Holiday as a theme in the works of Maya Koveshnikova

Abstract

The article is devoted to the representation of the holiday theme in the work of Maya Koveshnikova. Previously, art historians noted the sonority, solemnity, elegance of still lifes with flowers of this artist. The purpose of this study is to identify the features of the visual language and the figurative embodiment of the holiday theme in works of different genres — still life, portrait, landscape, compositions in which M.D. Koveshnikova worked (although she paid the most attention to still life, including thematic). The art criticism analysis allowed the author to determine compositional and colouristic techniques, semantic fullness of images. The elements of iconographic and symbolic-cultural methods of describing paintings helped to identify the figurative-symbolic series integrated both into the context of Russian and Soviet culture and into the continuum of the artist's personal world-view. Images and symbols of Russian folk culture (elements of wall painting, ornamental embroidery, images of bread, flowers, etc.), iconic work with colour (mainly red) and light are identified as leitmotivs in the disclosure of the holiday theme. In terms of content, the holiday in the works of Maya Koveshnikova is associated with cultural heritage, national and personal memory, glorification of labour and the power of the human spirit, painted in different emotional tones.