Experimental art of the Russian regions of the second wave of avant-garde

Abstract

The terms defining the totality of many artistic trends that do not fit into the framework of Soviet official style have many shades in their characteristics: avant-garde, modernism, postmodernism, underground, nonconformism, “other art”, unofficial art, experimental trends, etc. The creative biographies of many prominent representatives of artistic culture have not been studied. Information about these or those trends is scattered. And our understanding about the development of Russian art of the twentieth century, especially its second half, still retain a kaleidoscopic character. Some researchers in various fields of art studies and cultural studies suggest using the term “avant-garde of the second wave”, which includes the names of artists who are able to return to “art the meaning of the liturgical and sacred.” It should be noted that there is also a terminological controversy in philosophical research. In recent years, political contradictions in judgments have been erased, in relation to the domestic art of the second half of the twentieth century, and aesthetic judgments begin to dominate. The initial stage of the Ural project in 2021 included the holding of the International Scientific and Practical Conference “The Second Wave of the Russian Avant-garde: regional versions” on the basis of the Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin (UrFU) and a complex of exhibition events at several venues in Ekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil and Irbit. All these events were aimed at identifying with maximum completeness the names of experimental artists working in the Urals and other regions of Russia and to identify the main trends in the development of unofficial art. The attempt to create a single space of experimental Russian art of the second half of the twentieth century is very important. Regardless of terminological discrepancies and disagreements, as well as taking into account the diversity and diversity of the art of the presented masters, it is possible to identify several patterns in their work, to emphasize what is characteristic of them.