Primitivist tendencies in the art of Sverdlovsk - Yekaterinburg in the 1960s-1990s: the creativ-ity of the members of the Artists' Union and informal artists
Authors:   Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Zhumati Tatiana P. 
Published: February 2023

The article is devoted to an important period in the art history of Sverdlovsk -Yekaterinburg and of the country in general, when the dogmas of socialist realism were ruining and new artistic thinking was forming, noted by bold innovation and at the same time by interest in diverse traditions. The phenomena that represented the local art of the 19601990s are considered in the context of all-Russian tendencies; during research, the peculiarities of the searches for Ural artists are traced. The author's attention is focused on creativity of members of the Artists' Union, mostly to its “left” wing, and the representatives of an alternative creative environment - informal artists. The formation in the Soviet period of an alternative artistic community not only in the culture of the center - in Moscow and Leningrad, but also in a provincial situation is an independent significant fact. In the text links to the researches connected with studying of this phenomenon, including those initiated by the author of this article are given. The identification of the close tendencies in the art of the Masters of the Artists' Union and in-formal artists, in this case - of appealing to the stylistic of primitive, makes us return to the problem of “convergence” and “divergence” in their searches, which already had been touched upon by scientists. Such “convergences” in practice of official and unofficial art, according to the author, do not belong to the defining features, do not allow to level the existing differences and the borders themselves between the indicated areas. The confirmation of the stated position, which re-quired consideration of the heritage of the local underground and official art, and became the purpose of the research. The lack of special researches close to our topic determines the scientific novelty of this work. The development of primitivistic tendencies in local art is considered on a wide material -from the appearance the stylistic of primitive in book illustrations related to the Ural theme, including the tales of Pavel Bazhov, to easel works made in different decades. A circle of topics that are characteristic of official and unofficial art is outlined, special features that are manifested in the works of artists - primitivists are highlighted. On the example of close tendencies the author highlights common features and differences in the creativity of the Masters of the Artists' Union and informal artists. The comparison of creativity of the members of the Artists' Union and informal artists, under-taken in a research, allowed to reveal essential differences in their searches, - in the themes of works, artistic solutions. It is noted that the ideas of the Soviet mentality appear in a smaller measure in the art of informal artists, the theme of “daily occurrence” is more consistently embodied, interest in the “unofficial” Sverdlovsk is manifested in urban motifs, etc. The originality of the artistic solutions inherent to the works of informal artists is associated, inter alia, with their installation on experiment and greater radicalism. The main conclusion of this research is as follows. Behind the closeness of stylistic tendencies in the searches of representatives of official and unofficial art, is manifested more significant differences, arising from their belonging to different artistic areas, different social and creative experience, worldview, which in turn determined and the behavioral strategies.