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In the beginning of the 21 century the artistic life in Belarus is becoming more dynamic and varied. Exhibitions are becoming increasingly popular; joint exhibitions featuring Belarusian and foreign artists are being held often; art-design, photo art and computer graphics, as well as other types of artistic expression, are all on the rise now.
Introduction
In the beginning of the 21 century the artistic life in Belarus is becoming more dynamic and varied. Exhibitions are becoming increasingly popular; joint exhibitions featuring Belarusian and foreign artists are being held often; art-design, photo art and computer graphics, as well as other types of artistic expression, are all on the rise now.
Variety and philosophic generalization of art images is typical for Belarusian art of the last fifteen–twenty years. Exhibition activity has intensified, international plain-airs, festivals and exhibition projects are held, the artists look for their places in the main international tendencies. New generation of Belarusian artists possible to adopt various tendencies of art world appeared.
The development of Belarusian art during the last twenty years is marked with the variety of genre forms, creative methods, conceptual approaches, technical diversity.
For the world modern art the variety of visual experiments is typical, but in this sphere Belarusian art is rather traditional. However, the national art school does not tend to the common academic art realization. Graphic, painting, photography and other kinds of art are developing in the direction of modern visual tendencies. There is mixture of styles typical for European art.
The metaphorical and conceptual art has come to replace thematic art. Belarusian artists draw on foreign artistic experience; there is a process of artistic assimilation with the international artistic trends. The traditions of realism in fine arts are still strong (M.Savitsky, G.Vashchenko, L.Shchemelyov, B.Kazakov, V.Krivoblotsky, V.Shkarubo). The emotional-associative themes have been developing in fine arts, where contemporary plastic means of expression have been used (V.Kozhukh, V.Alshevsky, V.Tovstik).
Belarusian easel painting of the last years is characterized of revival of interest to the painting with stressed coloristic features. The large-size thematic pictures typical of soviet art disappeared. The originality of plastic language and fullness of aesthetic effect cause an interest. The art of metaphor and conception changes the art of theme.
Belarusian artists have been contributing much of their efforts to promoting Belarusian art abroad, to foreign markets. This is evidenced by the wide exhibition geography: France, Italy, Germany, Austria, England, China, the USA and other countries.
The tendencies of art development over a 30 years’ period
The tendencies of a 1990-2010 period are quite difficult to trace. A great number of social changes took place. These resulted in various styles and directions.
Art life of the early 1990s was more multifaceted than in previous decades, but still far from the time requirements. Fine art photography, art design, performance art, computer graphics, etc. developed the genre spectrum of fine art expanded. However, at the same time a broad wave of commercialization took place. The desire for a rapid commercial success, the lack of leverage from the side of artists and art critics, the lack of well-grounded program for the development of fine art had bad influence on the overall level of contemporary culture. Art trends of the 1990s did not directly continue the traditions of the previous years; there was a factor of the chaotic occupation of the cultural field by citations. The absence of independent sources of financing slowed down the development of art trends as well as the civilized art market.
Dynamic exhibition activity, acute polemics between representatives of different directions, the expansion of international cultural exchange in the field of culture testified to the new qualitative level of artistic culture in Belarus in the early 1990s. Social art in Belarus, in contrast to Russia, was not widely spread. The works of poster artists, having the awards of the most prestigious international exhibitions, should be noted. The works by V. Tsesler, S. Voichenko, A. Shelyutto, E. Kitaeva, A. Novozhilov, and others can be found today in foreign museums of posters and in private collections.
Some traditional art forms as painting and sculpture remained in Belarusian conceptualism (A. Zhdanov, L. Rusova, T. Kopsha, I. Kashkurevich, V. Piatrou, V. Chernobrisov, O. Sazykina and others, informal groups "Kvadrat", "Komi-kon", "Blo", "Pluralis", "Forma", "Galina"). However, the conceptual art is significantly different from the usual one, because conceptual paintings do not depict anything other than the very art language. The book-objects combining text and art language (L. Rusova, L. Silnova, I. Savchenko) became another form of creativity retaining links with traditional forms of art (graphics, photography and book illustration). In the middle of the 1980s Belarusian conceptualists (I. Kashkurevich, V. Vasiliev, A. Maley, A. Verenich, A. Vorobyov, A. Klinau, O. Ladisov, A. Logvin, V. Zlenko, etc.) turned to installations in their work. In the early 1990s the works of Belarusian photographers belonging to the so-called “Minsk conceptual photography” became well-known outside the country (I. Savchenko, V. Shakhlevich, G. Moskaleva, etc.).
Nowadays the personal artistic project becomes a sort of private self-financed institution with its own archives and exhibition spaces which function at their own rhythm. They are the artists, who turn their real existence into the material of art (Timofey Izotov, Artur Klinov, Igor Kashkurevich, Igor Tishin, Vitaly Rozhkov), who use autobiographical materials and their own psycho-somatic experience (Ludmila Rusova, Olga Sazykina), who study the topics of communication and human relations as both artistic and existential problems (Michail Tymin'ko, Andrey Dureiko, Yegor Galuzo, Vitold Lievchenia, Anton Sliunchenko).
During the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century art school in Belarus proved its ability to develop retaining the quality of the whole artistic phenomenon. The country and its art started the existence in entirely new historical conditions. Belarusian fine art has always been characterized by easy assimilation of the progressive elements of the world culture. The review and analysis of this new stage is an interesting challenge.
Not only has the will of an artist, but also quite objective reasons dictated fundamentally new quality of art at the beginning of the 21st century. The new stage indicates a change in expectations associated not only with the social system, but, as at the beginning of 20th century, with breadth of interests of creative intelligentsia expressed in updated creative strategies.
The issue of «art in public space»
The existence of art is always depends on publicity. The definition of publicity as the expression of human efforts which are directed to organize the public process contradicts the belief in new communications and technologies connecting people. During the last ten years the art in public space has underwent significant genre and technical changes. The sphere of art existence has changed itself, political and social contexts have been transformed. Nevertheless, the term “art in public space” is regarded as monumental art by many people. It’s clear, because, first, the monumental art traditionally carries out aesthetic, memorial and educational functions, and, secondly, only traditional forms and kinds of graphic art are supposed by a great number of people to be real art. Because of global and local political and social changes of the end of the twenty century many historical monuments has been regarded as “epoch scent”. Modern art in public space tends to become a means of integration between public interests and public space.
There is not a lot of space for graphic self-expression in a modern rationally organized and structured urban space. Street art, graffiti are used in any accessible space. New sculptures, stained-glass windows, graffiti, mosaics are created. There is a process of interaction between graphic and social space. Artists are interested in transition from museum and gallery halls to public space.
The Ruslan Vashkevich’s «plasticity of thought»
Ruslan Vashkevich is one of the brightest and indeed the most original contemporary Belarusian artists - always startling, shocking, eccentric and intelligent. As an artist Ruslan is entertaining, provocative and bold.
1. Madame Bonjour
His art is narrative and figurative, but at the same time its immanent feature is a feeling of topicality, and consequently here we observe closeness of creative mood and artist’s position to the radical trends of contemporary art. Ruslan Vashkevich’s system of visions is amazingly complex and everything is subordinated to it, because “the plasticity of thought” is the main thing for the artist. Hence this strangely anemic, advertising and unremarkable manner of painting, often borrowed from the world of mass culture that imparts almost documentary persuasiveness to these odd images; and the monochromatism of his paintings, almost complete indifference to matter of color.
In many aspects the main principle of Ruslan Vashkevich’s creative work can be define as “Art as strategy”. It’s common for him, who inquisitively investigates the nature of artistry, to withdraw the components of a work of art from their usual context, either dividing them into parts or assembling it anew. Ruslan Vashkevich freshens up the perception of classical pieces, he deconstructs established poetic manner throwing a new light upon it, exposing or destroying it and confusing the believers in its sanctity. Flowing, ease, game and the robust point of view… Absence of direct interaction, intent look and half-closed eyes… Almost anecdotic simplicity on the surface hides completely opposite mission of the painter.
“Artist has no right to stand with both feet solid on the ground - this is inconvenient pose for the flight. Much better position is when you are in the corner against the entire world ", Ruslan Vashkevich mentioned once. The point made excites admiration not only by itself, but also by the quality of figuratively vocalized idea.
Actually, no one could describe Ruslan’s creative process better than himself. “when working on an exposition or a project, I don’t try to unload my problems on viewers. Don’t want to scare them off with an unexpected answer. It’s exciting to me to start a phrase, compose an algorithm and encourage them to play along. Every time I show an audience the very principle of how the creative mechanism operates. The more complicated the task is, the more original the solution is. The most captivating and dramatic things are going on with unsolvable tasks. The answer to it could be especially pure and artistic one. But an outstanding quality and wholeness of the moment are emphasized when the goals are indistinct or there are no tasks at all. It liberates an artist from the false sense of responsibility and as a result, the unrestricted creativity triumphs. It’s not my cup of tea to teach people – to a greater degree it’s me who is being taught. Again, such experiences only emancipate an artist. That’s why each of my artwork is more or less an undisguised provocation. It’s always an intricate theoretical maze of feelings, a dance of thoughts with a mandatory positive motive. It’s important to me that the common sense wins. Therefore I involve a diverse arsenal of technical means and approaches, which helps to uncover the ambiguity of an image. Recently I’ve been looking at painting as a template, a plot of escape from reality or a rehearsal of other life”.
The Dmitry Zenkovich’s «another world»
2. Enigma
In his clarity of the artistic thinking Dmitry Zenkovich yearns for creating “another world” in his canvases. That world is eccentric and at the same time is imbued with a sense of oneness and mystery. The subjects of his paintings seem to be closely connected to the artist’s childhood and youth, to his poetic experiences and emotions – but mainly his allegoric descriptions. The artistic images of Dmitry’s canvases are both phantasmagoric and rich with meanings and paradoxes. His paintings are like theatrical parables, full of fantasy with dramatic tensions expressed very sharply and fancifully.
Dialectics of interrelations of spiritual and material, struggle between those two beginnings in a human soul constitutes the leading idea of painter's artworks. Dmitry Zenkovich prefers closer light and observes his characters as if watching them from a window. And then he places them in distinctive stained-glass windows. He gives them the qualities of some utilitarian subjects or thinks up funny situations on the run. Different characters with different fates –but all of them coexist in a fantastically real space masterly outlined by the artist.
The peculiarity and eccentricity of the composition, the decorative and dramaturgic expression of colors perfectly fit the artist's intention to depict the sense of beauty of the world, which is amazing in its undisclosed mysteries. In this world any objects come to life and play roles given to them; all and everything can be joined and mated. The characters and objects become as if simultaneously involved into two semantic systems: one is life that doesn't depend on the being and the other is life that is refracted in the being, where everything seems to breathe with the sense of significance of the being.
Anna Silivonchik’s fantastic realism
3. Thorns and roses
Anna’s style is very distinctive and she’s definitely off the beaten path in creating her images and meanings of her own sacral space. The artist addresses the archaic cultural layers and at the same time manifests her bonds with visual art of the 20th century. You can notice that the source of her aesthetic benchmarks can be traced back to Marc Chagall’s fantastic realism, to naïve art of the beginning of the 20th century and to local Belarusian folklore and decorative arts.
A variety of different characters – children, half-men half-animals or half-birds, or even half-angels, loving couples, lions, unicorns, sirens, dragons – they all inhabit the original and unreal world of Anna’s works. And this world of fairy tales embraced the legends of different nations. It is child’s fantasies and dreams came to life. It reflects either on simple and everlasting human feelings – love, happiness, joy, birth of new life, or on the laws of nature – march of day and light, alternation of seasons, matters of life and death. It talks about human interrelationships, sense of home and family, meaning of life and principles of the universe. And the most important thing for the artist is the wholeness of the world and inviolable underlying connection between all these elements.
Uncommon and diverse combination of images and meanings, which is alloyed by the artist in every piece of her work, almost always is filled with a good portion of keen sense of humor. And at the output a viewer receives a powerful emotional charge and is enchanted by a great deal of unexpected associations and by metaphorical plenitude of her artworks.
It’s always essential how an artist perceives her own creative work. So we asked Anna this question. “As for me, creative process is like playing a wizard, it’s thrilling – when at my will and whim I can create new worlds and realities. This process is exceptionally pleasing and airy. There are no traces of ‘throes of composition’ – vice versa, it feels akin to flight! As a rule I don’t make sketches. That’s why sometimes I don’t know where my imagination will bring me next time, what images and heroes will appear on my next canvas. And every new painting or graphic work is just a new fascinating journey to mysterious lands, where fantastic miracles and astonishing discoveries are awaiting for the explorer”.
Katsiaryna Sumarava’s creative development
4. Subjective landscape 5
Katsiaryna Sumarava perfectly succeeded in creating a warm painting in cold colors. Very few artists managed to accomplish that...Blue-gray celestial distance. It’s clear and transparent. You are calm and relaxed. And suddenly you notice a huge blue bird flying in your direction. And as long as you observe the scenery all the more it gets dissolved. The blue bird reincarnates, it becomes you, your own consciousness…Such impressions are produced by the artist’s works. And that’s how it is – interpreting her paintings and graphics you should make a start from feelings they stir up. Katsiaryna is a philosopher, an idealist; substance is of secondary importance for her.
Katsiaryna’s creative development has followed certain stages and resulted in a couple of major series of artworks. One of the series of landscape paintings and graphics is called ‘Subjectivity’. Katsiaryna explains that there is no single formula for a landscape genre. “As for me, a true landscape is the one based on sensitivity of perception. Such landscape is elusive like a mirage. It is a matter of a feeling but not of the material world… Someone might ask me – why have you painted the lake and water again, it feels like the same place over and over again? And this gives me something to think about – why indeed? But how to interpret a dream, which has been chasing me for a long time, at times recurring, someday continuing to develop”.
Getting ready to the Art Exhibition of the Finalists of Osaka Triennale in 2001 where her painting “Legend” was on display, Katsiaryna expounded the concept of her work in the following way: “My Legend is not that traditional fixed item of cultural heritage. This Legend was told by the Earth itself and came from the original Source. The Earth and its stones are silent witnesses of the birth of life and its evolution. They are also the witnesses of history. They are soundless but their potential of energetic information is huge. A human, touching the stone with the palm, contacts the stream of Universe’s wisdom. And this illusion of communication is my “Legend” - the Legend of the harmony with the world. Since earliest times humans’ intention has been to balance the Chaos with the Harmony, to counterweight mind and mindless, kindness and angriness, life and death. But the World Chaos is our reality. We are surrounded by a host of contradictions; and it is exactly a contradiction that inspires any progress, diligence and desire of exploration in our lives. We live in such dynamic time - think about Progress, hi-tech and absolutely new standards of living that seemed fantastic just decades ago. It is necessary to stop, to join forces, energy and mind of Mother Nature...a human being is sitting on a giant rock, which was brought by a glacier thousands years ago. So many thoughts inhabited his mind…Legends…”
Conclusion
The contemporary art exists in various forms. A great diversity of styles can be found in Belarus. The artists do try hard to work out and express their own way of vision. As can be clearly seen from the above mentioned data representatives of modern art in Belarus have unique styles, thus proving the diversity and development of contemporary art.
Moreover contemporary artists nowadays actively take part in the realization of contemporary artistic projects abroad. They cooperate with representatives of the foreign cultural institutions based in Minsk. Due to the financial support of the Goethe-Institut and the Instytut Polski, a few significant projects were realized during the last years: Photography from Minsk (II) (the first version was realized in Berlin by IFA-Galerie), The Echo of Silence (the photographic project dedicated to the anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe), Texts (Belarusian-German project), Traditions and Experiments (Polish-Belarusian project), and The Kingdom of Belarus (travelling exhibition tour realized in Poland).
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