K. SOMOV’S ARTISTIC THINKING: FROM THE XVIIITH CENTURY STYLIZATIONS TO THE LUBOK PASTORALS OF THE 1920S

Abstract

Purpose. The present paper is aimed at investigating the evolution of K. Somov’s creative method over several decades (1890–mid-1920s). The central issue of the article is the problem of correlation between symbolism and the artist’s shift from the general platform of modernism of the early XX century to some complex forms of individual synthesis. It should be pointed out that within the abovementioned synthesis there is a place for popular folk culture of lubok, which has not been taken into consideration yet.

Proceeding from the outlined aim of the paper, the following tasks have been solved: 1) to determine the characteristic features of the first works by K. Somov, which demonstrate the aesthetic code of the painting school called “Mir Iskusstva”; 2) to demonstrate the features of his retro-thinking, which are manifested in the stylizations of the XVIII century; 3) to systematize the indicators of the synthesis in the artist’s legacy of the 1910–1920s; 4) to determine K. Somov’s principles of the reflection of the lubok style painting traditions of the late period.

Methods. The methodological consideration of the study includes a complex combination of the culture-historical and comparative methods of analysis. The comparison of the factual-historical and artistic plans of K. Somov’s painting with literary works by Alexander Blok, Anna Akhmatova, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mikhail Kuzmin, Vladimir Mayakovsky has been carried out according to the principle of cultural proximity, historical thinking and similarity of the images of their artworks. In the process of investigating the relationships, both thematic and artistic text relatedness of the above-mentioned authors have been taken into account.

Results. It is worth noting that within this study the most important features of K. Somov’s style have been systematized, the markers of the artist’s individual evolutionary development have been identified, and the indicators of synthesis in the paintings belonging to various periods of the artist’s life have been demonstrated. Since the study has been conducted in the context of interspecific comparative studies (painting – literature), the analysed material makes it possible to draw more universal conclusions than that which is in the works of art historians. Due to the availability of literary material, the general scientific understanding concerning the regularities of development and existence of such cultural era as “transitional period” and the period of the aesthetic reorientation is deepening.

Conclusions. The analysis of the material allows to conclude that the K. Somov’s shift from the platform of the painting school called “Mir Iskusstva” to the ironic and satirical type of the later works is connected with: 1) a general break in the artistic culture of the first third of the XX century; 2) individual features of K. Somov’s worldview; 3) his aesthetic snobbery, demonstrated in various combinations (in the stylizations of the XVIII century, the series of paintings named “Harlequinade”, the “lubok series” of the Soviet period). The author claims that such an approach to K. Somov’s works opens up a new perspective on the study of his heritage.