Features of the artistic language of E.G. Mikhnov-Voitenko in the 1950s–1960s

Abstract

The article attempts to periodize the first half of the creative path of the famous Leningrad abstract artist E.G. Mikhnov-Voitenko and highlight the main features of his artistic language in the 1950s and 1960s. Mikhnov-Voitenko is a recognized but still little studied artist. Researchers in the works devoted to his painting mainly pay attention to the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the Tube cycle (1956–1959), while they avoid early figurative works, collages and graphic series of the 1960s. To characterize the works, the methods of formal and comparative analysis are used. The article highlights three periods of the artist's work — figurative, collage and graphic. Despite the heterogeneous nature of the works created by the artist at that time, the text highlights the features of the artistic language inherent in the entire period as a whole. These include the special rhythmic organization of each work, work with spots and lines, as well as the integrity, monumentality of the form, caused by the desire to reflect the whole world completely within the boundaries of each individual work. In conclusion, an assumption is made that these features can become the key to understanding the late work of Mikhnov-Voitenko in the 1970s–1980s.