Today, summing up the results of the XX century, we turn to the history of art to realize the depth of time, which has always been the time of youth-youth artists, the time of their “new beginnings” in culture. Maybe we will find in the past also a hint to our current situation.
The Soviet 1950s are remarkable for the birth of cultural diversity. Neither the public policy nor the prevailing sentiments of the masses seemed to have contributed. In the Sixties and Seventies this complex picture has undergone development and transformation; One only its fragment is devoted to the present edition.
Moscow artists Vadim Lugovskaya, Yuri Kosmynin, Vitaly Grikkov, their friends mathematician Vladimir Kotrowski and musician Vladimir Fomin in 1964 formed the group “fiction” that existed until 1974. The title, as it will be said below, pointed to the “fictivity” of the elementary forms of visual art with which the artists worked. The members of the group were attracted by the opportunity to discuss art with like-minded people, and they did not have any finished concept, as well as the intention to create. In the end, they just wanted to live a creative life. In the booklet compiled by B. Kotrovsky for an apartment exhibition after termination of activity of “fictsii”, namely in 1976, read: “… There is one, perhaps, the only form in which any purpose can be expressed, if it is, of course, clearly understood: it consists in the hypothesis that the purpose-search to find something better, to move from one state to another. ” These words can also be attributed to earlier years, because the members of “fiction” initially sought this transition from one state to another as the creative itself.
Among singles, descended in views on the life of the artist, scenes adopted the principle of “not so much as who”, in other words, the artistic activity of “fiction” was determined not by ideology, but by a specific human Commonwealth. How did the community designate itself? First, the invisible border, which singled out “fiction”, carried out the objective non-profit with other acting artists. Secondly, the group supported those power lines that formed a mutual interest. Finally, the essential feature of “fiction” was the refusal to formulate and assert its position in relation to the general current of the epoch-avant-garde of the West. Artists of “fiction” worked without looking at it. In about the same relationship, the artists of “fiction” were also with the official Soviet art: neither dialogue nor dissident positioning. Work outside Mosha structures was determined both by personal character and by the situation of growing cultural diversity.
The picture would remain incomplete if the history of “fiction” was not considered within the configuration created by the art schools of the capital: Moscow’s highest artistic school (former Stroganovsky), Moscow’s highest artistic school. In the. And. Surikova, the first Moscow art school in Chudovo Lane (so-called “Chudovkoj”). If entrants to “Surkovku” were prepared at school at a college, then in “Stroganovka” received, having got skills in different schools of painting and drawing, in particular, in “Chudovke”. The pedagogical system of schools determined the balance of power. In “Stroganovka”, from which the artists of the group “Fication” came out, prepared so-called applied persons, that is experts in the field of design, industrial graphics, monumental and decorative-applied art, restoration of art values and T. p. The merit of the school was the desire of many of its graduates to continue to practice easel painting after the course. At the same time, the students of Stroganovka did not focus on the “ideologically filled” art. Absence of installation on specific forms of Socialist realism made them more free, and old teachers-Pavel Kuznetsov, Vladimir Egorov, Vasily Komardjonkov, N. N. Sobolev-reported impulses, came still from the “Silver Age” of Russian culture. For this reason, the artists of “fiction”-“Strogachi”, that is, the graduates of the Stroganov school-could not join any of the competing subcultures, differently denying a full-blooded European tradition-neither to the subsequent, nor to the Soviet avant-garde “Second Wave”. Both by nature were ideological and projective, and our artists were attracted to the study of elementary expressiveness.
So, the key words for the history of “fiction” are the semiotic beginnings of the figurative, in addition to conceptualizing. In fact, it was experimental art. There was also a social moment, because in such a way man could find freedom within the closed and non-free society, to find his humanity in the inhumane world. Since all the work was carried out in the conditions of interrupted cultural tradition and without sustainable communication with the society, the Chamber should be named another characteristic feature of artists “fiction”.
The mastering of self-made fine art began with splitting of a picture, that is with comprehension of its elements, signs, still devoid of value and by virtue of this “fictitious”. This explains the name, the group’s favorites, and the term “fiction” could be understood as a statement of the conventiall of life. It is no coincidence that the group was dramatized; First, the members of the “fictions” created their ephemeral world, then the objects, the minimal elements of art. The determining factor was the artist’s personal presence. The words of Jean Cocto, once chosen by our heroes, are appropriate here: “… We did not think about the results of what we were doing; None of us looked at things in a historical perspective–we were just trying to live, and live all together. ”
How exactly was the experiment of “fiction” implemented? Innovations arose in the conditions of a creative laboratory, for example, Vitaly Grijkov created visual objects in which he studied the picture-one of the archetypes of European culture-as a traditional semiotic system. Vadim Lugovskaya, undoubtedly possessing a natural plastic vision, managed to find an individual language for him. The concept of “Mark” was born in his works. A short “mark” can be characterized as a simple touch, an element of visual, devoid of an external cause and dependent only on the spiritual state of the artist. Not connected with objective objectivity, “Mark” is absolutely accidental, the condition of crystallization of the image was considered to have at least ten marks on the canvas.
The members of the “fiction” remained out of the avant-garde movement; If the hindsight still project on them the realities of Western modernity, the choice should stop at “Optical Art”, op-art. In addition, many years later, getting acquainted with the works of artists of “group 13”, who worked in the 1930s, our heroes with surprise and joy felt their unconsciously realized continuity…
No matter how distanced the members of the “fiction” from the society with its imperious demands, they could not do without external aesthetic influences. Especially since the second half of the Fifties artistic life of the capital was revived. In 1959, In Moscow, the Grand National Exhibition of the USA was held in Sokolniki, where the works of actual American artists, in particular, Jackson Pollock were demonstrated. Actual French painting, for example, new paintings by Pablo Picasso, could be seen in 1961, when the same Sokolniki held a national exhibition of France. Both events were a shock to the Soviet people of art; After many years of isolation from the “Big World” they saw a completely different picturesque space. But the artists of “fiction” this powerful energy was not accepted… What in this case became for them an aesthetic causative agent?
First, the Czechoslovak Journal of Art “V? Tvarn? Um? n? “, which was issued in the Czech language and distributed in Moscow by subscription. Among the artists whose works were published by this edition, for our heroes was especially important Jan Kotic, namely his work with the visual signs.
Secondly, the art magazine “Poland”, published in the USSR in Russian. For artists of “fiction” in this magazine was important everything, design, publications about painting, but especially-the famous Polish art of the poster.
Thirdly, an illustrated Italian book about Nicola de Staale, which in 1968 In the Bookistic shop Yu. Kosmynin bought as a gift B. Mushroom (Nicolas de Sta? l. Torino: Galleria Civica d’arte Moderna, 3 Maggio-12 giugno 1960). The picturesque work of de Stalya members of “fiction” perceived as a rational study of the plastic and color language in its purity. In his paintings for our artists was important logic of color design: white, black, gray in their clutch with spectral colors. It also impressed the work of De Staal in the frontier between the subject and the pointless art.
So, the artists of “fiction” inspired the contemporary art of Czechoslovakia and Poland, which was learnt from the art journals of the European countries of the Socialist camp, and the creativity of the French master of Russian origin… Here it is necessary to mention that the magazine “V? Tvarn? Um? n? “ceased to exist in 1968, during the days of suppression of the Czechoslovak socio-economic reforms.
The end of the group’s existence in 1974 Was marked by a special action, which will be mentioned in this collection. The artists happily escaped persecution by the authorities, probably because they had acted underground and had not communicated with foreigners.
Ilya Semenenko-Basin
Candidate of historical sciences