Russian art community of silver century of Art
Thus, in the capital city of the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg, a united artistic movement called ‘The World of Art’ was created. From 1898 the union began to publish an eponymous journal, which became a vision of neo-romanticism.
On the initiative of one of the central characters of ‘The World of art’, Sergei Diaghilev (subsequent organizer and producer of the world famous exhibition, ‘Russian Seasons in Paris’), an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists took place at the beginning of 1898 in the rooms of Baron Schtiglitz’s drawing school. The exhibition was an overwhelming success, shattering the peaceful current of artistic life in the capital and setting itself out as a declaration of the movement’s intent.
Subsequently the exhibitions of ‘The World of Art’ became an annual event. The greatest works in the whole of Russia were included in the exhibitions as were works by certain foreign artists. The enlightening activity of the artists was expressed through their aspiration to ignite a general interest in earlier art (especially from the 17th to the early 19th centuries), in their permanent concern for the protection of old statues and through a desire to further enlighten the public on general trends in contemporary art. The union became a guide for the artistic stylization of Russian lives. The artists of the movement were often acclaimed as ‘magicians of the retrospective, of book adornment and of decorative styles’, but sometimes were reproached for ‘their absorption of past memories’ and their escapism.
Apart from the basic core of the movement (Leon Bakst, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Yevgeny Lanceray,
Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva. Konstantin Somov), ‘The World of Art’ included many Petersburg and Moscow painters and drawers (Ivan Bilibin, Alexander Golovin, Igor Grabar, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev, Nikolai Roerich, Valentin Serov and others). Furthermore, well known artists like Mikhail Vrubel, Isaac Levitan and Mikhail Nesterov, participated in the movement’s exhibitions.
In many ways, the philosophy behind ‘The World of Art’ was determined by a disquieting anti-aestheticism of their contemporary society, with an aspiration to oppose its ‘eternal’ spiritual and artistic value. Declaring ideals of ‘free’ or ‘honest’ art and its independence, they rejected academism and repudiated the art of the wanderers. The figurative system behind the works of the artists formed the basis for future symbolism and neo-romanticism. Stylistically close to the works of Western-European artistic groups, it united theories and modern practices.
The artists often represented in their works, besides a history of composed (fantastical) landscapes, a wide use of grotesque tricks, elements of play, of carnival, of theatre, motives of masquerade and puppetry, sleep and jurisdiction. They liked to apply ‘fateful’ symbols to fairy tales and to eroticism.
The masters of the union assisted a great deal with the development of art books in Russia (besides the founding members of the union, a new artistic blossoming brought ‘a second generation’ into the ‘world of art’—George Narbut, Dimitry Mitrokhin, Sergei Chekhonin) their achievements were considerable in the spheres of painting and drawing portraits.
At the turn of the twentieth century, St. Petersburg with its architectural surroundings and atmosphere induced the artists of the ‘World of Art’ (Alexander Benois, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Yevgeny Lanceray, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva) to develop paint- ing and drawing cycles. They carry the honour of opening up the beauty of Petersburg, which their predecessors considered ‘formal’ and ‘soulless.’ In her series of engravings of Petersburg, for which she received the acclaim ‘the greatest in St. Petersburg,’ Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva developed an unusual viewpoint, conveying a nuanced mood of the town through landscapes.
A fundamental change occurred after 1905 in the ideological and aesthetical vision of the artists of ‘The World of Art’. During the period of the revolution, from 1905 to 1907, a group of artists (Dobuzhinsky, Lanceray, Serov and others), developed a different, politically satirical style . This new stage of social existence was characterized by a disassociation with extreme left-wing currents in Russian art and the approval of ideas concerning the possibility and benefit of regulating artistic work (the idea of a ‘New Academy’ was but forward by Benois) in the practical sphere—Through the stirring up of theatrical activity and the propaganda of contemporary Russian art abroad. In the latter half of the first decade of the twentieth century, many members of the union contributed to the designs for the Diaghilev’s world-famous shows, ‘Russian Seasons’ and the ‘Russian Ballet Abroad’. Through these designs they served as models of artistic synthesis. From 1917, the works of the ‘World of Art’ (Benois, Grabar etc.) actively turned towards museum organization and the restoration of activity.
By 1918 the ‘World of Art’ no longer included some of its most distinguished members (Anisfeld, Bilibin, Grigoriev, Roerich and others), who, like many of their contemporaries fled the revolution and migrated abroad. Those who remained initiated a period of seething activity—it seemed that the days of realism where now only a dream. With ideas about the epoch’s style, Dobuzhinsky, Kustodiev, and Petrov-Vodkin decorated Petrograd (St. Petersburg) for soviet public holidays while Chekhonin developed a style of propagandizing china. But by 1924 the artists struggled with the bitter taste of their ‘consciousness’: that their ideas about artistic development, which were already established, were dragging ideological art towards cultural enslavement.
In 1919, after a series of exhibitions had been organized by Narkompros, it became clear, that the ‘World of Art’ had reached its productive end. The history of the ‘World of Art’ is indissolubly tied to the legendary epoch, the ‘silver age’ of Russian art.
