Open AccessMOSCOW METRO OF ALENA DERGILIOVA: IMAGE OF STABILITY AND FEATURES OF CHANGE
Author(s) -
Nikolay Beschastnov,
Evdokia Dergiliova
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
dom burganova. prostranstvo kulʹtury
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2618-7965
pISSN - 2071-6818
DOI - 10.36340/2071-6818-2021-17-2-101-113
Subject(s) - theme (computing) , motley , multitude , cityscape , narrative , visual arts , history , aesthetics , negative , pathos , art , literature , political science , law , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , operating system
The article focuses on the study of graphic works depicting the life of the Moscow metro, created in 1980–1990 by the Moscow artist Alyona Dergiliova. The etchings convincingly reflect the life of our people on the threshold of national historical development. In her complex, variously sized, drawn from life compositions with many figures in motion, the artist mastered the whole range of compositional and visual devices that she would use in her narrative watercolours of the 2000s. She found the contrast of the pathos in the metro interior – stations with a bustling motley crowd of Muscovites deep in themselves and rather shabby travellers from the depths of the Russian backcountry – which became the counterpoint for her further creative search for the image of Moscow. Investigation of resources, experiments in methods of taking the motion of subjects beyond the boundaries of the compositional plane, allow the series to be included in the list of artistic experiments relentlessly carried out by Dergiliova despite the years of difficulties in her creative life. The theme of ‘A Man and His City’ is apparently simple but it is resolved in a multitude of complex relationships carried from life on the squares of Moscow over to the interiors of its underground. People above and underground are the same, with their acquired strangeness, yet their psychological state in a confined space is different. The environment – albeit imperceptibly – changes people. It is vibrant all the same, but in a different way. The architecture inside the metro is closer to the person, and Dergiliova successfully uses this aspect in building her composition. The compositions include many recognizable details of architectural decor which complement the central narrative. These details are clues helping the viewer to figure out its meaning. The characteristic feature of the metro is motion, and the artist draws numerous human figures, figurative stucco elements, sculptural compositions, chips and cracks in the steps, chandeliers swinging at the arrival of the subway train – into an endless cycle. Scenes depicting the entrances to the metro is a separate theme, which is almost non-existent in Russian art. By rendering the entrances as energy hubs – breaches between the aboveground Moscow and its underground – Dergiliova fills them with particular meaning, as all these people, drawn by a skilful and confident hand, will have to squeeze into the endless corridors and noisy subway wagons rattling on rails. Careful analysis of the artist’s creation reveals the disturbing condition of the master’s soul. The condition which the masters of art were firmly in for the entire decade after the events depicted in these works.