Watercolour in the Saint Petersburg academic school for children's book graphics of 1980–1990s: from the funds of the Ilya Repin Institute

Abstract

In the Saint Petersburg academic school, watercolour is usually considered to be a painting material, despite the existing opinion that it is also a graphic technique. Watercolour is mainly used by students of the graphic arts faculty, but they perceive it within the framework of painting. In process working with these paints, water is used for rubbing and overlaying the colours. But the perception of watercolour as a graphic material is formed on the basis of the dry writing techniques. In fact, watercolour can be perceived ambivalently, as it still retains the properties of both graphics and painting. The purpose of this article is to examine watercolour in book illustration by academic artists of the 1980s – 1990s, who used all its technical possibilities and features. The author of the study relies on the materials of the fund of the Graphic Faculty of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, as well as interviews with the artists. For the first time a number of artworks, executed as diploma works in the Book Graphics Workshop of the Repin Institute, are introduced into the scientific use. This article demonstrates the continuity of academic traditions in watercolour technique in the workshops of G.D. Epifanov, N.E. Charushin, and A.A. Pakhomov, as well as individual stylistic searches.