Editorial

Dear Readers!

We are pleased to present the anniversary, 25th issue of our journal. Its release coincided with a very important and inspiring event — the Russian Academy of Arts awarded the journal with a gold medal.

We are grateful to the Presidium of the Academy and President Zurab Tsereteli for this significant and honorable award. It belongs to everyone who has been participating in our joint work for six years. First of all, to our authors, creative, scrupulous, sometimes passionate researchers. We are grateful for their articles and cooperation with the journal. The circle of authors is expanding and already has more than 500 art critics from 15 countries. More and more authors who publish their research in our journal regularly. We are grateful to the members of the editorial board for their help, advice, reviews of articles, as well on the editorial staff, who makes it possible to release each issue.

Each journal is always the result of a joint action. The issue is most successful under two conditions at the same time. When, on the one hand, each article reveals its own topic, highlights one of the previously unstudied or little-studied pages of art history. On the other hand, many articles complement each other, and the journal “sounds” with a polyphony of thoughts, themes, and approaches.

We believe that the current issue is just one of those. It opens with the section “Art of the 20th – 21st centuries”. This period is very extensive and varied. We are grateful to the authors who can tell, for example, about the influence of another tradition on the art of China. Chinese painting, as you know, has a history of many thousands of years and its roots go back to the art of primitive society. Its pinnacles were Gu Kaizhi, Shi Tao and hundreds of outstanding and world famous artists. Since the 19th century, oil painting, born in Europe, has penetrated there. What has long been well known to European masters — was new to their colleagues from China. One of the articles of the section is devoted to this complex process of integration of the two great traditions of Eastern and Western art. Another article is about two masters, Vera and Sergey Kondulukov, artists who sensitively accepted the traditions of the Russian school of art, were able to find their own way, ideological and plot lines and artistic style, their plastic language.

The main topic of the issue in the “Forum” section is Old Russian art. This section includes materials of the conference “Icon Painting in Museum Collections. Research. Restoration. Representation” (November 25–26, 2021) at the State Art Museum of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug — Yugra. These studies show mainly regional, sometimes small collections of icons, and this is what we found particularly interesting. Expectations were met, an unusually large layer of artistic creativity was revealed, which was largely unknown and rarely covered on the pages of scientific journals. The geographical coverage is very extensive — from Lugansk and some museums of the Belarus to a large number of Siberian collections. Being acquainted with the articles of the section, one never stop surprising at the discoveries of colleagues. The names of new icon painters are coming out of oblivion. The authors enthusiastically and with inspiration talk about before unknown masters or famous artists who also began their career in art as icon painters, and now their works of the early period have become known. Such, for example, are the icons of G.I. Gurkin, the first professional artist of Altai, an apprentice of I.I. Shishkin. Art critics show how deep the knowledge of icon painters was both in terms of technology, but also in the field of theology and dogmatics of the icon. Without prematurely disclosing the details and main discoveries of the authors, I express my confidence that many, like me, will have a desire to see the collections of these works with their own eyes. Great variety wonderful icons are kept in regional museums, great many icon painters are yet to be discovered by art historians.

The article from the section “On the Storerooms and Expositions of Museums and Art Galleries” remarkably complements the main ideas of the articles in the “Forum” and is dedicated to one of the most poignant images in Orthodox iconography — the “Grieving Saviour”. The image impresses with its philosophical and dogmatic depth and the power of drama, which inspired the masters to create outstanding works. The “Grieving Saviour” appealed to the souls of people, made them feel both the Heavenly world and the snares of the earthly world, awakened self-consciousness, taught mercy and wisdom.

In the traditional section of our journal “Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography by Lokesh Chandra”, we publish a large essay “Garuda” about a bird-headed creature, which can often be seen in the wall paintings of temples, on tank icons, amulets. It is unusual, and we wanted to talk about it, make it more understandable, and reveal its purpose, which is very significant. Garuda is not just the winner of the nagas, snake-like creatures; it symbolizes the divine struggle against the forces of darkness and evil, and at the same time the awakening self-consciousness of man.

The section “Academy News” is about the exhibitions that the Russian Academy of Arts presented in its halls. Acquaintance with them gives an idea of the widest range of artistic trends in contemporary art. In terms of content, all exhibitions are also extremely diverse — poetry in painting opens in the canvases of the artist Vitold Byalynitsky-Birulya, and the works of Mikhail Verkholantsev reflect the tense dramatic confrontation of various forces in the world.

On the cover of the new issue, we presented the icon of Our Lady of Fire from Vetka Museum of Old Believers and Belarusian Traditions (Vetka, Republic of Belarus). We chose this wonderful religious and spiritual image for a reason. This is not only because it best precedes the main theme of the issue. Also because at the face of Our Lady of Fire they pray for healing, protection from troubles and, most importantly, for the cessation of war and saving the lives of soldiers. We believe that the prayers of millions and the striving of people for Beauty is the right path in the midst of the current hard times.