2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
A direction in art that became popular in the last decade of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, combining such trends as expressionism, abstractionism, cubism, dadaism, futurism, surrealism, is called modernism. This is a combination of stylistic trends in painting on the verge of centuries.
What is Art Nouveau?
So, the modernist artist could belong to any of these directions, which followed one from the other, being something new in relation to the previous one. From the French language moderne is translated as "modern". Art Nouveau embraced all countries of Europe and America. In many of them, it had its own names: Jugendstil, Art Nouveau, “End of the Century”, Liberty and others. All of them personified a new direction in art, the essence of which was not in the real display of the world, but in the transfer of a creative person's own subjective world on the canvas. Some articles indicate that the modernist artist denies cultural heritage, others report that he abandoned straight lines and angles. But what about cubism then? At the turn of the century, there were so many different trends, directions, circles and societies that carried new talent, andsometimes a brilliant word, and a new direction united them all with the common idea of reorganizing the world under its banner, as the Silver Age united all Russian poets of the same time.
Youth always needs renewal
As a rule, innovators were young, talented, original people, they were interested in everything, they hated the foundations, they wanted to achieve maximum self-expression, they created their worlds within the framework of one picture. Of course, modernism is a special style of artistic thinking. As noted above, the Art Nouveau style in painting and architecture bore this name precisely in Russia and, of course, had its own national features. There is an opinion that with us it was somehow blurred, there was no clear, pronounced character. Maybe this happened because there is a lot of everything in Russia - many brilliant artists, many schools and trends, and any idea that comes from outside acquires a national flavor.
Modern school in Russia
Artists of Russian Art Nouveau, such as Bilibin and Borisov-Musatov, Vasnetsov and Vrubel, Golovin, Malyutin and Nesterov, female modernists Golubkina, Polenova, Yakunchikova in their work echoed the pan-European direction, but brought national and social traits. This style can be traced in individual works by Kandinsky and Korovin, Levitan and Petrov-Vodkin, Roerich and Serov. At the turn of the century, publications appeared in Russia that promoted the ideas of the Art Nouveau style - the monthly "Scales", the magazines "Iskusstvo iart industry” and “World of Art”, whose leading figures also represented Russian modernism with their work. The brightest of them are Bakst and Benois, Dobuzhinsky and Somov. Thanks to the listed names, one can imagine this powerful layer of different talents, but united by a common direction of creativity.
The brightest representatives of style
Modernist artist Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942), a famous book illustrator and theater designer, was a member of the World of Art association. His portrait by B. Kustodiev in 1901 perfectly conveys the image of a representative of the metropolitan bohemia and modern style. Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910) deserves special mention. A modernist artist, a forerunner of symbolism with an original and unique style of writing, he was not very revered by his contemporaries, and Stasov completely condemned him.
The work of this artist with a tragic fate is still being debated. His illustrations for the works of M. Yu. Lermontov are amazing, Blok called Vrubel's drawings bizarre drawings stolen from eternity. The artist is considered the founder of Russian Art Nouveau, he was at its origins.
Concentration of talent in Russia at the turn of the eras
Another powerful figure representing Russian Art Nouveau in painting is Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), who headed the "World of Art" association. He was a versatile person. Throughout his life both in Russia and abroad, where he emigrated in 1917, he wrote more7000 canvases. But Roerich was still a writer, archaeologist, mystic philosopher, traveler and public figure. One of his most famous paintings, written at this time, is "Overseas guests" in 1901.
Russian Art Nouveau was a powerful phenomenon that captured the fine arts, architecture, literature, industry and everyday life. The extraordinary amount of talent concentrated in both capitals, seeing modernity as building a new world, ended quickly. Many modernists did not accept the revolution - they emigrated, and socialist realism became the dominant trend in the work of Soviet artists.
Short but very bright direction
The best paintings of modernists, current classics decorate all the museums of the world. The canvases are the pearls of domestic museums. The works of Vrubel, Vasnetsov, Roerich, Kustodiev and others are recognizable and loved. Who does not know Vasnetsov's heroes or Vrubel's Swan Princess, his own Demon or Pan? Beautiful, mysterious, mystical, refined and unique, they adequately represent, albeit short in time, but very significant layer in Russian art.
Summing up, we can say that the most typical representatives, the brightest modernists, artists of the 20th century are Alphonse Mucha, Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin and our compatriots - Ivan Bilibin, Mikhail Vrubel and Nicholas Roerich.
Recommended:
Modern in architecture - perfection of style
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a new style developed in Europe - "modern", which affected many aspects of the society of that time. Art Nouveau in the visual arts, mostly in painting and sculpture, gave new impetus to the work of artists. Art Nouveau has said its weighty word in architecture
Literary and artistic style: characteristics, main style features, examples
Very few people remember the school program by heart after many years after graduation from school. In literature lessons, we all listened to speech styles, but how many former schoolchildren can boast that they remember what it is? We recall together the literary and artistic style of speech and where it can be found
Modern and jazz-modern dances. History of modern dance
For those who practiced modern dance, it was important to present a choreography of a new order, corresponding to the man of the new century and his spiritual needs. The principles of such art can be considered the denial of traditions and the transmission of new stories through unique elements of dance and plasticity
Modern style houses. Art Nouveau in Russian architecture
Modern style houses appeared in the late 19th - early 20th century. Many were interested in the use of new materials and forms. In a word, there was a desire to escape from the classics. Under the influence of these factors, the architecture developed
Modern style in art
Art Nouveau is an art movement that flourished between 1890 and 1910 throughout Europe and the United States. It is characterized by the use of a long, winding line. Most often, elements of this style were used in architecture, interior design, jewelry and glass design, posters and illustrations. It was a deliberate attempt to create a new style, free from the imitative historicism that dominated much of 19th century art and design
