Moscow State University of Printing. Development of culture in Russia in the 19th - 20th centuries Self-awareness of European culture of the 19th century

The further we move away from the 19th century, the closer it becomes to us. This phenomenon can be explained, apparently, by the fact that many problems - social, ethical, artistic - posed then, still concern us today.

The beginning of this era dates back to the war for the independence of the North American colonies, to the Great French Revolution of 1789, which dealt a decisive blow to the feudal system, on the ruins of which a new civilization was built, characterized by the following features:

the industrial revolution that began in England became comprehensive for Europe and North America: an industrial society was created on the basis of large-scale machine production and a complex division of labor;

Feudal lords and peasants are losing their positions, in the new social structure the bourgeoisie, the proletariat and the urban intelligentsia, which have increased in number and have significant influence in society, come to the fore in society;

civil society with its laws and political parties is being formed;

nations and national states are formed within their modern borders;

a variety of forms of state and social structure is emerging.

Political, socio-economic and national issues found their expression in the cultural life of European society in the 19th century, where traditional subsystems of culture (religious, aristocratic, folk) were losing their former significance.

The natural development of the market was the “industrial revolution” - this is the name given to the rapid development of production in the 19th century and its qualitative change associated with scientific and technical discoveries. P. Sorokin calculated that “the 19th century alone brought more discoveries and inventions than all previous centuries combined,” namely 8527.

New means of overcoming time and space emerged, thanks to which cultural and scientific exchange between peoples intensified. This is primarily due to the development of transport and communications. In the 19th century, ocean shipping appeared (Fulton's steamship - 1807), railway and automobile communications.

Richard Trevithick was the first to come up with the idea of ​​converting to steam traction. In 1802, the first locomotive he built transported 10 tons of ore or 70 passengers at a speed of 8 km/h. Stephenson significantly improved the locomotive, its power and speed. This made it possible in the second quarter of the 19th century to move to the construction of railways on a massive scale: by 1840 in Europe and America, the railway network amounted to 8 thousand km, and in 1850 - more than 38 thousand km. The construction of railways also began in Russia (the first in 1837 between St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk - 27 km, then Nikolaevskaya: St. Petersburg - Moscow).

The appearance of the automobile (1886, G. Deimer and K. Benz) and the airplane (the first flight of the Wright brothers - 1903) would have been impossible without the invention of the engine (in 1876 - N. Otto, in 1897 - R. Diesel).

Another discovery of the 19th century was the use of electricity. Direct current - the basis for the practical use of electricity - was obtained in 1800. In 1808, Devi demonstrated the principle of operation of an arc lamp, in 1880 Edison introduced an incandescent lamp, after which electricity began to be widely used for domestic needs, which radically changed the way of life of people way. The use of electricity would have been impossible without the development of the fundamentals of an electric motor in 1821 by Faraday and the development of an electric machine in 1831. It should be noted that in 1834, academician Jacobi invented the first model of an electric motor.

These discoveries led to the invention in 1837, independently of each other, of the telegraph by S. Morse and Cook and Wheatstone. But back in 1828-1832, Schilling designed the electric telegraph in Russia. Already in 1868, the length of the telegraph line in England was over 25 thousand km. The telegraph is quickly gaining ground, and society is becoming more informed.

Communication between people, continents, and cultures accelerates with the invention of the telephone. The first telephone was a device designed by F. Reis in 1861, but it remained a toy. In 1860, the Italian Manzetti also invented the telephone, but did not patent it, like the American A. Bell in 1876. This telephone received practical use in all civilized countries of the world. At first, the conversation range was about 30 km, then up to 72 km, but with the introduction in 1890 of the induction loading system and vacuum tube amplifiers, the range problem was eliminated.

The 19th century can truly be considered the century of the triumph of technology, the radical re-equipment of mankind with tools of labor and armament with new technical methods of production: from the plow to the tractor, from the simplest steam engine to the massive use of electrical energy and to the airplane...

The foundation of these qualitative changes was the development of science, both applied and fundamental. Physics and chemistry, which already made great strides in the 18th century, have come to the fore in the new century and are developing problems of thermal and electrical energy. The law of conservation and transformation of energy was discovered, and physicists began to strive to explain all physical and chemical processes in nature with energy. However, already in the second half of the century, discoveries in the field of the electrical and atomic structure of matter led to a clash between energy theory and atomic theory. The works of the Austrian physicist L. Boltzmann, the Englishman J.K. Maxwell, the German M. Planck and others led to the creation of a new physics based on the study of electromagnetic waves and the atomic structure of matter. Its main directions, developed by H.A. Lorenz, V.K. Roentgen, E. Rutherford, N. Bohr, A. Einstein, a large group of Russian physicists, boiled down to the following fundamental theoretical principles:

a) the inexhaustibility of the structural structure of nature;

b) complementarity and mutual necessity contrasted with the classical function of the material and energy pictures of the world;

c) the active role of the scientist - a cognizing subject, and therefore philosophical research problems of objectivity of knowledge.

Let us recall the names of some scientists, the significance of whose discoveries should be familiar to students studying physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

The Englishman D. Joule and the German R. Mayer not only confirmed the law of conservation of energy, but also created a whole branch of theoretical mechanics.

Russian chemist A. Butlerov, building on the research of A. Cooper and F.A. Kekule, created the theory of the chemical structure of matter. At the Kazan school of organic chemists, to which A.M. belonged. Butlerov, university professor N.N. In 1842, Zinin discovered a method for producing aniline and replacing vegetable dyes with aniline ones, and only then, in 1856, the English chemist W.G. Perkin synthesized aniline dye. There, Clausewitz discovered the element ruthenium (Russian).

In 1859-1861 W. Bunsen and G. Kirchhoff discovered spectral analysis. In 1869 Mendeleev D.I. discovered the periodic law chemical elements, placed in the periodic system of elements that he developed. Thus, the foundation of modern chemistry was laid, new chemical sciences were created - physical chemistry, stereochemistry, electrochemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology. By the end of the century, chemistry had become a leading branch of science.

The rapid development of machine production is also associated with the development mathematics and mechanics. Russian mathematicians actually determined all the main directions of this science. The discoveries of the rector of Kazan University, Professor N.I., were of great theoretical importance. Lobachevsky - the founder of non-Euclidean geometry, later used to solve cosmic problems, the theory of quantum. Discoveries in mathematical physics M.V. Ostrogradsky, creation of the theory of differential equations by A.M. Lyapunova, basics modern theory numbers P.L. Chebyshev led to the fact that the Russian school of mathematics was considered the most advanced in the world.

The formation of a qualitatively new picture of the world was largely due to the successes biological science. Already at the beginning of the century, various hypotheses about the evolution of all living things appeared. The science of paleontology arose, proving that man appeared on Earth much later than living beings and plants. French scientist J.B. Lamarck and his followers came to the idea of ​​the evolution of species. Based on the material accumulated by various sciences, Charles Darwin, in a work published in 1859, scientifically substantiated evolutionary development organic world as a result of natural selection. This teaching finally supplanted the theological idea of ​​life on Earth and established in the consciousness world scientists an idea of ​​the scientific-historical approach to the analysis of all life phenomena.

Before Darwin, Russian scientists H.I. Pander and K.M. Baer and the German biologist T. Schwann created a theory of the cellular structure of the entire organic world. All this led to the work of G. Mendel, then T. Morgan, which gave rise to new science- genetics.

Investigating the causes of wine fermentation, the French scientist Louis Pasteur established the role of microorganisms in this process, and then in infectious diseases, and developed measures to combat the most dangerous diseases. He was the first to apply protective vaccinations against rabies and anthrax, developed a method of food preservation (pasteurization), and created the foundations of bacteriology and the theory of immunity. In 1888, the Pasteur Institute (Paris) was created. The work of the German microbiologist R. Koch is associated with the study of pathogens of tuberculosis, cholera, and diphtheria. These works served as the basis for the formation of scientific sanitation and hygiene, and the prevention of infectious diseases. Medicine of the 19th century acquired significant social significance.

In the last century, new directions and methods of diagnosis and treatment have appeared in medical science. The discoveries of J. Liebig about chemical processes in a living organism, R. Virchow about the degeneration of cells and tumors, and Russian scientists I.M. had an exceptional influence on the development of medicine. Sechenova, S.P. Botkina, I.P. Pavlova in the field of studying the human nervous system...

Throughout the century, philosophy tried to first explain the mechanistic picture of the world, and then find a way out of the existing contradiction between objective knowledge and its interpretation. From an idealistic position, I. Kant, I.G. tried to solve these problems. Fichte, F.V. Schelling, G. Hegel, who stood at the pinnacle of classical German philosophy. In the middle of the century, K. Marx and F. Engels created a dialectical-materialist doctrine, with the help of which they tried to explain natural and social processes. In the second half of the century, the following stand out: the theory of vulgar materialism (L. Buchner, K. Focht), positivism (O. Comte, G. Spencer), irrationalism (A. Schopenhauer, E. Hartmann), neo-Kantianism (W. Windelband, G. Rickert ), intuitionism (A. Bergson), neo-Hegelianism (F.G. Bradley, J. Royce, A. Liebert), Machism (E. Dewey), philosophy of life (F. Nietzsche, G. Simmel, O. Spengler). All this multitude of philosophical trends, which students will become acquainted with in the course of philosophy, did not provide a single systemic justification for those natural scientific shifts with which the 19th century was so rich.

For study and explanation social phenomena and processes O. Comte, G. Spencer, M. Weber, E. Durkheim created a new direction of science - sociology, on its basis social psychology, sociology of art, sociometry, sociology of knowledge and many other areas of related sciences are formed.

At the end of the century, socio-philosophical ideas appeared that had a greater influence on the development of society and culture in the 20th century: “psychoanalysis” by S. Freud, which reduces all cultural events to various forms of manifestation of the primary life instincts and drives of a person, and the counterculture of F. Nietzsche, boiling down to the denial of official culture.

To summarize what has been said, it should be noted that in the 19th century the main political and ideological doctrines were formed, on the basis of which the entire human society developed in the 20th century and which influenced the culture of the era.

The 19th century did not give a single direction or style in culture. This is how it differs from previous eras. This could not happen in a rapidly changing, mobile and unstable world. Reason, on which the enlighteners placed their hope, was unable to resolve the contradictions and show the path to a perfect world order. Every major personality or circle of like-minded people sought to say a new word in search of truth.

One of the largest movements of this kind was romanticism, which emerged in the 1870s during the period of breaking down feudal relations and the emergence of capitalism. The romantic movement spread to all European countries, and later to Russia and America. In each country, romanticism manifested itself differently and existed until the 30-60s of the 19th century, entering into a unique relationship with critical realism. Romanticism went through several stages in its development and evolved noticeably during this movement. The early romantics enthusiastically accepted the Great French Bourgeois Revolution. It seemed to them that the ugly world would be organized according to the laws of justice, beauty and nobility. They hoped that the ideal of a perfect person would be embodied in reality. But hopes were not justified. The harmony of the individual and society was lost. Trying to overcome the one-sidedness of Enlightenment rationalism, believing that freedom is possible only within the limits of individual spiritual life, the romantics turned from the social life of man and his purpose to the problems of the inner, spiritual, emotional life of the individual. For romantics, a person is a small universe, a microcosm. A person must find himself, and for this Fr. Novalis (1772-1801) introduced a symbol into romantic literature - the image of a “blue flower”, which had an important meaning for romantics: the search for oneself. This search is an intense, complex process, and romantics turn their interest to strong and vivid feelings, all-consuming passions, to the secret movements of the soul, to its new side - the individual, the unconscious.

Proclaiming freedom and independence as their main life principle, they encroached on established traditions, they break them, not considering it their duty to follow the precepts of their teachers. They advocate the renewal of artistic forms, against the normativity of classicism, believing that in addition to ancient art there was Gothic art, chivalric romances and folk legends, and they extolled them in their work. Seemingly destructive tendencies - nihilism and the breaking of traditions - are in fact the creative essence of romanticism. They revived the glory of the Renaissance figures, who had begun to be forgotten, and aroused interest in the Middle Ages (often idealizing it), and in the culture of the East.

Romantics believed that there is nothing frozen in the world, there is an eternal renewal in it and man exists in an ever-changing world. This was universal - in literature, art, philosophy and politics, psychology - the desire for renewal, unlimited freedom: civil and personal. In the works of romantics, there is a motif of the captivating eternal search for an ideal, wanderings, and longing for the distance. And a change of place, action or character is the opposite of the principles of classicism. The characters move around, images of a mail carriage and travel appear. In Russian literature, for example, these are the travels of Chichikov in a stagecoach or Chatsky, who arrives from somewhere at the beginning of the play (“He was treated, they say, in sour waters...”), and then leaves somewhere again (“Give me a carriage, carriage"). In L. Tieck's novel “The Wanderings of Franz Sternbald” the hero meets many people and finds in each of them something dear and close.

The essence of the romantic worldview is the recognition of the dramatic insoluble contradiction between the ugly reality and the high ideal that is incompatible with it. According to V. Hugo, “the ugly... exists next to the beautiful, the ugly – next to the beautiful, the grotesque – with the sublime, evil with good, darkness with light... Everything is connected with each other.” Fixing contrasts, the early romantics sought to combine them. Hence the halftones, the “flowing” poetic style. According to F. Schlegel (1772-1829), a German philosopher of culture, integrity “is the highest diversity of phenomena.” And every phenomenon, every object is complex; to understand it, you need to take into account all its facets, look at it from different points of view. Likewise, Novalis (German writer and philosopher) in “Fragments” and the novel “Heinrich von Ofterdingen” holds the idea that life and death appear in dialectical unity; and after Henry’s meeting with Zuleima (on the eve of the Crusade to Jerusalem), adjustments are made to the understanding of the goals and nature of the war.

Romantic heroes experience feelings from delight to disappointment, from inspiration to despair. M. Prishvin subtly expressed the essence of romanticism - “the striving for the unprecedented.”

The literature and art of romanticism are characterized by an appeal to spiritualized and healing nature. One of the facets of the romantic ideal was the garden. He attracted romantic writers with his ability to respond to various states of the human soul. The garden itself awakens the most subtle, sensitive strings of the human heart, so the garden is a place for dreams, thoughts and memories. The garden as a model of the world reflects the romantic idea of ​​the role and place of man in the world, of his relationship with nature: the man of romanticism feels himself an important part of nature, endowed with the same creative capabilities as it, entering into competition with it.

The unstable peace in Europe, dissatisfaction with the present, the desire for freedom brought to the fore the following themes:

Napoleon's personality. Hopes associated with progressive changes in the socio-political life of Europe. Then there were political conflicts, which did not stop even after Napoleon.

Liberation movements against Napoleonic occupation (especially in Italy, Germany, Greece), colonization of America.

Luddite movement in England.

Social changes associated with the victory of the financial bourgeoisie, parliamentary reforms and, at the same time, the independent movement of the working class.

All these problems pass through a person, his soul. The romantics created new genres: historical novel, psychological story, lyric poetry, ballad, lyric poems. They especially clearly and holistically realized the historicism of thinking in their work, recognizing the equivalence of past and new cultures.

Historical novels about turning points in cultural history were created by Walter Scott (1771-1832): “The Puritans”, “Rob Roy”, “Ivanhoe”, etc., Alfred de Vinon: the novel “Saint Mar” (about the conspiracy of the nobles against Cardinal Richelieu) , Victor Hugo (1802-1885): "The Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris"", "Les Miserables", "The Man Who Laughs", "93", by Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1882) - a figure in the national liberation movement, a Polish poet - the poem "Pan Tadeusz".

Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) spoke out against slavery and cruelty towards Indians during the colonization of North America: “The Last of the Mohicans”, “Pioneers”, “St. John’s Wort”, Henry Longfellow (1807-1882) - “The Song of Hiawatha " and etc.

However, the heroism of protest or national liberation and revolutionary struggle often coexists among the romantics (especially of the later period) with the motifs of “world sorrow”, “world evil”, the “night” side of the soul, which are clothed in conventional forms of grotesque and fantasy. A critical attitude towards imperfect social reality gives rise to romantic irony, and later satire. On the other hand, romanticism strives to produce the inner world of a restless person. The idea of ​​the dissonant essence of life, the tragic disintegration of the original harmony is strengthened. This tragic gap between social reality and the romantic ideal was deeply felt, was called dual worlds and is the most characteristic feature of the romantic method.

Who are they - romantic writers? The formation of romanticism is largely associated with the name of the English poet, peer, member of the House of Lords and at the same time rebel-revolutionary J. Byron (1788 - 1824). Yes, he spoke out in defense of the Luddites, he was a member of the Italian Carbonari movement and died in Greece, participating in the national liberation movement. And in his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812) he created the image of a free individual, a disappointed loner rebel, a bearer of the social sentiments of the early 19th century. In the “eastern” poems “The Giaour,” “The Corsair,” and “Lara,” Byron openly calls on the oppressed peoples to rise up against their oppressors. Byron wrote the philosophical drama poems “Manfred” and “Cain” and one of the poet’s best works, “Don Juan.” Active humanism and prophetic foresight made Byron the ruler of the thoughts of the then Europe. A person for whom independence is more valuable than personal peace and happiness is called the “Byronic hero.”

Famous romantics were the Englishmen J. Keats and Percy Bishu Shelley.

J. Keats (1795 - 1821) in “Endymion” speaks out against Puritan hypocrisy, and in the odes “Fire” and “Psyche” he sang the cult of beauty and harmony in nature. He is the author of the symbolic-allegorical poem "Hyperion".

P.B. Shelley (1792-1822) - author of the allegorical poem "Queen Mab", exposing the depravity of contemporary society. In the poem "The Rise of Islam" he justifies the violent overthrow of despotism. Philosophical understanding He gave problems of freedom and tyranny in the tragedy “Cenci” and in the lyric poem “Prometheus Unbound”.

Famous representatives of romanticism were the world famous storytellers William Hauff, Hans Christian Andersen and the brothers J. and W. Grimm, who turned to folk art: language, images, morality, in an allegorical form they exposed and ridiculed the greed and acquisitiveness of the rich, glorified the courage, intelligence, and human dignity of ordinary people.

In addition to the previously mentioned famous German writers and romantic philosophers (Fr. Novalis, F. Schlegel, L. Tieck), it is necessary to note Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822). In his work, German romanticism reached its peak. A gifted man, he was a writer, composer and artist. In his works, he brought out an eccentric hero, a dreamer, escaping into the world of art and fantasy. His characters are characterized by subtle philosophical irony and whimsical fantasy, reaching the point of mystical grotesquery (the novel “The Devil’s Elixir”), combined with a critical perception of reality (the story “The Golden Pot”, the fairy tales “Little Tsakhes”, “The Lord of the Fleas”) and a satire on German philistinism and feudal absolutism (the novel “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat”). Hoffmann’s poetic images fit well with music; they were translated into their works by R. Schumann (“Kreisleriana”), J. Offenbach (“The Tales of Hoffmann”) and P.I. Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker).

In the first half of the 19th century, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) worked - great poet Germany, combining romance and irony in his work. The theme of unrequited love (one's own failure) became dominant in Heine's lyrics for a long time. He knows how to unusual strength in a few lines, depict a complex picture of feelings, a landscape rich in mood, and give a small everyday sketch. A political theme sometimes results in a feuilleton or a truly lyrical work, and lyrical poems suddenly acquire an acute social meaning. Often poems are close in form to folk songs.

After the French Revolution of 1830, Heine left for Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. Here the poet’s satirical talent finally took shape. He supported a fragmented Germany, dreamed of a united democratic homeland, followed the labor movement, and was friends with K. Marx.

Poem “Germany. Winter's Tale" - about the impressions of a trip to my homeland. The disgusting image of reactionary Germany and the love for people's Germany. But freedom and happiness will not come on their own, they must be conquered.

We are a new song, we are a better song

Now, friends, let's begin.

We will turn heaven into earth,

The earth will be our paradise.

The Nazis included Heine's works on the list of books subject to burning and eternal oblivion, which indicates the modern sound of his poetry.

The establishment of the principles of romanticism in France is associated with the names of François Chateaubriand (1768-1848), Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863), Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), Victor Hugo (1802-1885) and George Sand (1804-1876). They represented different directions of romanticism: Chateaubriand - conservative, religious; de Stael is liberal (by the way, she defends the right of women to freedom of feelings); Sand is democratic.

Of the American writers, in addition to those noted above, special mention should be made of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the founder of detective literature. His short stories are predominantly tragic, fantastic or humorous. Experts consider him the forerunner of symbolism.

Under the influence of European romanticism, in the middle of the 19th century, romanticism took shape in Russia, which had different trends. The specific features of one of them were the pathos of high citizenship. The central themes were the Motherland and service to the Fatherland. These are the works of the Decembrists: “Dumas” by K.F. Ryleev, poems by A.I. Odoevsky, V.F. Raevsky, V.K. Kuchelbecker and others. Their works are manifestos of the struggle for “oppressed human freedom.” The work of I.I. developed in line with civil romanticism. Kozlova, A.A. Delviga, N.M. Yazykova.

The spiritual world of man and his innermost feelings were sung by V.A. Zhukovsky (“Lyudmila”, “Svetlana”, “To Her”, in the work “Singer in the Camp of Russian Warriors” Zhukovsky glorifies his beloved homeland), K.N. Batyushkov.

After the defeat of the Decembrists, when disappointment gripped a significant part of Russian society, the mood of pessimism intensified in literature - elegiac motives were most clearly expressed in the poetry of E.A. Baratynsky. Attempts to comprehend the contradictions of existence and personality were made by F.I. Tyutchev and V.F. Odoevsky. The pinnacle of romanticism in Russian literature was the early work of A.S. Pushkin. His freedom-loving poems “Liberty”, “Village”, “To Chaadaev” and others gained enormous popularity. The entire advanced intelligentsia of Russia knew them by heart. Disappointment in reality, longing for the ideal of a free and rebellious personality fueled the early romantic poems and mature lyrics of M.Yu. Lermontov (“Duma”, “Both Bored and Sad”, “Prophet”, poem “Mtsyri”, drama “Masquerade”). In the poem “Demon”, Lermontov symbolically embodied the ideas of personal rebellion against the injustice of the “world order”, the tragedy of loneliness.

But there were other trends in romanticism that spoke from the position of official nationality, glorifying the triune formula of “Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality” - F. Bulgarin, N. Grech, O. Senkovsky and others.

In the visual arts, romanticism was most clearly manifested in the painting of France. Here, during the Restoration and the July Monarchy, in a stubborn struggle against the dogmatism of official academic classicism, the most consistent school of romanticism emerged.

The collapse of illusions associated with the splendor of Napoleonic times, dissatisfaction with the present and the thirst for great passions - this is what French romanticism grew out of. The frozen antique mask and the face of the people distorted by despair and hope - the absurdity of the old canons in painting was too obvious. The framework of classicism could not accommodate the events that shook Europe and France. In the struggle of passions, the boiling of poetic feelings, a new art was born - romanticism, designed to reflect all the drama, all the complexity of the new time. Exactly at real life, in contrast to classicism, artists find the significant and heroic.

The term “romanticism” in relation to painting was first used in an obituary written on the death of the French artist Theodore Gericault; before that it was used only in literature.

Géricault belonged to a generation of French youth who lived with a shocked consciousness, but awakened by Napoleonic victories and defeats. His first works were inspired by victories - “An officer of mounted rangers going on the attack” (1812), then, as a contrast to him, “A wounded cuirassier leaving the battlefield” (1814). The manifesto of the new art was the seven-meter canvas “The Raft of the Medusa” (1819) - a tragic report about the shipwreck of the frigate “Medusa” in 1816, about the death of almost the entire crew. “This is France itself, this is our society loaded onto the raft of the Medusa,” wrote the historian Michelet. Yes, the picture was perceived as a journalistic work: a homemade sail is inflated by the wind directed in the opposite direction from the ship that appeared on the horizon, and the raft is carried back. The meaning of the picture outgrows the meaning of the real episode: France, humiliated and trampled after its rise, was experiencing the catastrophe of its fall... will it be saved?

The pro-government press called the author a “dangerous rebel.” The painting, now a masterpiece of the Louvre, is outlawed. During the author's lifetime, although his works appeared at exhibitions, none of them were purchased. Theodore Gericault lived short life and died in poverty. Meanwhile, the painting opened a new page in Western European painting. Gericault's work is truly distinguished by all the qualities that are associated with romanticism: intensity of feeling and flight of imagination, passion for dramatic situations, passionate dynamics. All this disrupted the balance of the composition and made the drawing uneven.

One of the most important figures in the art of the 19th century was Eugene Delacroix. Russian critic V. Stasov assessed him as “the most important revolutionary and pioneer” in the field of color, in the development of harmonic laws of color painting. I.E. Repin wrote that “in terms of brilliance and power of colors, he took a bold step forward...”. This step was reflected in the work of the French impressionists. A.V. Surikov called Delacroix “a composer in painting.” And he was right - Delacroix devoted a lot of work and effort to developing the composition and musicality of painting (chased rhythm and harmony inherent in music). Comprehensively gifted, he possessed both musical and literary talent, Delacroix left diaries and articles about art and artists, which revealed the novelty of his aesthetic judgments, which ran counter to dogmatic, academic opuses about painting. But the main thing is that he left behind his works, completed over 40 years of creativity.

Fame came to him in 1822, when he exhibited “Dante’s Boat” in the salon: Virgil and Dante are crossing the gloomy River Styx, where the bodies of the evil living dead swirl. The viewer was amazed not only by the plot, but also by the coloristic power of color. “To better imagine the stunning impression of Delacroix’s debut,” Théophile Gautier later wrote, “we must remember how insignificant and dull ... the neoclassical school, a distant reflection of David, became in the end. A meteor falling into a swamp in the midst of flame, smoke and noise could not have caused more confusion in a chorus of frogs.” There were other opinions: the picture was “painted with a drunken broom.” But one thing was clear: it was a victory!

Starting with the theme of Dante, Delacroix turns to Shakespeare, Goethe, W. Scott, and Byron. During the days of mourning for Byron in April 1824, Delacroix exhibited the canvas “Massacre at Chios” at the Paris Salon. This was the bomb that blew up the Salon. Progressive Europe followed with alarm the dramatic events in Greece, and... Delacroix strongly, furiously brought down on the audience the truth of the horror of war. Enemies from the camp of the classics called this painting “a massacre of painting.” Defending romantics from the malicious attacks of conservatives, Hugo wrote: “It is not the thirst for something new that excites minds, but the need for truth, and this need is enormous.” The tragedy of Byron is inspired by the painting “The Death of Sardanapalus” - Delacroix was attracted to powerful passions, and he coped with this brilliantly thanks to a rich coloristic solution. Art critics believe that this is one of the artist’s most romantic paintings. The Minister of Fine Arts La Rochefoucauld warns the young artist and announces that he cannot count on any government orders until he changes his manners. The thunder of the July Revolution of 1830 had to ring out for Delacroix to cease being an outcast. There was nothing to be surprised at, because the famous strangler of freedom Thiers once said: “We know these romantics - today he is a romantic, and tomorrow a revolutionary.”

“The most interesting time of our century” was called by A.S. Pushkin's revolutionary coup in Paris. “I started painting on a modern subject - a barricade,” Delacroix wrote to his brother. “If I didn’t fight for the freedom of the fatherland, then at least I will make paintings in his honor!”

“Freedom on the barricades on July 28, 1830” is what the artist called his canvas. It was a grand reportage of what had happened, unprecedented in the history of art. Apotheosis of the French Revolution. A joyful hymn to Victory. The painter combined the seemingly impossible - the protocol reality of a reportage with the sublime fabric of a romantic, poetic allegory. How was this picture received? After the victory, the passions around the picture flared up again: the heroes are outraged - “the mob”, “this girl” is outraged: “if Freedom is like that... we don’t need it, we have nothing to do with this shameful vixen!”

160 years have passed, and today “Freedom on the Barricades” is the pride of France, the pearl of the Louvre.

Delacroix had a rare breadth of views, objectivity and historicism in his judgments about art, and was able to highly appreciate the new word - Courbet's realism. In 1864, a year after Delacroix’s death, a canvas with the significant title “The Apotheosis of Delacroix” appeared at the Salon, where Edouard Manet, Charles Baudelaire... admirers of his talent gathered around the deceased artist. Among them one could count Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, who also revered the great romantic and considered him the father of French painting of the 19th century.

The discovery of complex individuality by the romantics served considerable service to the realists, paving the way for them to new heights in understanding the inner world of man.

Realism inherits the most important of the principles of romantic aesthetics - the principle of historicism. But if among the romantics it had an idealistic basis, then among the realists it had a materialistic basis (their special interest in the economic structures of society, in the social psychology of the broad masses of the people; historicism is embodied in the depiction not of the past, as with the romantics, but of modern bourgeois reality as a certain stage in history countries). What both styles have in common is their criticism of classicism and its main canons.

Romanticism gave impetus to the development of realism, but he himself was not defeated by his brainchild. The crossing of these directions is found in Honore de Balzac, C. Dickens, M.Yu. Lermontov, L. Maskani, G. Heine and others.

The cruel practice of life forced artists to delve deeper into social life, into modern reality and comprehend all the contradictions of an established capitalist society.

The realistic tradition has a long history in culture. However, a holistic understanding and the term “realism” itself emerged in the 20s of the 19th century; its significance intensified by the middle of the century, when this direction became dominant in European culture. Realism of the 19th century is usually called critical realism.

Critical realism is based on the following principles:

an objective reflection of the essential aspects of life combined with the height and truth of the author’s ideal (“Nature presents unusual spectacles, sublime contrasts; they may remain incomprehensible to the mirror, which unconsciously reproduces them,” wrote Stendhal, and Balzac continues: “The task of art is not , to copy nature, but to express it!”);

reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances with the completeness of their individualization (according to Balzac, the artist is not a simple chronicler of his era, but a researcher of its morals, an analytical scientist, a politician and a poet);

life-like authenticity of the image (“in the forms of life itself”);

predominant interest in the problem of “personality and society” (in their connection and opposition);

criticism of material, unspiritual progress and bourgeois civilization.

France is the birthplace of critical realism in literature. Here realism goes through two stages in its development. The first - the formation and establishment as a leading direction in literature (late 20s - 40s) - is represented by the works of Beranger, Merimee, Stendhal, Balzac. The second (50-70s) is associated with the name of Flaubert - the heir to realism of the Balzac-Stendhal type and the predecessor of the “naturalistic realism” of the Zola school.

The founder of critical realism not only in France, but also in Western European literature, was the French writer Henri Bayle, better known under the pseudonym Stendhal (1783-1842). He was not only the first to substantiate the main principles and program for the formation of realism, but also brilliantly embodied the principles of realistic aesthetics in artistic masterpieces. The originality of his creative individuality will be fully revealed in the type of socio-psychological novel he created. The writer's first experience in this genre was the novel "Armans" (1827). The novel “Red and Black” takes on the character of social research. “Chronicle of the 19th century” is the subtitle of the novel. Here France becomes the theater of action, represented in its main social forces and in their interaction. The cycle of “Italian Chronicles” is remarkable. Stendhal was very prolific as a writer. His last masterpiece was “The Parma Cloister” (1839), dictated in 53 days! Balzac called the novel “the best book of the last fifty years.”

An example of realistic poetry in 19th-century France was given by the poet Pierre Jean de Beranger (1780 - 1857), who was twice tried for his political songs during the period of reaction. Bérenger's revolutionary poetry has no equal in French literature of the 1st half of the 19th century century. The art of the refrain, the looseness of the verse, the variety of intonations that freely convey colloquial speech influenced the formation of the leading genre of song - revolutionary-democratic poetry. Beranger played a major role as a poet who turned to a utopian song, a song-reflection, a song-fable - they found followers in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Western European realism reached its highest point of development in the work of Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850). The origins of his work are deep and varied. In the encyclopedicism of interests and knowledge, Balzac could compete with the geniuses of the Renaissance. His main creation - the multi-volume epic "The Human Comedy" - absorbed the main achievements of culture and science of more than one generation, predetermining the paths for the further advancement of human thought. He devoted all his strength to her, writing 90 novels and short stories out of the planned 143 books. It included such novels as “The Unknown Masterpiece”, “Shagreen Skin”, “Eugenie Grande”, “Père Goriot” and many others, each of which can be considered complete, but Balzac insisted that his individual works should be perceived as a whole in the context of The Human Comedy.

The general concept and characters (more than two thousand) connect them into the real contemporary history of France, almost year after year from 1816 to 1848. Before us is a realistic picture of the enrichment of the bourgeoisie, the morals changing in noble society in connection with the penetration of the bourgeoisie into it, the contradictions public life of the country. “The historians themselves could only be his secretary,” Balzac declares in the preface to the epic.

Prosper Merimee (1803-1870) - playwright, master of short stories (among them “Colomba” (1840), “Carmen” (1845), which served as the basis for the libretto of Wiese’s opera, and his masterpiece “Matteo Falcone”). In his short stories, he solves a difficult problem: through a single event, to show the history of entire nations and other eras. Merimee is the author of the great novel “Chronicle of the Times of Charles IX” (about the struggle between Catholics and Protestants), a tragedy of people divided by different religions. “Papists! Huguenots! Superstitions here and there. Our litanies, your psalms - one nonsense is worth another. These words from one brother to another contain the progressive and educational meaning of the entire work. In addition to Mérimée’s original works, translations of Pushkin, Gogol, and Turgenev into French occupy an important place in his legacy. He wrote a number of articles about the work of these writers, praising Russian literature.

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) created a collective portrait of the French bourgeoisie of the 2nd half of the 19th century. “Life”, “Dear Friend”, “Mont-Ariol” are Maupassant’s best novels, in which the sharpness of social analysis and anti-bourgeois orientation reached high tension, and the purity of human feelings is opposed to spiritual squalor, selfishness and false morality.

The national originality of English critical realism is determined primarily by the satirical, accusatory orientation of the work of most major writers under the influence of bourgeois liberalism, on the one hand, and the growth and development of the proletariat, on the other. The development of political economy, sociology, philosophy and heated debate on socio-political and economic issues leave a definite imprint on literature.

The ideas of the century, the state of the social movement and the moral principles of the era were reflected in the social novels of Charles Dickens (1812-1870), William Thackeray (1811 - 1863), John Galsworthy (1867-1933), sisters Charlotte (1816-1855) and Emilia (1818). -1848) Bronde and J. Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) - the largest representatives of critical realism in England.

Guardian of the great tradition of the English novel, Dickens was both a great reformer and innovator in the genre of the novel; he managed to embody a huge number of ideas and observations in his creations. His works “The Last Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “David Copperfield”, “Dombey and Son”, “Bleak House”, “The Adventures of Oliver Twist”, “The Antiquities Shop” and others were successful among all classes of English society. And this was no accident. He wrote about what everyone knows well: about family life, about grumpy wives, about gamblers and debtors, about oppressors of children, about cunning and clever widows... More than any of his contemporaries, Dickens was an exponent of the conscience of the nation.

The artist (more than 2 thousand drawings for his works and the works of other writers are known), publisher and writer W. Thackeray professed the ideals of “enlightened republicanism.” He writes in a variety of genres - pamphlets, crime chronicles, satirical essays, essays. A broad panorama of English society in the 1st half of the 19th century is drawn by Thackeray in “Vanity Fair” (the subtitle is symbolic: “A Novel without a Hero”). This work cemented the author's name as a remarkable realist, depicting morals and characters without bias or bias, where everyone plays their role - the deceiver or the deceived.

John Galsworthy gave an epic picture of the morals of bourgeois England at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in his famous trilogy “The Forsyte Saga” and “Modern Comedy”.

Classics of science fiction - a new genre in literature that became very popular in the 19th century. XX century are Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) and Jules Verne (1828 - 1905) - the emergence of this genre was evidence of an unprecedented interest in scientific knowledge in connection with scientific and technological discoveries.

Finally, it is necessary to note another outstanding writer-playwright of England, 1925 Nobel Prize winner George Bernard Shaw - the creator of drama debates of a political and philosophical nature. The sharp language and wise thoughts of his works became aphorisms (“Pygmalion”, “Caesar and Cleopatra”, etc.).

In the USA, the ideas of critical realism were developed by Walt Whitman (1819-1892), glorifying free labor and independent personality, in Germany - Heinrich Mann, in Norway - Heinrich Ibsen (1828-1906).

The name realism in fine art is directly related to Courbet, who, having rented a warehouse next to the Salon (he was not allowed into the Salon), exhibited his works under the guise of “Realism,” although some researchers believe that he should be considered one of the founders of the “natural school.” It seems that he went further than “naturalism,” because, not without the influence of Proudhon, he declared that a realist artist must convey the morals, ideas, and appearance of his era. Courbet's innovation was not that he painted genre scenes from Everyday life, but in the fact that he monumentalized this trivial everyday life, raising it to the rank of a “historical picture.” He first called his main work, “Funeral in Ornans,” “Historical Picture of a Funeral in Ornans,” apparently wanting to emphasize that such everyday events, happening before everyone’s eyes, are living, authentic history. Among Courbet’s best works are “The Artist’s Workshop” and “The Stone Crusher”.

Jean François Millet worked simultaneously with Courbet. He was weaker than Courbet as a painter, but superior to him as an artist. He possessed the poetry of the heart, which Courbet did not have. “The art of painting is to convey the appearance of objects. But this is not the goal of art, but only a means, a language that is used to express one’s thoughts. What is called composition is the art of conveying one’s thoughts to others,” wrote Millet.

Having grown up in the village and associated with it all his life, Millet in his mature years painted exclusively peasants and their work in the fields. Without violating realistic authenticity, he achieves an impression of biblical grandeur in his small-sized paintings: “Man with a Hoe,” “Gatherers of Ears,” “The Sower.”

Indeed, the representative of critical realism was Honore Daumier. Like Balzac, he created the “Human Comedy” of the era in thousands of drawings, lithographs and paintings. He worked in satirical magazines, and this determined the direction of his work as a political cartoonist. Daumier did not escape prison for his satire on the king, the strongest of which was the lithograph “Down the curtain, the farce is played.” The artist’s highest achievement during the years of the July Monarchy was the tragic sheet “Transnonen Street” about the massacre of civilians. From 1830 to 1834 alone, there were 520 press trials in France, despite the existing law on freedom of the press. Daumier creates the lithograph “The Printer Who Defended Press Freedom.” But in 1834 the government ended freedom of speech and restored censorship. Daumier switches to the genre of satire of morals. He is one of the first urbanists in art. From 1837 to 1851, Daumier made approximately thirty lithographed series (several thousand lithographs have survived): “Parisian Types”, “Respectable Bourgeois”, “Workers of Justice”, etc. - the whole life of France over several decades.

In the 1980s, naturalism became an influential movement in literature.

“We are the same diligent workers who carefully inspect the building, who discover rotten beams, internal cracks, shifted stones - all those damages that are not visible from the outside, but can lead to the death of the entire building. Isn’t this a more useful, serious and worthy activity... than climbing onto a high pedestal with a lyre in your hands? - Emile Zola (1840-1902).

“We must treat people like mastodons or crocodiles. Is it possible to get excited about the horns of some and the jaws of others? Show them, make stuffed animals out of them, put them in jars of alcohol - that’s all, but don’t pronounce moral judgments in front of them, and who are you all, you little toads?” - Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880).

These confessions of two outstanding masters of words reflect the position of supporters of naturalism, who deliberately limit the role of the writer, not allowing him to make generalizations.

Naturalism in literature is a one-sided development of realism, a rejection of ideals, of penetration into the inner essence of a phenomenon, a denial of the artist’s right to fiction and expression of his feelings and views. Striving for an objective depiction of reality, naturalists likened their method to the scientific study of life, which would be based on experiment, accuracy of description and documentation. Their aesthetics are in tune with the philosophy of positivism

You can better understand the historical processes of the first half of the 20th century by looking at paintings by artists of that time and reading the most interesting literary works of their contemporaries. Let's go on a short excursion.

Culture and art of the first half of the 20th century: a summary

At the turn of the century, decadence reigned in European culture - there were a huge number of different contradictory trends that had no common features. Culture and art of the first half of the 20th century has two main directions:

• Art Nouveau (French - Art Nouveau, German - Art Nouveau).
• Modernism.

The first one arose in the last decade of the 19th century and gradually ended its existence with the outbreak of the First World War (in 1914).

Modernism is an interesting movement of the late 19th - first half of the 20th century. It is so rich in masterpieces of painting and graphics that it is divided into separate movements according to characteristic features.

Modern: nature is a source of inexhaustible inspiration

The name of the direction comes from the French word "moderne", which means "modern". This is a movement in American, European and Russian art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Art Nouveau is often confused with modernism, although these are fundamentally different things that have little in common with each other. Let's list distinctive features this direction in art:

• seeking inspiration in nature and the surrounding world;
• refusal of sharp lines;
• faded, muted tones;
• decorativeness, airiness;
• the presence of natural elements in the paintings: trees, grasses, shrubs.

The easiest way to understand what modernism is is by contemplating the architecture of European cities in this style. Namely - the buildings and cathedrals of Gaudi in Barcelona. The capital of Catalonia attracts so many tourists precisely due to its unique architecture. The decor of the buildings is distinguished by sublimity, asymmetry and airiness. Holy Family) is the most striking project of the great Antonio Gaudi.

Modernism

Why was this trend able to emerge, win the love of the audience and give rise to the development of such interesting movements as surrealism and futurism?

Because modernism was a revolution in art. It arose as a protest against the outdated traditions of realism.

Creative people were looking for new ways to express themselves and reflect reality. Modernism has its own characteristic features that are unique to it:

• the high role of a person’s inner world;
• search for new original ideas;
• great importance is given to creative intuition;
• literature contributes to the spiritualization of a person;
• the emergence of myth-making.

Culture and art of the first half of the 20th century: we will study pictures by various artists in the next two sections.

What are they? Amazing: you can reflect on them and constantly discover something new. The culture and art of the first half of the 20th century will be briefly described below.

Let's not bore you and present the information in the most concise form - in the form of a table. On the left will be the name of the artistic movement, on the right - its characteristics.

Culture and art of the first half of the 20th century: table

Culture and art of the first half of the 20th century (table, grade 9) reflects basic knowledge on the topic.

Let's take a closer look at impressionism and surrealism as movements that introduced fundamentally new ideas into art.

Surrealism: creativity of the mentally ill or geniuses?

It was one of the movements of modernism that arose in 1920 in France.

Studying the work of surrealists, the average person often wonders about their mental health. For the most part, artists of this movement were quite

Then how did they manage to paint such unusual pictures? It's all about youth and the desire to change standard thinking. Art for the surrealists was a way of liberation from generally accepted rules. Surrealist paintings combined dreams with reality. The artists were guided by three rules:

1. relaxation of consciousness;
2. accepting images from the subconscious;
3. if the first two points were completed, they took up the brush.

It is quite difficult to understand how they painted such multi-valued pictures. One suggestion is that the surrealists were fascinated by Freud's ideas about dreams. The second is about the use of certain mind-altering substances. Where the truth is here is unclear. Let's just enjoy art, no matter the circumstances. Below is the painting “The Clock” by the legendary Salvador Dali.

Impressionism in painting

Impressionism is another direction of modernism, its homeland is France...

Paintings in this style are distinguished by reflections, play of light and bright colors. Artists sought to capture on canvas real world in its variability and mobility. Impressionist paintings improve the mood of an ordinary person, they are so vibrant and bright.

Artists of this movement did not raise any philosophical problems- they simply drew what they saw. At the same time, they did it masterfully, using various techniques and a bright palette of colors.

Literature: from classicism to existentialism

The culture and art of the first half of the 20th century are new trends in literature that changed people's consciousness. The situation is similar to painting: classicism is becoming a thing of the past, giving way to new trends of modernism.

He contributed to such interesting “discoveries” in literature as:

• internal monologue;
• mindflow;
• distant associations;
• the author’s ability to look at himself from the outside (the ability to talk about himself in the third person);
• unrealism.

Irish writer James Joyce was the first to use literary techniques such as internal monologue and parody.

Franz Kafka is an outstanding Austrian writer, the founder of the movement of existentialism in literature. Despite the fact that during his lifetime his works did not cause great delight among readers, he is recognized as one of the best prose writers of the 20th century.

His work was influenced by the tragic events of the First World War. He wrote very deep and difficult works, showing the powerlessness of man when faced with the absurdity of the surrounding reality. At the same time, the author is not deprived of a sense of humor, although he has a very specific and black one.

We caution that meaningful reading of Kafka may contribute to decreased mood. It is best to read the author in a good mood and slightly abstracted from his gloomy thoughts. In the end, he only describes his vision of reality. Kafka's most famous work is The Trial.

Cinema

Funny silent films are also the culture and art of the first half of the 20th century; read the message about them below.

There is no other art form that is developing as rapidly as cinema. Filmmaking technology appeared at the end of the 19th century: in just 50 years it was able to change greatly and win the hearts of millions of people.

The first films were created in advanced countries, including Russia.

Initially, the film was in black and white and without sound. The point of silent film was to convey information through the movements and facial expressions of actors.

The first movie with talking actors appeared in 1927. The American company Warner Brothers decides to release the film “The Jazz Singer”, and this is already a full-fledged film with sound.

B also did not stand still. The first successful project was the film “Don Cossacks”. True, censorship in Russian films also took place: filming of church rituals and members of the royal family was prohibited.

A special stage in the development of Russian cinema began after the Bolsheviks came to power. These comrades quickly realized that cinema can be not just entertainment, but also a serious weapon of propaganda.

The most famous Soviet director of the 30s was Works such as “Battleship Potemkin” and “Alexander Nevsky” have long become classics. Kiev director Alexander Dovzhenko also reached heights in cinema. The most striking work is the film “Earth”.

The most interesting topic for conversation among adults is the culture and art of the first half of the 20th century. 9th grade gives truncated information that quickly disappears from your head. This gap can be filled by constant self-education.

subject: "Cultural Studies"

World k culture XX century A

1. Characteristics of the era

2. Avant-garde

4. The impact of technological progress on society

5. The spiritual life of a person in the twentieth century

6. Modernism and postmodernism

7. Russian icon of the 20th century

8. Avant-garde art

Conclusion

List of sources used

1. Characteristics of the era

There was no era in the history of culture that touched and excited the consciousness of contemporaries to the same extent as the 20th century, awakening the need to proclaim their ideas and artistic discoveries, which often contradict each other. The novelty of ideas with which the 20th century rapidly burst into world culture is truly stunning. They require thoughtful and systematic analysis and will be revisited again and again by future generations.

In fact, the 20th century. began with the realization that “all the gods died, man remained” alone with his power and his still imperfection. On the one hand, the loss of the wise manager of all earthly life and the great Artist, who is God, caused unprecedented optimism and creative energy, on the other hand, it frightened a person with the emptiness that opened up and the unprecedented responsibility that he felt. Hence optimism and pessimism, hope and despair... Everything is extremely aggravated and contradictory, antagonistic and rapid. Social time in the 20th century. becomes extremely dense and eventful, which a person often does not even have time to comprehend and experience.

The change in the picture of the world was also associated with the discovery of the theory of relativity in physics. This has largely led to the relativism of concepts and criteria of values ​​in other areas of knowledge and human life, including art and its canons. The objectivity of the laws of human society, traditional foundations and the entire way of life on which humanity has relied over the past centuries has begun to change radically. A revolution in minds produced a revolution in hearts, and then in society itself.

Doubt breaks integrity human existence. The development of industry, the growth of cities, and the rapid development of technology have led to the fact that man has lost contact with nature, has not found harmony with society, but has also been unable to find peace and tranquility within himself throughout the entire century. Freedom, which he proclaimed as his idol, did not make him happy. From the standpoint of logical rationalism and abstract humanism, criticism of truly spiritual traditions, which could not be replaced by any fashionable theories of the new post-industrial society, was carried out and continues to be carried out.

Impressionism and naturalism of the late 19th century. moved from “absolutely new art” to the 20th century. into the “classical” category. Avant-garde art with its numerous schools of the First World War began to lay claim to absolute novelty. Expressionists(expressionism means “expression”) they emphasize that they have nothing in common with the impressionists, trying to express their attitude to what is happening through the means of their art. Futurists they rebuild the world, combining its primary elements at their own discretion, “as they please,” freeing themselves from the burden of logic and reason.

Sets and solves the problems of modern times in its own way Russian avant-garde. Thanks to the paintings of K. Malevich and V. Kandinsky Suprematism and abstractionism became a noticeable phenomenon not only of Russian, but also of world artistic culture, opening a new stage in its development. With the help of a new artistic language, Russian artists managed to create a different, hitherto unprecedented new artistic reality, the perception of which required certain preparation and knowledge of its “laws.”

The role of theoreticians of the new art was taken on by the artists themselves. Thus, in his work “On the Spiritual in Art” V. Kandinsky writes about the peculiarities of the language of abstract art: they can use a circle, a square and a triangle as means. “Every work of art is a child of its time, often it is the mother of our feelings. Thus, each cultural period creates its own art, which cannot be repeated.”

Refusal of the mimetic (i.e. the imitation of art by nature, as the ancients did), the desire to construct a completely new “spiritual reality”, which, in turn, would help rebuild social world all this attracted artists of the early 20th century. Spirituality itself increasingly took on certain material configurations. So, for example, in V. Kandinsky’s view, even spiritual life itself looked like “a large pointed triangle, divided into unequal parts.” At the same time, the sharpest and smallest part of the triangle is directed upward, and at its very top there is only one person. On the one hand, he is joyful, on the other, he is sad, because even those who approach him do not understand him. This is how Beethoven was, according to V. Kandinsky, this is how other geniuses in art were. “When religion, science and morality are shaken (the latter strong hand Nietzsche) and external foundations threaten to fall, man turns his gaze from the external to himself,” this is how V. Kandinsky accurately characterizes the time of which he is a contemporary (

However, the internal, deep foundations of creativity are presented to the author of the lines by mystical images, and they are poorly understood and expressed through words, in the visual arts with the help of a point, line, color or in music. Verbal creativity (literature, poetry) is just as susceptible to destruction as a holistic image - the Face in painting. All these aesthetic transformations are evidence of the processes taking place in the 20th century. both with the person and with the society in which he lives.

Reproaches against modernist artists for allegedly “not knowing how to draw” often turned out to be unfair. It is known that many of the representatives of the domestic and foreign avant-garde and modernism in their early works imitated the masters of classical painting - Rembrandt, D. Velazquez, El Greco and others, having adopted their creative style, but they decided not to stop there. These artists include, for example, K. Malevich and P. Picasso, who also managed to reflect in their work the “spirit” of their time and, above all, the destruction of the integrity of the world and man, as well as experiments in the field of new possibilities of the language of fine art.

Appearance in the 20th century. myths about the “death of art” indicated the end classical age culture, including art, the nature of which has noticeably transformed. Artists found themselves faced with the need to solve new problems posed not only by the peculiarities of the new artistic practice, but also by a significantly changed social reality, which was largely influenced by the Russian Revolution.

2. Avant-garde

However, for a long time, there was a misunderstanding in society of the new art, the language of which had noticeably changed in comparison with the classical one, which considered antiquity and the Renaissance as a role model. Avant-garde, like the art of modernism in general, it no longer recognized the classical canons, freeing itself from their dependence and proclaiming complete freedom of creativity. New art did not strive to reflect reality and man; it created a new reality, constructing it at its own discretion. The artist is increasingly interested not in the external world, but in the inner world of his own experiences. The purpose of art becomes self-realization artist, no matter in what form it appears. The attention of viewers begins to be attracted not only by the result of the artist’s work - a work of art, but also by the creative process of its creation from concept to implementation. The holy of holies was revealed - the secret of creativity, the desire to comprehend which with the help of logic and reason is not always possible. Rationalism is increasingly beginning to give way to irrationalism, which gives preference to feelings and intuition over reason in comprehending the truth.

3. Characteristic features of 20th century art

Irrationality becomes one of the characteristic features of 20th century art. It is nourished by achievements in the field of philosophy of Freudianism and existentialism, whose influence becomes very noticeable. Artists themselves are increasingly turning to philosophy to explain the inexplicable, to understand the incomprehensible, using it to create manifestos of new artistic movements. Philosophy was close to art even before. It began with the aphorisms of Confucius, the ancient poems of Parmenides and Lucretius, the dialogues of Plato, the letters of Epicurus and Seneca. The organic connection between philosophy and art was not interrupted in subsequent centuries. Suffice it to recall Augustine, Dante, Voltaire, Goethe, as well as F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, F. Nietzsche, N. Berdyaev, V. Rozanov and others, who expressed their ideas not by constructing abstract theories, but by means of art vividly and figuratively.

One of the heirs to this tradition was the French existentialism: its authors were at the same time famous writers, playwrights and publicists - J.-P. Sartre, A. Camus, F. Kafka and others. Camus once remarked: “If you want to be a philosopher, write novels.” It was thanks to the novels and plays of the existentialists that their ideas became widespread among the reading public, entering the mass (“pantragic”) consciousness of the 20th century. The fashion for existentialism led to the emergence in Europe of “existentialist cafes” with a mandatory black ceiling to make it easier for visitors to focus on their inner experiences of melancholy, anxiety and the absurdity of the meaninglessness of existence. All this caused protest among the existentialists themselves, since the fascination with such external effects, according to A. Camus, testified to the intellectual squalor of the public.

The 19th century occupies a special place in the culture of modern times. Bourgeois civilization, reaching maturity, enters a stage of crisis, accompanied by changes in spiritual life and artistic culture. In solving the most important problems, culture tries to stay within the space of the fundamental principles of the era: anthropocentrism, rationalism, scientism, Eurocentrism. But by the 19th century. the world became different, which led to the beginning of the process of revaluation of values. Famous philosopher and cultural scientist José Ortega y Gasset, characterizing the 19th century, writes: “Three factors made the creation of this new world possible: democracy, experimental science and industrialization. None of these factors were the creation of the century, they appeared two centuries earlier. The nineteenth century put them into practice."

A detailed description of the first factor will require attention to such events as the War of Independence of the North American Colonies and the Great French Bourgeois Revolution. Adopted on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence of the North American Colonies, ahead of Europe, embodied the principles of liberalism in bourgeois legislation, thereby becoming a model for the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, and with it for the constitutions of most European states. Realities of the 19th century. clearly demonstrated that the “kingdom of Reason” promised by the Enlightenment turned into the triumph of bourgeois reason, “universal equality” was reduced to formal equality before the law, freedom resulted in the freedom of merciless capitalist exploitation, the revolutionary brotherhood of the third estate disintegrated, the warring classes dispersed on opposite sides of the barricades. The course of revolutionary events in the 19th century seemed to refute the rationalistic view of the world. From now on, the problem of the relationship between ideal and reality becomes the driving motive of sociocultural development. In France, which became a kind of political testing ground for Europe, during the years of revolutions, a wide variety of forms of political structure were tested: from the classical bourgeois republic to the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeois empire.

When characterizing such a cultural factor as industrialization It should be assumed that it began at the end of the 18th century. industrial revolution in England, in the 19th century. becomes the determining economic indicator of the development of Western countries. Its result was the emergence of an industrial society, an industrial civilization, which is characterized by the following character traits:

· Her Majesty the Machine ascended the throne. The factory changed manufacturing, leading to an unprecedented increase in labor productivity, consolidation of enterprises, standardization of products and dehumanization of production; in a number of countries the working class made up half of the population; If previously the basis of productive forces were three sources of energy: the muscular power of humans and animals, water and wind, now other sources have appeared: steam, electricity, the energy of combustion of liquid fuel; according to P. Sorokin, the 19th century “brought more discoveries and inventions than all previous centuries combined”;

· the level of well-being and quality of life has changed; people's lives include telephone and telegraph, photography and cinema, radios and new vehicles that allow them to travel faster (steam locomotive, steamship, car, electric tram, metro); new roads are being built, including railways (by the end of the century - about 1 million km), bridges, canals (for example, Suez); steam and water heating, central water supply and sewerage, electric lighting in houses and on the streets appear in urban houses;

· a middle class is being formed, which ultimately gives the new society stability;

· a new system of values ​​is emerging, the main of which in industrial civilization is technical progress: together with science, it provides people with well-being; benefit, prosperity, comfort and other guidelines of “sensual” culture dominate in the public consciousness, which gradually begins to identify cultural progress with economic growth; understanding technological progress as a defining civilizational feature inevitably leads to a contrast between the “advanced” Western civilization and the “backward” civilizations of other countries, and to the establishment of Eurocentrism in the public consciousness.

Such a cultural factor as the science entered its “golden age”. The rise of the natural sciences ends at the end of the 19th century. "revolution in natural science." Scientific discoveries of M. Faraday, D. Maxwell, M. Planck, P. Curie, M. Sklodowska-Curie, D. Mendeleev, E. Rutherford, N. Bohr, G. Mendel, I. Pavlov, L. Pasteur, R. Koch follow one after another. A real revolution in science and a cultural shock in the minds of his contemporaries were produced by the ideas of Charles Darwin, which cast doubt on theological interpretations of the origin of the world and man.

Progress in natural science has also influenced the humanities, many of which are moving to the position of biological reductionism (for example, certain areas of ethnology, psychology, sociology). Numerous schools, trends and theories appear and develop in philosophy: neo-Kantianism, pragmatism, “philosophy of life”, positivism, intuitionism, etc.

In the scientific consciousness, the principle of benefit gradually transforms the concept of truth, and scientific and technological progress are perceived as inextricably linked. The technical development of the world is clearly beginning to outstrip its humanitarian understanding. Preoccupation with material progress leaves little room for spirituality. Along with the weakening of belief in the supernatural, the increase in atheism, and the decline in social significance christian church there is a decline in interest in Christian values ​​and a dulling of moral sense in general. Friedrich Nietzsche characterizes this process as a “revaluation of values,” and Oswald Spengler as “decline,” noting the dying of Western culture and its transition to the stage of civilization.

When characterizing artistic culture XIX century it is also necessary to see complex and contradictory trends. On the one hand, art continues to develop - various styles and trends replace each other: empire style, romanticism, critical realism, naturalism, symbolism, impressionism, etc. We can also talk about the absence of a single aesthetic dominant: generic, specific, genre. On the other hand, art reveals a certain problem, associated, in particular, with the fact that the bourgeoisie, which came to power in most countries, had a modest aesthetic level, clearly inferior to the aristocracy of the past with its limited demands and lack of internal desire for art ( the craving for external luxury and titles appears only in the 2nd half of the century). Art turned out to be of little use to anyone. Problems are also generated by the surrounding reality itself, which turns out to be far from the kingdom of reason, freedom and justice, which was promised by the Enlightenment. Increasing socio-economic contradictions caused the growth of the workers' and socialist movements in Europe and the national liberation struggle in the world. All this posed difficult challenges for art. Not accepting the realities of bourgeois reality, art in the form of romanticism, “pure” art, flees from real life into the world of fairy tales, fantasy, exoticism, the past, into the inner world of man. Another way out is a critical position, characteristic primarily of critical realism.

Another problem in the development of artistic XIX culture century is associated with the growing influence of science, which, on the one hand, questioned the role of art in the life of society, and on the other hand, influenced it (for example, in impressionism). When characterizing new trends in the artistic culture of the 19th century, we should emphasize the strengthening of the subjective principle. The main thing for the artist is not What depict, and How reflect your inner vision, feeling, attitude to reality. In the future, this leads to the construction of a new reality, to the search for new means, forms, and angles. The subject of art becomes not only the surrounding reality, but also the inner world of the artist. In other words, there is a decentralization of artistic culture.

The culture of the 19th century can be defined as classical. This is the heyday of capitalism, the era of industrial revolutions in most countries of Europe and the USA. During this period, a series of social revolutions occurred that shocked most European countries, especially France. The 19th century is characterized by the development of science, achievements in philosophy and art. The initial ideological principles of the culture of the 19th century, as well as of the entire modern era, were scientism, rationalism, anthropocentrism, Eurocentrism, optimism, faith in social, scientific and technological progress and the good nature of man. Although by the end of the 19th century these principles began to weaken and were replaced by anti-scientism, irrationalism, pessimism, etc. In terms of time, it would be more correct to define the boundaries of culture in the 19th century starting from 1789. (the beginning of the Great French Bourgeois Revolution), and end in 1914 (the beginning of World War I).

The culture of the 19th century developed under the banner of the spread of democracy (the War of Independence and the formation of the United States, the French Revolution), the development of experimental sciences and the success of the Industrial Revolution. As a result of the industrial revolution and the industrialization that accompanied it, the development of natural and exact sciences. This is the era of classical natural science, when the classical scientific picture peace. Scientific discoveries are beginning to be actively introduced into industry, the first research laboratories are appearing, and theoretical understanding of production processes is taking place. Most of the technical inventions that determined the content of modern civilization were made precisely in the 19th century (steamboat, steam engine, electricity, telephone, telegraph, radio, cinema and many others); they were committed several times more than in all previous eras. A special place in the development of philosophy is occupied by the works of I. Kant, G. F. L. Hegel, L. Feuerbach. The 19th century was the time of the emergence of Marxism and positivism with their rationalistic picture of the world. The last quarter of the 19th century and the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is marked by the collapse of hopes and faith in the omnipotence of reason and progress. A crisis begins in the worldview paradigm of anthropocentrism, irrationalistic and anti-scientist concepts appear, especially prominent among which is the philosophy of life of F. Nietzsche.

In the culture of the 19th century, the ideology of liberalism was finally formalized and established. It is characterized by the recognition of a number of postulates: in the social sphere - the principle of equality of opportunity, the primacy of the individual’s values ​​over society and his personal and responsibility for decisions made, in the political sphere - the principle of separation of powers, equality of rights and freedoms of all members of society; in the economic sphere - private property, freedom of enterprise, competition and a number of others. As an alternative, in the middle of the 19th century, the ideology of communism, clearly expressed in the socio-political doctrine of Marxism, took shape.

The artistic originality of the culture of the 19th century is represented by three main styles: classicism, romanticism and realism, which manifested themselves in literature, fine arts, music, architecture, and theater. At the end of the 19th century, new trends appeared, such as impressionism and symbolism. During this period, trends of decadence appeared as an expression of the crisis of European culture in the 19th century.

At the end of the 18th century, mainly in French culture, a direction took shape that was called classicism. It was based on the ideas of the Enlightenment, primarily on rationalism, and sought to create clear, organic images and express heroic, sublime ideals. Classicism was also characterized by abstraction, academicism, and idealization. The most prominent representatives of classicism in German literature were J.V. Goethe and I.F. Schiller. Among the representatives of Russian classicism in architecture, N.F. Kazakov, A.V. Voronikhin, A.D. should be noted. Zakharova, K.I. Rossi.

The next cultural direction of the 19th century was romanticism, which arose at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. in Germany as a peculiar reaction to classicism. The basis of the romantic worldview was the discrepancy between the ideal and social reality. Romanticism proclaimed the priority of the individual tastes of a creative person, the desire for boundless freedom, the thirst for renewal and perfection. The philosophical and aesthetic basis of romanticism was formed by the works of German philosophers F.W.J. Schelling and F. Schlegel. Outstanding figures of German romanticism in literature were E.T.A. Hoffmann, G. von Kleist, J. Paul, G. Heine. The romantic direction in German music is represented by R. Schumann, R. Wagner. Romanticism in music was also expressed by the Frenchman G. Berlioz, the Hungarian F. Liszt, and the Pole F. Chopin. The largest representatives of English romanticism in literature are D.N.G. Byron, W. Scott, J. Keats and B. Shelley. Russian romantics - V.A. Zhukovsky, V.F. Ryleev, M.N. Zagoskin, A.S. Dargomyzhsky. Among the romantic painters, the French T. Gericault and E. Delacroix, the Russian O. Kiprensky should be noted. Romanticism was not just a style in art, like classicism, but a form of ideology, a general cultural movement that embraced a variety of phenomena from clothing fashion to philosophical and aesthetic views, political economy, and history. He contributed to a multilateral artistic generalization of reality and its in-depth philosophical knowledge, becoming the basis for the emergence of a new artistic movement in the culture of the 19th century - realism.

Realism in artistic culture is a truthful and objective reflection of reality using specific means of art. It originated in the 30s of the 19th century in France and England, and very quickly spread to other European countries, especially Russia. Figures of the realistic movement critically assessed the shortcomings of capitalist society in the mid-19th century, when all social antagonisms became especially acute, they castigated social inequality and the hypocrisy of bourgeois society, and therefore this type of realism was called critical realism. Unlike romanticism, with its interest in the lone hero acting in extreme situations, realism depicts typical characters in typical circumstances. The works of most realists are imbued with the ideas of humanism, historicism, social justice, and nationality. The most prominent representatives of French realism in literature are O. de Balzac, V. Hugo, G. Flaubert, P. Merimee, and English literary realism - Charles Dickens, W. Thackeray. Particularly interesting is the Russian critical realism of the brilliant galaxy of writers of the “golden age” of Russian literature from A.S. Pushkin to A.P. Chekhov. The Russian realistic music school is widely known - the so-called “mighty handful”, which included composers M.A. Balakirev, Ts.A. Cui, M.P. Mussorsky, A.N. Borodin, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as P.I. Tchaikovsky. Realism in music in Italy is represented by the work of G. Verdi, as well as Italian realists: R. Leoncavallo, G. Puccini.

The realistic direction in Russian painting is especially clearly expressed by the Wanderers, in French painting by the works of J.F. Millet, G. Courbet, T. Rousseau, O. Daumier.

Another type of realism in the second half of the 19th century was naturalism, which is based on the idea that the essence of fate and man depends on the social environment, everyday life, and biological factors - heredity, physiology. The most influential representative of naturalism in French literature is E. Zola. Among the naturalists are the French brothers Goncourt, A. Daudet, and the German G. Hauptmann. The theoretical sources of naturalistic aesthetics were the works of positivist philosophers, as well as the ideas of the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin.

In late naturalism, the features of decadence appear more and more clearly, which are marked by moods of decline, hopelessness, pessimism, and glorification of immorality. For the first time, these features appeared in a new direction in the art of the last decade of the 19th and early 20th centuries - symbolism.

Its founders were the French poets C. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, S. Mallarmé. In Russia, symbolism is expressed in the works of the majority of representatives of the “Silver Age” of Russian literature - D. Merezhnovsky, K. Balmont, Z. Gippius, D. Sologub, V. Bryusov, A. Bely, A. Blok.

The philosophical and aesthetic basis of symbolism was the work of F. Nietzsche and E. Hartmann. The disappearance of faith in progress, the strength and power of reason, the destruction and rethinking of traditional values, nihilism - these are some of Nietzsche’s ideas that determined the mentality of European society in the last quarter of the 19th century. Using symbols, representatives of this direction sought to break through to hidden realities, the ideal essence of the world. Their work vividly presents a foreboding of the world's socio-historical catastrophes, which the next 20th century will be rich in. You can highlight symbolism in the theater - Maeterlinck, painting - Vrubel.

Finally, another major trend in the culture of the last quarter of the 19th century was impressionism and post-impressionism. This trend was characteristic of fine art and almost exclusively French. The paintings of impressionist artists are characterized by the depiction of fleeting impressions that he sees at the moment in front of him. The impressionists include C. Monet, O. Renoir, E. Degas, C. Pizarro, E. Manet, in music - C. Dubessy, Ravel, in sculpture - O. Rodin, A. Maillol. In contrast, the post-impressionists - P. Cezanne, V. Van Gogh, P. Gauguin - tried to capture in their paintings not the fleeting and accidental, but the permanent principles of existence. Post-Impressionism influenced the emergence of modernism at the beginning of the 20th century.

Summarizing a brief examination of the world culture of the 19th century, it should be concluded that, on the one hand, this is the time of the culture of the New Time, the era of the heyday of classical culture, and on the other hand, it clearly shows the features of a deep crisis, which was based on a crisis of ideological paradigms of anthropocentrism and Eurocentrism.