to measure each indicator. The consistency of the two evaluation methods verifies the feasibility of the influencing factors, and this study found the influence of visuality, cultural nature, artistic nature, interactivity, spatiality, and communicativeness on aesthetic value. Moreover, the core of environmental graphic design lies in information transmission, in which artistic nature occupies an important position, while cultural nature, although it has a relatively small weight in aesthetic value, cannot be ignored in social media communication. In terms of visual design, a reasonable layout of equipment significantly enhances visual appeal, while spatial adaptability is considered a key factor. This paper emphasizes the integration of art principles into design to promote sustainable development, while also pointing out that the identification of rural cultural symbols can enhance visitors’ cultural experience. In terms of interactivity, it is crucial to encourage visitors to actively participate and share their experiences, while communication emphasizes the important impact of exposure to rural scenes on brand communication. This research provides systematic theoretical support and practical guidance for the environmental graphic design of rural cultural tourism.

Formation and Development of Stage Ballroom Dance in Ukraine from the Mid-90s of the Twentieth Century to the Early 20s of the Twenty-First Century

The purpose of the article is to analyse the formation, tendencies and peculiarities of the development of stage ballroom dance in Ukraine from the mid-90s of the twentieth century to the early 20s of the twenty-first century. The research methodology is based on the principles of objectivity, historicism, and systematicity. To achieve the goal, the following methods were used: systematisation – to understand the combination of events in stage ballroom choreography; synthesis – to analyse the specifics of the processes of development of stage ballroom choreography in Ukraine; included observation – to review individual choreographic works, stage performances and their preliminary comprehension. Scientific novelty. For the first time, an art historical analysis of the formation and development of stage ballroom choreography in Ukraine was conducted, the specifics of the existence of ballroom choreography in the stage space were highlighted through the prism of the activities of theatres, show ballets and ballroom dance groups that have been operating since the 90s of the twentieth century. Conclusions. It is important to note that one of the most powerful areas of national choreographic art is stage ballroom choreography. Ukraine is a leader among other countries in the world in popularising ballroom dancing through theatrical and stage practice. In other countries of the world, the competition and sports direction are developing more actively, and foreign show ballets are synthesised forms of classical and modern dance with some elements of ballroom dance. Instead, Ukrainian dancers, including students and graduates of the Department of Choreographic Arts of the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts (specialising in ballroom choreography), create a large number of choreographic productions, concerts, show programmes, musicals, ballets based on the vocabulary of ballroom choreography, which, unfortunately, remain the property of the local dance community. In our opinion, it is the lack of promotion of this art form, as well as the absence of systematic state support for this industry, that makes it impossible to convey to a wide range of viewers the high potential of ballroom choreography as a spectacular stage and dramatic art form.

Differentiation in General Music

Differentiation means creating different pathways through content to show mastery. Learning can be differentiated by process, product, and content. This article will define characteristics of differentiation and explore how general music teachers can be intentional about planning differentiated tasks and activities for each Artistic Process from the National Arts Standards.

Мебель «Лесной серии» С. Т. Конёнкова как образец синтезированного художественного языка

The research relies on a comprehensive approach, a formally stylistic analysis of over 60 pieces from the “Forest Series” by S. T. Konenkov, including furniture, as well as statements by its author. The aim of the study is to reveal the multi-level synthesized nature of the works, namely the synthesis of art forms, styles, genres, technical and methodological dominants, and deep generalizations of historical and religious content. The synthesis of genres is particularly evident in the investigated cycle of works as a whole, and their complex combinations are found in a number of individual pieces of furniture. As a result, the conclusion is made that it is precisely this specificity of the artistic language that allowed the sculptor to express the deep symbolic content, preserving the centuries-old connotations of Russian national art. The research is novel in that it is the first one to analyze the multi-level synthesized character of the works of furniture in the “Forest Series” by S. T. Konenkov, namely the synthesis of art forms, styles, genres, technical and methodological dominants, and deep generalizations of historical and religious content.

Náš český Millet? Joža Uprka, lidové a české umění

In April 2022, the Albín Polášek Museum in Florida closed a large exhibition of paintings by Joža Uprka from the private collection of a collector living near Chicago. This exhibit was to be later shown at the Czech embassies in Washington and Paris. In the USA, the work of Joža Uprka is still popular, alongside expressions of folk culture, which take many forms. They range from collected items to observing folk traditions by the diaspora of many generations. The town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for example, has always had a strong Czech community, and today it houses the National Czech and Slovak Museum, which regularly exhibits folk art and works of art closely associated with folk culture of the homeland. The diaspora has preserved a specific Czechness, Slovakness and even a Czechoslovak character of folk art, as seen in the practices of folk culture or captured in the paintings by artists such as Uprka. The text examines understanding of folk art as Czech and national, while I focus mainly on the territory outside of today’s Czech Republic. Why has the Czech and Slovak diaspora, even in large urban agglomerations, associated folk art so intimately with the nation and national art? Who has been promoting these associations? Have they been accepted universally, or were there any alternatives of national art?

„Česká škola?“ Na přelomu 19. a 20. století

French (Francophone) criticism first institutionalized and then co-created the construct of “national schools”, “national arts”. How the notion of the “Czech school” was codified and destabilized from the position of this powerful medium in the long nineteenth century, and even a little later in changing socio-historical, ideological and specifically political situations and constellations, is the subject of this study, illustrated by a number of examples.

Klid před bouří. Špálova Otava jako šťastný průnik umělcovy osobní historie a národních dějin

The interwar work of Václav Špála is considered to be the essence of the “national art” of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Its emblematic manifestation is the extensive series depicting the Otava River from 1929 and 1930. The paper focuses on the painting On the Otava River (1929) from the collection of the Gallery of Fine Arts in Cheb. It has an exceptional position within it, both in terms of its formal qualities and overall concept. Špála himself was aware of this and never sold it, and the painting was acquired by the Cheb gallery in 1966 from his estate. The uniqueness of the painting is also underlined by its exhibition history: in 1937, Václav Nebeský selected it for the accompanying exhibition to EXPO 37 in Paris, L’art moderne tchécoslovaque at the Charpentier Gallery, twenty years later it was one of only five works representing Czechoslovakia at the international exhibition 50 Years of Modern Art at EXPO 58 in Brussels, together with the works of Emil Filla, František Kupka, Josef Šíma and Otto Gutfreund.

ReShaping Worlds: Thinking with and through positionality for thriving futures

Art theory as taught in Australian higher education still predominantly focuses on Eurocentric artistic practices, methodologies and histories, with practices by First Nations artists and artists of colour often relegated to tokenistic one-off lectures. This approach to syllabus fails to reflect the depth and breadth of contemporary art and creates an inherently imbalanced perspective disconnected from the diverse experiences of students. Simultaneously, students are expressing their own expectations for an empowered and critically reflexive art education. Using the undergraduate art theory course, ReShaping Worlds, as a case study, this collaborative article discusses the importance of developing curriculum that provides students with an expanded perspective on artistic and curatorial practices by decentring hegemonic Eurocentric art narratives and reflecting on positionality. In doing so, we also highlight our roles as arts educators in facilitating and supporting reflexive and critical practice amid climates of political, social and ecological uncertainty.

Traktoristky a Jedlíci ptáků

At the end of 1947, a small book was published, taking stock of the controversial reception of the exhibition of national artists of the Soviet Union, which in May of that year introduced Soviet socialist realism to Czechoslovakia for the first time. Zbyněk Sekal, a young student of the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague, also purchased the book. From a school trip to Paris in September 1947, he brought back Jean Dubuffet’s rare lithograph Mangeurs d’oiseaux [Bird Eaters] from 1944. The sheet was created as part of the album Matiere et Mémoire ou Les Lithographies a l’école [Matter and Memory or Lithographers at School] with text by Francis Ponge, and was published by Fernand Mourlot in January 1945. The album has been hailed as a turning point in Jean Dubuffet’s work, both because he was working on it to familiarize himself with the technique of lithography and because of the fundamentally new concept of the figure. Zbyněk Sekal then created a drawing and exceptional painting The Supper – loosely based on Dubuffet, cheerfully and confidently poking fun at Dubuffet’s Bird Eaters. My text will seek to answer the question, how does Sekal’s Czech paraphrase, a promising individual free artistic act, differ from Dubuffet’s program?

Prevention of extremism and terrorism in schools: experience of the republic of Dagestan

The article presents the results of the study of preventive anti-terrorist educational work among students of general education schools of the Republic of Dagestan. It is noted that this work with school youth is carried out systematically and comprehensively with the participation of not only teachers, but also external subjects of preventive influence on adolescents from among representatives of law enforcement agencies, various ministries and departments authorised in the field of youth, information and state national policy, cultural and art figures, representatives of the official Muslim clergy, athletes, deputies, veterans of the Special Military Operation and other public opinion leaders. It was revealed that the main format of this work is a thematic preventive conversation with schoolchildren, that requires certain pedagogical skills and competencies. Using a formalised expert survey of school teachers and a series of research interviews, an assessment of the effectiveness of this activity was identified, as well as problems that hinder the improvement of the quality of anti-extremist educational work with Dagestani youth. Noting the importance and usefulness of this work, the interviewed teachers point to a number of problems and factors that reduce its effectiveness. The workload of teachers with "paperwork", frequent demands for various kinds of reports on the work done, formalism, holding events without taking into account the age and individual characteristics of students, incompetence, lack of understanding and support from the parent community, weak interest in such events from both teachers and schoolchildren and a number of other factors hinder the improvement of the quality of anti-terrorist educational work with Dagestani youth. It seems that the prevention of extremism and terrorism is part of the general educational impact of the comprehensive school institution on a child, raising him to be a moral, law-abiding and patriotic citizen. To improve the quality of this work, it is important to raise the authority of school teachers at the state level, since a teacher without authority is a bad educator for teenagers not only in the area of countering the spread of the ideology of extremism and terrorism, but also in the matter of spiritual, moral and patriotic education in general.

Spatial Sign Rhetoric in Gulf Poetry at the Turn of the Third Millennium

The presence of spatial signs in the Arabic poem is not limited to being a ‘subject’ that the poet writes about, but goes beyond that to being a ‘technique’ with which the poet writes, and between writing ‘about’ and writing ‘with’ the poem moves and the Arab poet is creative in forming his poetic world, and the aesthetic world of the poem, the poet does not write a newspaper reportage about the place, but he employs a spatial sign, and the sign in turn works to broadcast its intellectual and aesthetic energy, the sign with its linguistic status is a linguistic element that is included in the fabric of the poem and not just an element external to it, which makes it an essential partner in the formation of the poetic text. This makes it a key partner in the formation of the poetic text. Throughout its history, the Arabic poem has presented thousands of spatial signs that participated in the formation of its entity, and necessarily participated in the formation of its aesthetics, but scholars have viewed them as mere subjects or mere elements that form the space of the poem without trying to discover the aesthetics of their presence. The study attempts to adopt a poetic model that has its own artistic nature and its own temporal and spatial boundaries (the Arabic poem in the Arabian Gulf region at the beginning of the third millennium), with the aim of achieving three objectives that discuss its questions and fulfil its hypotheses: To identify the most important spatial signs in the poem, explore the ways in which they appear and recognise the patterns of their presence, and then explore the rhetoric and aesthetics they achieve in the context of the poem. The study seeks to answer two main questions: How was the presence of the sign in the poem? What did the presence of the sign add to the poem? Its material was formed through three main axes that represent spatial circles that expand from the nearest to the farthest geographically: The local place (the poet's country and its spatial spaces), the regional circle (the large Arab world), and the global circle (the places outside the Arab world that the poem under study approached). The study achieved its results by analysing the poetic energy of the studied texts in a primarily aesthetic manner, looking at their deeper levels and the relationships between the spatial signs on the one hand, and the relationship between the spatial sign and other textual elements.

In Memory of Sergey Andriaka

Sergey Nikolaevich Andriaka (July 14, 1958 - May 16, 2024) was a distinguished Russian watercolorist, a celebrated artist and educator, and a pivotal figure in national art education. He served as editor-in-chief and a permanent author for the scientific and methodological journal Secreta Artis. Andriaka was the driving force behind the extensive scientific, methodological, and publishing efforts of the art institutions he founded and led: the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Sergey Andriaka Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts" and the State Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional Education "Sergey Andriaka Specialized School of Watercolor with a Museum and Exhibition Complex".This article represents the first comprehensive effort to summarize his substantial contributions, trace his professional journey, and provide foundational information about his artistic and pedagogical career. It explores the principles underlying the School of Watercolor and the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts, and delves into key aspects of Anrdriaka's unique teaching methodology, particularly his multilayer watercolor technique.The article features previously unpublished materials, such as drafts of Andriaka's autobiography and personal conversations with him.

Gordon Walters

Francis Pound’s Gordon Walters could be considered the final component and critical analysis of the life and times of four pioneering New Zealand artists whose reputations and legacies acquired prominence in the 1960s. Where Toss Woollaston (1910–1998) and Rita Angus (1908–1970) are given due and comprehensive consideration by Jill Trevelyan (2004 and 2020 respectively), and Colin McCahon (1919–1987) in Peter Simpson’s two-volume magnum opus (2019–2020), Pound’s book on the life and art of Gordon Walters (1919–1995) completes this equation. In making connections between these artists, there is inevitably a sense of the founding of a national art history. Gordon Brown and Hamish Keith’s once highly influential publication, An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839–1967 (1969), devoted less attention to Walters’ abstraction than to the more figurative and referential work of his peers. But now Pound’s Gordon Walters comprehensively eliminates the remnants of any possible doubt about Walters’ central importance in New Zealand art history. To paraphrase the writer’s commentary on Walters’ own art and legacy, this is an astonishing publication.

Exploring the Element of Form Based on Traditional Chinese Auspicious Patterns

Chinese traditional auspicious patterns, which date back more than 5,000 years, are a vital component of national art and traditional culture. These patterns have special meanings and are often associated with good wishes and blessings. Their development reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This research on auspicious patterns focuses mainly on the creation method and classification, with few forms. It seeks to ascertain the features of the traditional auspicious pattern form in China. This study adopts qualitative analysis, specifically in analyzing patterns by observation. Based on Panofsky's theory of iconography, the study selected six common Chinese traditional auspicious patterns and analyzed them to determine their classification, layout, composition and elements. It can be concluded that their form is characterized by various elements, specifically figurative and complete, complex pattern formations, full layout designs, balanced or symmetrical compositions, and single or fit patterns. Thus, this study summarized the pattern form analysis model or the PFC-Model. By addressing this gap in knowledge, the study enhances understanding of auspicious patterns. At the same time, the pattern analysis model can be used to analyze similar patterns, which makes it easier to analyze other pattern forms and brings the study of traditional Chinese patterns to a new height. In the meantime, this research only studies the external form of auspicious patterns. In this regard, as form and color is the first layer of research mentioned in Panofsky's image theory, it needs to be more comprehensive. In the future, researchers can continue to explore its color characteristics and extend the research into the content of the first layer of the theories. Undoubtedly, researchers can also expand the analysis of auspicious patterns using the theory's second and third layers.

The Artistic Characteristics of Chinese Impressionist Painter Wu Guanzhong

This study aims to explore the artistic characteristics of Chinese Impressionist painter Wu Guanzhong. By combing through Wu Guanzhong's artistic experience, it analyzes the evolution of his painting style and its unique expression in the fusion of Chinese and Western art. The study provides an in-depth analysis of Wu Guanzhong's works in terms of subject matter, materials, composition, color, brushwork and other aspects, revealing his unique artistic language and his contribution to the development of modern Chinese painting. At the same time, this study combines literature review and case studies to explore the impact of Wu Guanzhong's art on contemporary Chinese art education, and suggests how to inherit and innovate Chinese national art in the contemporary context. This study provides new perspectives for understanding Wu Guanzhong's artistic achievements and his position in cultural exchanges, and offers useful references for the future development of Chinese art.

Multimedia Innovation and Integration of Folk Art Elements in Interior Design

In the long history, China has accumulated a large number of excellent traditional cultures, especially folk-art elements, which are very rich in content and are good design materials and inspiration sources. With the development of China's economy and society, people's requirements for interior decoration have become higher, so multimedia graphic design to meet users' personalized needs is a typical implicit optimization problem. Therefore, this paper combines folk art elements with modern digital processing technology and interior design of image processing, and at the same time, the improved interactive genetic algorithm introduces users' subjective evaluation into the design process, allowing users to participate in the design work. Experiments show that the algorithm can effectively meet the personalized needs of customers in the process of graphic design. It has played a positive role in the integration of national art and modern interior design and the embodiment of national characteristics in modern multimedia design.

Animal Portraiture in the Shah and Rana Era

In the art history of Nepal, the portrayal of animals was never the primary subject until the late medieval period. But animals were depicted as mount of gods and goddesses incommon practice. Independent animal portraitures are seen for the first time in the Shah period. In the National Art Museum of Bhaktapur, a collection of forty-eight distinct animal portraits has been available. There are two types of animal portraiture: mythical creatures and natural fauna. Mythical beings are śārdūla, simha, śarabha, and vyāla, whereas natural fauna are wild animals available in Nepal. Mythical creatures are mostly inspired by Persia, Central Asia as well as the Far East, whereas natural fauna is influenced by Pahari, Mughal, and Mewar artistic traditions. Animals are depicted engaging in fights, chases, and brawls, based on the animal kingdom. Among them, bull fight scenes commissioned by Rana Bahadur Shah, depicted by Nepalese artists. The background of the painting reveals a portrayal of mountains, trees, rocks, rivers, and other natural elements of Paubhāḥ painting. In the early nineteenth century, Nepalese artists used to make copies by Nepali artists using a camera lucida, drawing on paper with pencil, and filling with black ink or colors. Under Jang Bahadura Rana, Nepalese artists observed the photos, sketched them onto the canvas, and then applied colors.