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https ://doi.org/10.29013/EJA-21-1-150-155
Mosendz Oksana Olegyvna, Graduate student of the Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts, lecturer at the Department of Art Studies, Kiev National University of Culture and Arts, Dnipro Faculty, Ukraine
E-mail: mosendz.oxana@gmail.com
THE LIGHT IN UKRAINIAN PAINTING OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Abstract. The article examines the painting of Ukrainian artists who worked at the beginning of the twentieth century in various styles. The analysis of the paintings made it possible to draw conclusions about the role of light in their work.
Keywords: Light, color, lighting, painting, artist, painting.
The concept of Light is infinitely deep, multifac-eted, intriguing, and after centuries of attempts to reveal its meaning, it remains unsolved and mysterious. The great minds of mankind studied the philosophical, spiritual, aesthetic, scientific content of this phenomenon. The artists did not remain aloof from the search for their Light. On this path, they made many significant discoveries. Let us recall chiaroscuro, reflexes, "tonon", first discovered in ancient Greek art, the magical "sfumato" by Leonardo da Vinci, the tenebrism brought to perfection by Caravaggio, the transfer of the light-air environment by the impressionists. Ukrainian artists of the early twentieth century also paid great attention to lighting issues in their theoretical and practical works. Pictures filled with light, shrouded in twilight, permeated with a ray of light or the flickering of a candle - such a variety of lighting solutions helped them convey to the viewer their attitude, spirituality, subtle nuances of emotional experiences. Carefully thought-out black and white modeling of the compositions expressed the depth of meaning, ideas, emotions inherent in the picture. In this work, we focused on the study of the role oflight in the painting of Ukrainian masters who worked at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The period under consideration in Ukrainian painting was extraordinarily bright in terms of the
variety of trends in which the artists worked. Many, in search of their own style, have gone through various artistic directions. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, almost every artist in his quest turned to one of the most light-filled styles - impressionism. In Ukrainian painting, a vivid manifestation of this creative method was the formation of a lyrical impressionistic landscape [1, 129]. Outstanding masters M. Berkos, I. Trush, K. Kostandi, N. Burachek and many others have created exquisite, poetic works filled with lyricism and spirituality [3, 45]. To convey the impressions of the changeable, vibrating light-air space, the impressionist artists filled their works with the play of sun glare, the trembling of shadows, the cloudiness of fog, assigning light one of the main roles in their painting. A peculiar synthesis of impressionism and art nouveau is characteristic of the landscapes of A. Manevich. Cozy city corners permeated with sunbeams with small streets, walls of wooden houses "illuminated by the sun and capricious weaving of shadows from tree branches" [1, 135] are filled with air and light.
Oleksandr Murashko was one of the brightest Ukrainian artists, whose painting absorbed the features of various styles - realism, impressionism, art nouveau, symbolism. Throughout the creative path of an outstanding artist, we see various solutions to
the problem of transmitting sunlight on the canvas. In almost all paintings, the author assigns one of the main roles to light. "It is difficult to find an artist ... in whose work sunlight would take such a significant place", says art critic N. Asva [2, 137].
Undoubtedly, light in Murashko's paintings plays an important emotional and symbolic role. The drama and tension of the plot in "The Funeral of the Koshe-voy" is conveyed by the alarming flickering of a candle illuminating the mournful faces of the participants in the funeral procession. In the painting "The Annunciation" (1909), in his only painting on a biblical theme, Murashko places an angel on a gold background. Knowing the subtleties of the iconographic symbolism of light, the artist implies the sunshine as a symbol of the heavenly kingdom. It is this light that creates the effect of the presence of "another world" from where the messenger comes [14, 13].
It is interesting to observe the process of increasing the intensity of light in the works of Murashko -from the flame of a lonely candle in the painting "Funeral of the Koshevoy" (1900), to sunspots in the painting "At the stern. Portrait of Georges Murashko" (1906), and, finally, to a powerful stream of light energy, which pours out with such force that, looking at it, you involuntarily close your eyes: "Flower Salesmen" (1917). In the last work, abandoning the traditional modeling of chiaroscuro, Murashko "transforms light into its color equivalent" [5, 18]. Having gone through difficult periods of searching and self-improvement, having absorbed various artistic directions in his work, synthesizing them, enriching them with Ukrainian folk coloration, Alexander Murashko, who is rightfully called the "artist of light", created his own unique style of light transmission.
The main principles of Art Nouveau at the beginning of the twentieth century were decorative forms, stylization, conventionality in lighting, graceful silhouettes, the special role of the graphic line, its plasticity and dynamism. One of the characteristic features of this style Dmitry Sarabyanov defines dualism as a middle position between reality and con-
vention, between "image and imagination" [12, 264]. In an attempt to combine the real with the fictional, painting the "known" rather than the visible, Art Nouveau artists used decorative techniques for conveying light and color, used their symbolic sound. The light-toned solution of the portraits acquires a dual character: soft penumbra envelops the face and body, and the background is decorative, conventional. The principles of decorativeness and symbolism of lighting are reflected in the portraits of Mikhail Zhuk, who, as Lyudmila Sokolyuk, a connoisseur of the artist's work, notes, has created his own unique version of the Art Nouveau style in Ukrainian art, enriching its figurative language with elements of new avant-garde trends [15,135]. For example, in "Self-portrait" of 1908, the artist contrasts a decora-tively interpreted background - the play of lines and colored stripes against the background of the night sky - with a realistic depiction of a face. The contrast of light and shadow acquires a symbolic sounding in the portrait of the poet Vladimir Yaroshenko (1919), the author of the collection of poems "Chiaroscuro": "the bust image of Yaroshenko, close to the profile and highlighted by light, the artist places on a light background, and from under it his clearly outlined dark silhouette becomes visible" [15, 67]. In the portrait of the Ukrainian actress Maria Zankovets-kaya (1919), thanks to the light and shadow play, the deepness of her talent is conveyed: "her image dominates with a warm pastel silhouette on a diagonal strip of a light background, opposed by a thick dark shadow on the left and the swirling rhythms of curled curtains on both sides, which seem to symbolize sharp turns her personal creative destiny" [15, 30]. Mikhail Zhuk achieved the greatest decorativeness in lighting in the genre of silhouette portraits. In these works, there is no directional lighting, penumbra, everything is extremely clearly divided into light and shadow. And this is a particular difficulty - with laconic pictorial means to convey emotions, spirituality, versatility of the person being portrayed. About the fact that with a minimum of tools the silhouette
portraits of Zhuk are perceived picturesquely, wrote Yukhim Mikhailov: "The flair of coloration does not leave him even in monochromatic works" [9, 13]. The conventionality and decorativeness of light are present in another favorite modern genre of Zhuk -paintings with flowers. Zhuk uses the symbolics of shadows in the painting "Chrysanthemums" (1919). Three shadows fall from two flowers, only a shadow remains from the dead flower, as a reminder of the past that cannot be returned.
The symbolists of the early twentieth century did not have enough traditional artistic means - classical composition and perspective, realism in depicting a plot, naturalistic coloration and natural lighting in order to reveal their inner world. To fully express their thoughts, feelings, state of mind, they used symbols, while filling all the components of works of art with symbolic meaning - the light and color of paintings, the sounds of music, the sound of poetry [8, 43]. The favorite time of day for Symbolist artists is twilight, the most mysterious time of the day, when there is no specific light source, no brightness, the whole world becomes meaningful and mysterious. To create an artistic image filled with symbolic meaning, the artists used a number of techniques, including the absence of chiaroscuro, convention of color, the use of soft, muted coloration, faded, "foggy" colors. Often, artists introduced a gray color into the painting, which muted the bright, life-rich colors, added a certain emotional note to the work. V. Kandinsky wrote about the psychological influence of gray in "On the Spiritual in Art" [6, 84-85]. The transition from blue to gray affects the viewer even more depressingly; gray is a hopeless immobility. The darker the gray, the greater the preponderance of suffocating hopelessness. When illuminated, something like air enters the paint, the possibility of breathing, and this creates a well-known element of hidden hope. As representatives of Symbolism, Ukrainian artists Mikhail Sapozhnikov and Yukhim Mikhailov gave light the role of a symbol. In the painting "A man is asleep" (Series No. 21917-1924)
Sapozhnikov with a thin sunbeam, piercing through the water column, symbolizes the awakening, the triumph of life. Rainbow rays directed to infants in Mikhailov's paintings "Golden Childhood" (1927) and "Fragile Childhood" (1927) (the first and second parts of the "Moonlight Sonata" triptych) are filled with a joyful feeling of a bright future, while the last work of the triptych "Apotheosis" (1927) drowned in the darkness of reality.
A special place in Ukrainian painting of the early 20th century is occupied by the national school of monumentalism, which has no analogues in European painting. Created by Mykhail Boychuk and called boychukism, it was based on the traditions of Byzantine icon painting, the art of the Italian ProtoRenaissance, Ukrainian folk art and the latest European trends. In the paintings of Boychuk and his students, we can observe a surprisingly harmonious combination of deep traditions and modern discoveries in painting. The principles ofconveying lighting in their paintings, on the one hand, correspond to the main provisions of icon painting in the symbolics of light - the play of light and shadow was not used in the Byzantine icon painting, it is impossible to determine the sources of light: it spreads evenly in flats. On the other hand, decorativeness, symbolism in the transmission of illumination correspond to the principles of synthetism: "a particular motive, as synthe-tism dictates, rose from the depths of the artist's own memory or imagination, led to the rejection of detailing - only the essence, the main features of this motive were preserved" [16, 78]. The absence of chiaroscuro, soft, muffled light "out of nowhere" enveloping the figures - this is how we see the light solution in the paintings of Boychuk, filled with deep philosophy. In the surviving religious paintings of Mikhail Boychuk, we see a reflection of the recommendations ofthe treatise of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite on the symbolism of light, which "praises God as Light, fire, a shining source" [18, 95]. The background of the altar composition "The Last Supper", painted by Boychuk, is of gold color, symbolizes the heavenly kingdom, and the
golden halos around the heads of the saints indicate that they are in heaven. It is symbolic that the artist deprives the traitor Judas altogether of the golden halo. The main light accent of the composition is the golden halo ofJohn bowing his head shining on the chest ofJesus. In the paintings of Boychuk, we can find white brushstrokes characteristic of Byzantine icon painting - strokes on convex or concave areas of faces or clothes. Thanks to the white brushstrokes, Mikhail Boychuk adds volume to the faces of the saints and the drapery of their tunics. Expressive means of painting by Mikhail Boychuk are laconic, but the symbolics of light helps the artist to fill the image with deep meaning and philosophical content.
The outstanding colorist Viktor Palmov, who absorbed the ideas of various artistic methods into his work, wrote: "In my formal search, I went through the school of naturalism, impressionism, a little cubism, a lot of futurism" [11, 27]. Having walked this path, the artist came to the conclusion that the main forming element of the picture is color, and he called his style "colorpainting". In the article "About my works" Palmov wrote: "My task is to place one color to the second more densely in understanding the color balance, to make all the colors in the picture surface influence the overall color sounding chord" [11, 28]. As for light, according to Palmov, "light and color are phenomena that mutually destroy each other. The stronger the light, the less the color, and vice versa - here there are relations of inverse proportionality" [10, 46]. Assigning the main role in the painting to color, improvising with it, subordinating the plot to it, the artist consciously brings decora-tiveness to his paintings. The principles of supplying light in decorative painting are manifested in the convention of lighting, the absence of natural, directional light sources and light-and-dark modeling. For example, the soft, diffused light emanating from the mother in the almost biblical painting "Mother and Child" (1927). The mother's head is surrounded by a transparent, almost imperceptible luminous ring resembling a halo. With gentle touches of light, as if
with icon-painting "inscriptions", the facial features of the "Mother of God" and the child are emphasized. In the paintings "Date (Cupid)" (1926) and "Fisherman" (1928), the blue color pours like a river, shimmering and playing with emerald green. Highlighted, as if sculpted by light, the figures of a girl and a guy ("Date (Cupid)"), the contours of which are accentuated by a luminous line, "are perceived as mythical or fairy-tale characters of folklore" [13, 211]. In the painting "Fisherman", the figure of the character, completely conventional, outlined by light, is surrounded by outlandish flying fish. In the moonlight, a mysterious silhouette is visible, and the main character in this fantastic lighting seems to be a mythological character with a pike in his hands. Lighting in these works is perceived as symbolic, meaningful. The light in the picture is felt completely differently in the painting "Kiev Beach" (1926): here we feel the powerful energy of the luminous flux of a hot sunny day.
Parallels are often drawn between the works of representatives of Ukrainian cubofuturism Alexandra Exter and Alexander Bogomazov. The ideas of movement in art impressed both artists. The dynamics in their futuristic works is based on rhythm, contrasts, including light ones. The opposition of light and shadow reveals the shape of the object, "the conflict of light and shadow generates movement" [7, 287]. In the paintings of the 1910s by both authors, we feel the same dynamic pulsating nerve. In cubo-futuristic paintings of Alexandra Exter, light splits, plays, multiplies, shimmers with sharp diamond edges, adding dynamism to the painting "Bridges of Paris" (1912). A striking example of cubo-futuristic painting of Alexander Bogomazov is the work "Tram. Lvovskaya Street. Kiev" (1914). In it, the artist uses a variety of techniques to elicit movement - a high saturation of the color mass in the corners of parts of objects, uneven thickness of lines, combining lines into beams, light contrasts. Dark figures in sharp foreshortenings against the background of a sun-drenched street create the impression of heavy traffic. Illuminated sharp
corners ofhouses as if reflecting the ringing of a tram. In 1914 Bogomazov completed his theoretical work "Painting and Elements." In it, the artist approaches the analysis of pictorial elements from a philosophical, aesthetic, psychological point of view: "New" painting is the artist's thought, embodied in real signs of his art, it is the result of his inspiration, awakened by the figurative beauty of the world, in the realm of which the artist asserts his "individual self" [4, 86]. Analyzing the elements of painting from the point of view of their work in the "new" art, Bogomazov renews the creative task for the artists: "A new task arises for the artist: to reveal on his Picture Plane not only the Form of the object, its outer shell, but also the inner Content, the dynamism of its mass" [4, 50].- In his treatise, Bogomazov pays great attention to the role of light, the influence of the law of contrasts on sensations, feelings. "Light is the quality of color" [17] -this is how he writes in his discourse.
Conclusion:
Having considered the creative methods of Ukrainian artists ofthe early twentieth century, who worked in various styles, we can draw the following conclusions regarding the role of light in their paintings:
1. Artists whose style was closest to impressionism, painted the most outstanding works in the genre of lyrical landscape, filling the paintings with the vibration of the light-air environment, sun glare, trying to preserve the impression of the changeable play of sunlight in the painting.
2. The principles ofArt Nouveau painting - decora-tiveness, conventionality, ornamentation, dualism, are fully reflected in the methods oflighting presentation -a conditional source of illumination, an emphasis on emotional experiences with light chords, the transfer of emotions with the help of decorative lighting.
3. Representatives of symbolism gave light the role of a symbol. With the help of highlighting or shading the color, they strengthened the emotional sound of the plot, adding drama, tension, and mystery.
4. Mikhail Boychuk and his students in the transmission of lighting, on the one hand, relied on the principles of icon painting, and on the other, on the concepts of synthetism. This amazing fusion gave the illumination of their canvases a deep spirituality and philosophical content.
5. Viktor Palmov, assigned the main role in the picture to color, subordinated the plot to it, while using the light conditionally, symbolically.
6. The transfer of movement of figurative forms in cubo-futurism was facilitated by the application of the laws of contrasts in lighting, the opposition of light and shadow.
Summing up the work, we can say that light, as an artistic mean of expression, conveys the depth of thought laid down by the author, fills the image with a rich symbolic, philosophical, emotional and spiritual content. "The immense kingdom of light" [19] - this is how the great Alexander Bogomazov wrote, and we enthusiastically agree with him!
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