No. 2 (2021): ART INNOVATION
In the second issue of Art Innovation (2021), the authors investigated esoteric Surrealism and rational Avant-Garde; the image of war and the images created by war; the artists who work in contradiction to the state’s power, and those united by the Confucian order. You will read about art in Russia, China, the USA, and Europe. The issue reflects a multifaceted character of contemporary art and diversity of perspectives on art context.
The issue starts with the study of images of the WW1 in the drawings by French artist Jean-Louis Forain. Polina Vishnevskaya highlighted the links between Forain’s art and art by Rembrandt and Goya, stressed the ambivalent character of perception of war in his art. She also made a thesis that counters an established vision of Forain as a propagandist.
Lev Manovich and Julian Sunley studied the avant-garde culture from the unusual point of view. The authors analyzed creative approach by Aleksei Gastev — a revolutionary and poet, who founded The Central Institute of Labour in 1920, that aimed to rationalize work and workers on a nationwide scale. Gastev’s unique method was based not only on the mathematics but on visual aspect of the experiment: to represent the perfect movement of a worker, he used graphic language of expression.
This is the first time Chinese art has appeared on the pages of our journal. Xin Nizheng and Vera Leonova give a detailed review of Chinese art unions: central, local, and international. In this context, the authors presented unique and diverse Chinese art, which combines tradition and innovation.
Ida Shik studied mysterious images created by Nicholas Bruno after his experience of sleep paralyses. Bruno transformed classic Tarot deck using Surrealist practice: grotesque, dark humor, and convulsive beauty.
The ESSAYS section features the text by Sofia Pushenkova about Naum Gabo. Born in the Russian Empire, this artist is little known to a wide audience. However, his fame is worldwide. The author wrote about Gabo’s biography and his heritage in today’s Russia.
The REVIEWS opens with a text by Nataliya Shchetinina on Georgii Sokolov’s book Nonconformist Art in Leningrad. Freedom Circle. The book covers a period from the October revolution until 2020s. It shows specifics of Leningrad non-official art and uniting role of Hermitage Museum for the nonconformist community.
The suppressed memory of the terror, which was Russia’s cultural and historical drama, is in the focus of the article by Elena Kalashnikova. She reviewed the book Waiting for Mercy… by a photographer Dmitry Vyshemirsky. His documentary quest through the sites of former camps has become the main subject of his work.
Art Innovation has been an official media partner of the academic conference, organized by The Russian Academy of Arts and The State Tretyakov Gallery. The conference, that took place in 13-15 December, 2021, discussed pictorialism in Russian photography. This major movement appeared at the turn of the 20th century. Although receiving little attention, it has been developing for over the century. The review on the conference presents the key trends in studies of pictorialism today.
