Searching for Plastic Expressiveness in Alexander Osmerkin's Paintings: From "Cezannism" to "Silent Realism"

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i1.2354

Keywords:

Plasticity of painting, Russian avant-garde, Cezannism, "Quiet" realism, Coloristic expressiveness.

Abstract

The article discusses the specifics of understanding the plastic expressiveness of painting by A. Osmerkin, which manifested itself differently at different stages of the artist’s creative biography, determined by the sociocultural context of the 1920s – 1940s. The study revealed the aesthetic positions of the artist at an early and mature stage of creativity, reflecting priorities in the search for the plastic expressiveness of the painting. The figurative and stylistic features of his works created in different decades are considered; a comprehensive analysis of his aesthetic views and their reflection in the author’s picture of the world has been performed. In addition, the authors introduce into the scientific circulation the artist’s works from the museums of the Kropyvnytsky city, which were not previously considered in existing publications on the work of A. Osmerkin. The results of the study led to the conclusion that the artist paid great attention to the plasticity of color, with the help of which he built form and space, without taking the color composition from the task of the image. It was not the colorfulness itself that attracted spectators to the artist’s paintings, but precisely the harmoniously constructed color that conveys the beauty of nature in its individual state through the color ratio. In the post-revolutionary time, A. Osmerkin became a consistent realist, working in chamber genres, he was interested not so much in the plot as in solving plastic problems by means of impressionistic painting. At this stage, the artist strives for pictures in the most "nonpainting" genres – in still life, landscape, portrait, working in a peculiar style of "quiet realism". Lyristic imagery of Osmerkin’s paintings puts him among the artists who poetically reflect the world.

Author Biographies

Elena Kirichenko, Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University

Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Fine Arts and Design

Olha Punhina, Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University

Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Fine Arts and Design

Yuliia Malezhyk, Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University

Ph.D., Senior Lecturer at the Department of Fine Arts and Design

References

Adorno, T. W. (1995). Ästhetische Theorie. Hrsg. von Gretel Adorno und Rolf Tiedemann. 13. Aufl. — Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp [in German].

Akimova, L. (1960). Tvorchestvo A. A. Osmerkina [The work of A. A. Osmerkin]. Moscow: Iskusstvo [in Russian].

Bolotina, I. & Shcherbakov, A. (1989). Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Osmerkin, 1892-1953: Zhivopis, grafika, teatr: Katalog [Alexander Osmerkin, 1892-1953: Painting, graphics, theater: Catalog]. Moscow: Sov. hudozhnik [in Russian].

Deyneka, A. (1959). Tvorcheskaya zhizn. Vyistavka A. Osmerkina [Creative life. Exhibition of A. Osmerkin]. Tvorchestvo – Creation, 12, 14. [in Russian].

Gadamer, H. G. (1960). Wahrheit und Methode. Tübingen [in German].

Kagan, M. S. (1997). Estetika kak filosofskaya nauka [Aesthetics as a philosophical science]. Sankt-Peterburg, TOO TK "Petropolis" [in Russian].

Kostenevich, A. G. (Eds.) (1998). Pol Sezann i russkiy avangard nachala XX veka: Katalog vyistavki [Paul Cezanne and the Russian avant-garde of the early twentieth century: Exhibition catalog]. SPb: Slaviya [in Russian].

Krivtsun, O. A. (2018). Plasticheskoe myishlenie v iskusstve: linii vliyaniya [Plastic thinking in art: lines of influence]. Artikult. Nauchnyiy elektronnyiy zhurnal – ARTICLE. Scientific electronic journal, 26, 20-34. DOI: 10.28995/2227-6165-2018-1-20-34 [in Russian].

Malkova, O. P. (2006). Tvorchestvo hudozhnikov «Bubnovogo valeta» vtoroy polovinyi 1910-1950. Sotsiokulturnyie i plasticheskie aspektyi (na materiale sobraniya Volgogradskogo muzeya izobrazitelnyih iskusstv) [Creative works of artists of the "Bubble valley" of the second half of 1910-1950. Socio-cultural and plastic aspects (based on the collection of the Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts)]. Extended abstract of candidate’s thesis. Sankt-Peterburg: Rossiyskaya Akademiya hudozhestv [in Russian].

Melikadze, E., & Syisoev, P. (1939). Sovetskaya zhivopis. Kratkie biografii hudozhnikov i reproduktsii kartin [Soviet painting. Brief biographies of artists and reproductions of paintings]. Moscow: Iskusstvo [in Russian].

Morozov, A. I. (1995). Konets utopii. Iz istorii iskusstva v SSSR 1930-h godov [The end of utopia. From the History of Art in the USSR in the 1930s]. Moscow: Galart [in Russian].

Nadezhdin, A. (2004). Don Kihot iz ukrainskoy stepi [Don Quixote from the Ukrainian steppe]. Retrieved from http://www.osmerkinmuseum.kr.ua/apub/pub14_r.html [in Russian].

Nadezhdin, A. (2007). Poetyka Peizazhu v tvorchosti Oleksandra Osmorkina [Poetics of landscape in the works of Alexander Osmerkin]. Retrieved from http://osmerkinmuseum.kr.ua/apub/pub01.html [in Ukrainian]

Nikich, A. Yu. (Eds.) (1981). Osmerkin. Razmyishleniya ob iskusstve. Pisma. Kritika. Vospominaniya sovremennikov [Osmerkin. Reflections on art. Letters. Criticism. Memoirs of Contemporaries]. Moscow: Sovetskiy hudozhnik [in Russian].

Pospelov, G. G. (1990). "Bubnovyiy valet": Primitiv i gorodskoy folklor v moskovskoy zhivopisi 1910-h godov ["Jack of Diamonds": Primitive and Urban Folklore in Moscow Painting]. Moscow: Sovetskiy hudozhnik [in Russian].

Svetlyakov, K. A. (2002). Problema zhivopisnoy realizatsii Polya Sezanna i traditsiya russkogo sezannizma pervoy polovinyi XX veka [The problem of the picturesque implementation of Paul Cezanne and the tradition of Russian seasonism of the first half of the XX century]. Extended abstract of candidate’s thesis. Moscow: MGU im. M. Lomonosova [in Russian].

Turchinskaya, E. Yu. (2013). Sezannizm i otechestvennaya zhivopis XX veka [Cezannism and Russian painting of the 20th century]. Nauchnyie trudyi (Sankt-Peterburgskiy gosudarstvennyiy akademicheskiy institut zhivopisi, skulpturyi i arhitekturyi imeni I. E. Repina) – Scientific works (St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. E. Repin, 24. Retrieved from http://www.gup.ru/events/smi/detail.php?ID=165986 [in Russian].

Usoltseva, L. I. (1973). Aleksandr Osmerkin. 1892-1953. [Alexander Osmerkin. 1892-1953]. Leningrad: Hudozhnik RSFSR [in Russian].

Downloads

Published

2020-03-28

How to Cite

Kirichenko, E., Punhina, O., & Malezhyk, Y. (2020). Searching for Plastic Expressiveness in Alexander Osmerkin’s Paintings: From "Cezannism" to "Silent Realism". Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 9(1), 209-224. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i1.2354