VLASOVA Irina Lvovna, literature teacher
Theater Art and Technical College of Moscow
About some ways of depicting reality in the works of N.V. Gogol
His article about N.V. Gogol V. Nabokov begins like this: “Nikolai Gogol is the most unusual poet and prose writer that Russia has ever produced.”
Gogol often walked on the wrong side of the street that everyone else walked on; sometimes he put his right shoe on left leg, the furniture in the room was arranged in disarray. This “most unusual poet and prose writer” entered Russian literature “In the evenings on a farm near Dikanka,” and then decided to “show at least one side of all of Russia.”
He showed Russia not “from one side,” but absolutely. From Uncle Miny and Uncle Mitya to the bird-troika, from the village house where Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna lived, to the most mystical city of Russia, once founded on a swamp and human bones by those who “bridle iron Russia reared up."
“I just read Evenings near Dikanka,” wrote A.S. Pushkin to a friend. “They amazed me.” This is real gaiety, sincere, relaxed, without affectation, without stiffness.” When, shortly before Pushkin’s death, Gogol read him a draft of the first chapter of “Dead Souls,” he exclaimed: “God, how sad our Russia is!”
Portraying our sad Russia, the writer never ceases to amaze us. He burst into literature with the gaiety of “Evenings...”, where everything is so unusual: the devil is a vehicle, the witch is a charming woman. There they steal a month, the capricious lady demands the shoe from the royal foot. Dumplings and dumplings themselves are dipped in sour cream and jump into your mouth. I was truly surprised and surprised! There will also be a story “Taras Bulba”. In it, he brutally executes his hero: Taras himself will not only die painfully, but before his death he will see the terrible death of Ostap. The writer will never have anything like this again. Then he will pay attention to the conflict that his brilliant fellow writers explored before him - the conflict of the hero with the environment. The same one that is known precisely for the fact that it always eats up someone (how many times will we hear: “Wednesday has eaten up”!) But if Pushkin, Griboyedov, Lermontov were more interested in the hero, and Wednesday was represented by a series of guests at Famusov’s ball or at Tatiana Larina’s name day, in Pechorin’s murderous descriptions (“a drunken captain with a red face,” “a lady in a low neckline and with a wart on her neck,” “a countess, usually sweating in her bathroom at this hour”), then Gogol has all his interest is directed precisely to this environment. That environment where a bride is chosen based on the number of movable and immovable property, knowledge of French, weight (well, just like a goose at the market!), where you can buy dead souls. To describe this very environment, the writer uses unique artistic media. Most often, his hero rides along the road (the principle of “the long, long road” so beloved by Gogol!) He rides and observes the life of the old-world village in which Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna lived; in the glorious city of Mirgorod, in the central square of which the famous puddle never dries up, along the banks of which several generations of Mirgorod residents grew up; in the provincial townNN, where one scoundrel decided to buy dead souls, and five scoundrels sold them (one even gave them as a gift!); in the city of St. Petersburg, where Pushkin had already noticed the devilry, in the city where “the demon himself lights the lights.”
In my opinion, in the writer’s work (except for “Evenings...” and “Taras Bulba”) two themes that are most important to him can be distinguished: provincial Russia and St. Petersburg. He paints a portrait of the city and its character so powerfully that his Petersburg no longer becomes so much a place of action as a hero of the story. A hero who interferes with the fate of a character, invades his life, changing it. The writer introduces his heroes to the reader, starting with a portrait. And he describes the city, starting from the main street. She is the face of the city, its calling card (like the nose, which, according to the writer, is the calling card of the face) And the reader probably wants to know what kind of city this is, where (as in the cityNN) you can buy dead souls. Or what kind of city is this, where sideburns and mustaches walk independently along the main street, where Major Kovalev’s nose “disappears for no reason, for no reason” and lives independently.
Pushkin noticed some strangeness in this, perhaps, the most mystical city of Russia in his time (it was this strangeness that drove poor Eugene, who challenged the Bronze Horseman himself, crazy). Then F.M. will tell you a lot of interesting things about this oddity. Dostoevsky. He will show us this city as a city without people (“White Nights”). Here the hero lives among bridges, streets, pavements, houses, stone walls and communicates with them as with friends, with acquaintances. This strange world– his world, his and the City. For Dostoevsky, this city is a two-faced Janus, one side of which is beautiful (balls, beautiful women, the shine of diamonds), and the other is ugly. On this side they drink, steal, here the stairs are filled with slop, here children get sick and die, here crazy ideas are born. The most terrible tragedies occur on the streets of this side of the city. This strangeness will later be seen by A.A. Blok, whose hero finds himself in a vicious circle: “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy.” You can’t break out of this circle: “If you die, you’ll start over again, // And everything will repeat itself as before: // Night, the icy ripples of the canal, // Pharmacy, street, lantern.”
Charming and frightening, this City is approaching us: “And beyond the bridge it flies towards me // A horseman’s hand in an iron glove // And two hooves of his horse” (N.S. Gumilyov)
A.N. Tolstoy, in his novel “Sisters,” recalled a drunken sexton who, two centuries before the events he described, driving past, shouted: “Petersburg be empty!” So it went from then on: either the Bronze Horseman galloped along the pavements, then the nose of the unfortunate major went on a spree, then the deceased official raged in the vacant lot like a ghost, tearing the greatcoats from the shoulders of passing influential persons. If Pushkin and Dostoevsky, Blok and Bely noted the amazing strangeness of this City, then Gogol understood everything to the end and told about it in such a way that everyone who wrote after him “... only more fully reveals the city of Gogol, and does not create some new image of it. It is no wonder that Petersburg revealed all its quirkiness when the most bizarre person in all of Russia began to walk along its streets, for that is what it is, Petersburg: a blurry reflection in a mirror...; pale gray nights instead of the usual black ones and black days - for example, the “rainy day” of a shabby official” (V. Nabokov)
In his article “St. Petersburg Notes of 1836” N.V. Gogol wrote: “It is difficult to grasp the general expression of St. Petersburg, because disunity reigns in this city: as if a huge stagecoach arrived at the tavern, in which each passenger sat closed the whole way and entered the common room only because there was no other place.” . On Nevsky Prospekt - the “universal communication of St. Petersburg” - there is a different picture. Here everyone has their own movement at their own time. Only the location of the action does not change - Nevsky Prospekt. Gogol had previously begun his description of any city with a description of its main street. And there was always some kind of catch in this description. Well, for example, the famous Mirgorod puddle. The writer dedicates a poem to this puddle and sings a hymn! Everything is superlative, all exclamation marks! It's big, like a lake. It does not dry out in summer and does not freeze in winter. All the townspeople love her and are very proud of her. A few more touches (a pig lying in the center of a puddle, chickens pecking grain on the porch of a public place) - and here it is, a portrait of the city! Wow, a city whose main and, by the way, only attraction is an unforgettable puddle!
So Gogol begins his description of the “beauty of our capital” Nevsky Prospect with an obvious catch: “There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospect.” After such an enthusiastic exclamation there is a whole series of proofs: he is good because everyone loves him; they love it because everyone walks along it; they walk on it because it is good. “How clean its sidewalks are swept, and, God, how many feet have left their footprints on it! And the clumsy dirty boot of a retired soldier, under the weight of which the very granite seems to crack, and the miniature, light as smoke, shoe of a young lady..., and the rattling saber of a hopeful ensign, making a sharp scratch on it - everything takes out the power of force on him and the power of weakness." Is it possible now, after reading the description of all kinds of traces and even scratches, to believe in the unimaginable purity of the “universal communication of St. Petersburg”, its “main beauty”? And what is the writer’s statement, which was subsequently unconfirmed by anything, that “a person met on Nevsky Prospect is less selfish than in Morskaya, Gorokhovaya, Liteinaya, Meshchanskaya and other streets.” N.V. Gogol paints Nevsky at different times of the day. The character of the city, its mood, its smell changes every minute, it fascinates with this elusiveness, this changeability. Early in the morning “... all of St. Petersburg smells of hot, freshly baked bread and is filled with old women... making their raids on churches and compassionate passers-by.” Well, isn’t at least this phrase about old women worth a lot! Next, the writer comes to a conclusion (presumably based on close observation): until 12 o’clock “the right people” trudge along Nevsky Prospect to work, or “a sleepy official trudges” to the department.” “At 12 o’clock Nevsky Prospekt is a pedagogical prospect,” because it is “raided by tutors ... with their pets.” The old women who raid churches and the tutors who raid Nevsky Prospect will then be replaced by mustaches and sideburns. It turns out that sideburns “velvet, satin, black, like sable or coal” are the privilege of only one foreign board. Those serving in other departments, “to their greatest trouble (and why trouble, and even the greatest?) are destined to wear red hair.” This procession of mustaches and sideburns of all styles and colors is accompanied by the smells of “delicious perfumes and aromas.” And then, completely independently, “thousands of varieties of hats, dresses, scarves”, narrow waists, ladies’ sleeves march. And the inhabitants and smells here will change endlessly, the nature of the “universal communication of St. Petersburg” will change. But then comes that magical time when “... lamps give everything some kind of tempting, wonderful light.” Now Nevsky Prospekt consists of two parallel straight lines: Nevsky daytime and Nevsky night. The story is based on a comparison of two storylines. When describing Nevsky during the day, Gogol turns to the principle of detail in the description: endless external signs (sideburns, mustaches, ranks, hats, boots, etc.) In the evening, when the lanterns are lit, the City fascinates, captures and sends the seeker in different directions beauty (artist Piskarev) and adventurer (Lieutenant Pirogov). Both of them are in for a complete fiasco. Only now the beauty seeker will die, and the adventure seeker will get off with a slight fright and will forget himself in the pastry shop, eating pies. And the evening mazurka will completely calm him down. There is a complete discrepancy between the tragic meaning and the ironic intonation in the description of these events. This is fully confirmed by the writer himself at the end of the story: “Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospect!” “Everything is a deception, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems!.. He lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospekt, but most of all when the night falls on him in a condensed mass... and when the demon himself lights the lamps just so that show everything not in its real form.” So why be surprised in a city where “the demon himself lights the lights”? It is clear that this is where the strangest things should happen: the artist will give in to temptation and, for the sake of fame and wealth, will pledge his soul to the devil. What seems only at first glance to be “perfect nonsense”, but in fact an “extraordinarily strange incident” will happen: Major Kovalev’s nose turned out to be (how?) baked in dough, thrown into the Neva (under what circumstances?). Then, with the rank of state councilor, he traveled around St. Petersburg and was spotted in church. By the way, he flatly refused to have a close relationship with Major Kovalev! "I am on my own. Moreover, there cannot be any close relations between us. Judging by the buttons on your uniform, you should serve in the Senate, or at least in the Justice Department. I'm a scientist." Then, finally, the runaway nose returned to its rightful place, “between Major Kovalev’s two cheeks.” Nikolai Vasilyevich states quite authoritatively that such incidents are “rare, but they do happen.” And as evidence he writes: “But here the incident is completely obscured by fog, and absolutely nothing is known what happened next.” So here you go! Gogol is always like this. As soon as we get to the solution, he will definitely promise to tell you later or, even better, suddenly declare that it doesn’t matter now.
Gogol later excludes the theme of the major’s nightmare, suggested in the original version. Everything would be simple: the strange incident turned out to be just a strange dream. In the final version, poor Kovalev pinched himself twice to make sure whether it was a dream or terrible reality. Alas! Instead of “... a rather good and moderate nose, a very stupid, even and smooth place.” There is no life without a nose: you have to cover yourself with a scarf in public, you can’t get married, you can’t smell tobacco, you can’t make a solid career! The nose is the “peak” of external dignity, and not “some little toe.” Nobody will see it (in the sense of a finger) in a boot. And this is the nose! “And why did he run out into the middle of his face?” – the writer once joked. Major Kovalev without a nose finds himself “outside the citizenship of the capital.” He is now completely outside of people. This makes him similar to the hero of the story “Notes of a Madman,” poor fellow Poprishchin, who “has no place in the world,” who speaks “in himself.” Life will drive him crazy. At the end of the story “Notes of a Madman,” we see Gogol’s beloved images of the troika, the road, and we hear the sound of a bell: “Give me a troika of horses as fast as a whirlwind!” ... ring my bell, soar, horses, and carry me from this world!”
“There is no place in the world” for the unfortunate Bashmachkin. He died, and “Petersburg was left without Akaki Akakievich, as if he had never been there.” Gogol explained to the reader why his hero was so unattractive (“short, somewhat pockmarked, somewhat blind, with a small bald spot on his forehead, with wrinkles on both sides of his cheeks...”): “What can we do? The St. Petersburg climate is to blame.” The beginning of the story is replete with an incredible amount of details: where the bed of the woman in labor stood, who stood on right hand , who on the left, which of the relatives (up to the brother-in-law) wore boots, etc. Then only the main event is described - the choice of name. In the case of our hero, read “fate”. Choosing a name begins with total bad luck. According to the calendar, “the names were all like this”: Mokiy, Sossiy and Khozdazat, then Trifiliy, Dula and Varakhasiy. “Well, I see that apparently this is his fate. If so, it would be better for him to be called like his father. The father was Akaki, so let the son be Akaki.” The child was baptized and he began to cry. Let us note that he cried, not notifying the world, saying, I was born, love me, but “as if he had a presentiment that there would be a titular councilor.” This is simply a sentence: to be in this life, like his father, Akaki, and to be a titular adviser. There will be no other fate. You'll pay here! Then about fifty years falls out of the description. There is probably nothing to talk about - just rewriting of papers. They put papers on him, he took them, “looking only at the paper, without looking who gave it to him,” and copied them. So he lived among papers, letters, and rewriting. In some kind of his own little world, outside of which nothing existed for him. In this little world, however, he lives quite happily: so, having written to his heart’s content, he went to bed, “smiling at the thought of tomorrow: will God send something to rewrite tomorrow?” In “The Overcoat,” Gogol describes three main events in the hero’s life: the choice of a name, the construction of a new overcoat, and death. The apotheosis of Akaki Akakievich’s entire life will be the overcoat. With this fateful decision - to sew a new overcoat - everything changed in his life. This period of Bashmachkin’s life is his spiritual rise. Before this, Akakiy Akakievich expressed himself “mostly in prepositions, adverbs, and, finally, in particles that absolutely do not have any meaning... he even had the habit of not finishing his sentence at all,... thinking that he had already said everything.” For Gogol, the speech characteristics of the hero are very important. Let's compare Bashmachkin's speech before and after the decision to sew an overcoat. “And here I come to you, Petrovich, that...” After making a decision, he completely changes. He “somehow became more alive, ... the doubt disappeared from his face.” Communication with letters is not enough for him; he is drawn to people. He became talkative: “He visited Petrovich to talk about the overcoat.” Why, he became a dreamer, he became daring and courageous: “Should I put a marten on my collar?” Well what! For him, the future overcoat is a friend of life, in general LIFE! Another. New overcoat - new life. He will only live this new life for one day. This whole day for him is “definitely the biggest solemn holiday.” On this day, he experienced everything that a person can experience in life: the joy of meetings, care, warmth, affection. He was in a team, among friends. He was in an apartment on the second floor, where the stairs were lit. He drank champagne. He was happy and happy people lose their vigilance. Drunk, either from two glasses of wine or from happiness, he finds himself in a vacant lot, where he is unceremoniously thrown out of his overcoat. “But the overcoat is mine,” only he heard. Thrown out of his overcoat - thrown out of life. He was shown to his place. Born a titular councilor, live as one. And he swung at his overcoat, which was quite a general’s overcoat. “And Petersburg was left without Akaki Akakievich, as if he had never been there.” At the end of the story, Bashmachkin will return as a ghost and take revenge significant persons, tearing off their greatcoats from their shoulders. He will calm down only after tearing off the overcoat from the boss who yelled at him: “apparently, the general’s overcoat was completely beyond his capabilities.”
The main work of the writer’s life will be “ Dead Souls" On June 28, 1836 he writes to V.A. Zhukovsky: “I swear, I will do something that an ordinary person does not do... This is a great turning point, great era of my life... If I complete this creation the way it needs to be accomplished, then... what a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it! This will be my first decent thing that will carry my name.” On May 21, 1842, “Dead Souls” was published.
The plot of the poem is three-layered: a biography of Chichikov, “landowner” chapters and a description of city officials.
The composition of the poem is interesting. The first chapter is an exposition. In it we get to know the cityNN, where Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov will buy dead souls. Here, in this city, useful contacts are made, a plot begins, and the actual movement of the plot will begin with the next chapter. From the second to the sixth chapter, Chichikov’s trips to the landowners are described. Then the action develops more and more rapidly. And at the most seemingly inopportune moment, when after the word “millionaire”, which was so intoxicating for Pavel Ivanovich, the terrible word “swindler” was uttered next to his name, and the company hid, trying to figure out what would happen next, what would suddenly be told “ The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. But maybe Chichikov is that same captain? But the captain is “without an arm and a leg, and Chichikov ...”) In the last, eleventh chapter of the first volume, Gogol will tell the biography of the hero.
In the poem, the writer is faithful to his creative style. Getting to know the cityNNwill begin with a description of the main street. Meet the characters from a portrait. The most important role in revealing characters is played by speech and gastronomic characteristics. But more on that later.
Of the five visits, Chichikov planned two (to Manilov and Sobakevich). Later I learned about Plyushkin from Sobakevich and decided to go to him. I came to Korobochka by accident. Nozdryov dragged him to him almost by force. Then it was Korobochka (for fear of selling himself short) and Nozdryov (from his own) who would blurt out about dead souls. Great love spoil your neighbor). Vladimir Nabokov, by the way, reproaches Chichikov, and not them: “It was stupid to demand dead souls from an old woman who was afraid of ghosts, it was unforgivable recklessness to offer such a dubious deal to the braggart and boor Nozdryov.”
Gogol in the “landowner” chapters uses a downright cinematic technique: he goes from close-up to detail. This image of the “material” world, the objective environment of the heroes is one of characteristic features writer's style. Things that surround a person help to better understand his character, his world. Therefore, probably, all the things surrounding Sobakevich seemed to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” or “And I also look very much like Sobakevich!” Gastronomic characteristics are also of great importance. Vladimir Nabokov believes that Sobakevich’s attitude to food “is colored by some kind of primitive poetry, and if a certain gastronomic rhythm can be found in his dinner, then the measure was set by Homer.” In the blink of an eye, he gnaws and gnaws half of a lamb side to the last bone, a huge piece of nanny (“mutton stomach stuffed with buckwheat porridge, brain and legs”) disappears in a matter of minutes, and then comes such a “trifle” as “a turkey as tall as a calf stuffed with all sorts of good things: eggs, rice, livers”; cheesecakes, “each of which was larger than a plate.” If Sobakevich serves mainly meat, then Korobochka serves more and more flour. “On the table there were already mushrooms, pies, skorodumki, shanishkas, spindles, pancakes, flatbreads with all sorts of toppings: topping with poppy seeds, topping with cottage cheese...” At Manilov’s they serve cabbage soup, and we also see Themistoclus gnawing a lamb bone. But for Nozdryov, “dinner, apparently, was not the main thing in life; ...some of it burned, some of it wasn’t cooked at all.” Aqua regia has been added to Madeira; rowan ash gives off “fusel in all its strength.” And from a special bottle (“burgagnon and champagne together”) Nozdryov for some reason “added it a little.” At Plyushkin’s, Chichikov will be offered a cracker from the Easter cake and a liqueur from “a decanter that was covered in dust, like a sweatshirt.”
returning to speech characteristics heroes, let us pay attention to how Manilov’s emptiness is revealed in his florid phrases. Korobochka's club-headed nature does not allow her to immediately understand the essence of the deal. “Do you really want to dig them out of the ground?” In Nozdryov’s speech the words scoundrel, scoundrel, and fetish are constantly heard. Two minutes later he already says “you” to Chichikov. Sobakevich is cool at first, but, an experienced swindler himself (he wrote in Chichikov’s woman!), he changes dramatically as soon as the conversation concerns the deal. He even becomes graceful, eloquent, “apparently, he was carried away; There were such streams of speeches that you just had to listen.” As for Plyushkin, well, what is worth just the phrase: “The people are painfully gluttonous, from idleness they have acquired the habit of cracking ...” In conversations with landowners, Chichikov also reveals himself. He simply disappears into his interlocutor. Either he just melts away like Manilov, or he desperately bargains with Sobakevich. He does not stand on ceremony with Korobochka - driven almost to despair by her stupidity, he slammed a chair on the floor and promised her the devil for the night. He is artistic, an excellent psychologist, smart, charming. It would be, as they say, atomic energy for peaceful purposes! But no. Gogol himself calls him “scoundrel -acquirer."
We can talk endlessly about Gogol’s ways of depicting characters and reality. This is truly our most unusual writer!
Concluding my rather superficial study, I will again turn to the thoughts of V. Nabokov: “It is difficult to say what fascinates me most in this famous explosion of eloquence that concludes the first part - whether the magic of his poetry or magic of a completely different kind, for Gogol faced a double task: to allow Chichikov to avoid fair punishment by fleeing and at the same time to divert the reader’s attention from a much more unpleasant conclusion - no punishment within the limits of human law can overtake the messenger of Satan, hurrying home to hell ... "
Literature used in the work:
V. Nabokov "Lectures on Russian literature." Translation from English. M., Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 1996
N.V. Gogol "Petersburg Tales". " Soviet Russia", M., 1978
N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". “Soviet Russia”, M., 1978
Origin of art.
The most ancient of works of art familiar to us date back to the late Paleolithic era (twenty thousand years ago BC). The desire to understand one’s place in the world around us is revered in the images that were brought to us by engraved and painted images on stone. These stones were located mainly in Burdel, El Parnallo, and Isturitz. Also widely known are the Paleolithic paintings and petroglyphs (images carved, scratched or carved on stone) of the caves of Lascaux, Altamira, Nio, rock art North Africa and the Sahara. Before the nobleman Marcelino de Southwalla discovered paintings in the Spanish cave of Altamira in 1879, there was an opinion among ethnographers and archaeologists that primitive man was completely devoid of spirituality and was only engaged in searching for food. Some scientists to this day take a rather simplified approach to assessing the images of the primitive artistic creativity. However, already at the beginning of the century, in England, the researcher of primitive art Henri Breuil began talking about a true “Stone Age civilization.” He was able to trace the evolution of primitive art from the simplest spirals and handprints on clay through engraved images of animals on bones, stone and horn to multi-colored paintings in caves across vast areas of Europe and Asia. Henri Breuil is an adherent of the magical theory, according to which all frescoes, figurines and engravings should be perceived as objects of worship, directly combining them with the need to lure animals to hunting grounds.
About 4 thousand years ago, another turning point occurred in the evolutionary development of man - the discovery of metals by people and the beginning of their processing. Copper became the first metal used by humans to make tools because it was easier to mine. Later, man began to mine and extract other metals from ore, including tin and lead. By fusing copper with tin, man created the first metal that does not exist in nature - bronze. Celtic cultures, who dominated Europe before the Roman conquest, widely used bronze and other metals, creating their own decorative traditions with their help.
The emergence of art is directly related to the development of society and human living conditions. Society developed, culture developed, more and more new types of art emerged, inextricably linked with the way of life of a person.
Ways to reflect reality in art.
Art itself is a way of reflecting reality. There are two main ways of reflecting reality in art - realistic and conventional. In art, these ways of representing reality are always present. They can exist either in parallel, or one of them will be considered the leader. Realistic art is not just an ordinary copy of reality. Artistic images of the realistic method present life as if in a concentrated form, focusing significant characters, events, feelings, ideas, and problems for a given cultural era. Conventional art provides more opportunities to expand and interpret the content of artistic images. Such art can be symbolic.
IN European culture The art of the Middle Ages was largely conventional, symbolic: pictorial and sculptural images, far from plausible, served religious ideas, the triumph of the spirit over the physical. This is why the sculptures of Gothic cathedrals are so conventional, the figures are usually hidden behind the folds of clothing.
Realistic art reads well in rock art primitive man, it seems to convey the reality of the modern world in which man exists. Reveals his present, without embellishing, and without overthinking.
Art masters and expresses reality in an artistic and figurative form, this is what allows it to be distinguished from all other types human activity. An artistic image is not just an external resemblance to reality, but a manifestation of a creative attitude towards reality, a way to add certain colors to real life.
Depending from fullness The display method of the image is distinguished:
show full And partial.
depending on the image method: general(generalized image methods) and variable
by the nature of the actions: show gesture and show image reception.
Group And individual the demonstration can take place in the form of a joint action between a teacher and a group of children or a teacher and a child.
Distinguish teacher demonstration And showing how a child portrays (actions).
In all cases, the demonstration is accompanied by verbal explanations.
Method of application
Demonstration of technical techniques can be included in the structure as information-receptive, so reproductive method. To the structure heuristic method - if you organize a search activity and children can demonstrate the image options they have found, since all children are placed in a search situation, and the display is, as it were, a public demonstration of one of the image options.
Demonstration of technical techniques in the first lesson - when an object of a given form is depicted for the first time - the demonstration is carried out by the teacher, after an appropriate examination. An indispensable condition is to explain the relationship between the image method and the movement of the hand along the contour during the examination.
In subsequent lessons, where objects of the same shape are depicted, children are involved in demonstrating the method of depiction.
In younger groups the display takes up more space, and in older groups it takes up less space.
The gesture explains the location of the object on the sheet. The movement of a hand or a pencil stick on a sheet of paper is often enough for children even 3-4 years old to understand the tasks of the image. A gesture can restore in the child’s memory the basic shape of an object, if it is simple, or its individual parts.
It is effective to repeat the movement with which the teacher accompanied his explanation during perception. Such repetition facilitates the reproduction of connections formed in consciousness. A gesture that reproduces the shape of an object helps memory and allows you to show the movement of the hand of the drawer during the image. The smaller the child, the higher value in his training has a display of hand movements. The preschooler does not yet fully control his movements and therefore does not know what movement will be required to depict this or that form.
For example, when observing children during the construction of a house, the teacher gestures to show the contours of the buildings under construction, emphasizing their upward direction. He repeats the same movement at the beginning of the lesson, in which the children draw a high-rise building. There is also a well-known technique when a teacher in a younger group makes an image together with the child, leading his hand. This technique should be used when the child’s movements are not developed and he does not know how to control them. We must give the opportunity to feel this movement.
With a gesture you can outline the entire object if its shape is simple (a ball, a book, an apple), or the details of the shape (the arrangement of branches in a spruce tree, the bend of the neck in birds). The teacher demonstrates smaller details in drawing or modeling.
Character of the show depends on the tasks that the teacher sets in this lesson.
Showing an image of the entire object is given if the task is to teach how to correctly depict the basic shape of the object. Typically this technique is used in the younger group. For example To teach children to draw round shapes, the teacher draws a ball or an apple, explaining his actions.
If, when depicting an object, it is necessary to accurately convey the sequence of drawing a particular detail, then a holistic display of the entire object can also be given. With such a display, it is desirable that the teacher involve the children in analyzing the subject with the question: “What should we draw now?”
In teaching children of older groups, partial display is more often used - the image of a detail or an individual element that preschoolers do not yet know how to depict. For example, children 4-5 years old draw a tree trunk in the form of a triangle with a wide base. This mistake is sometimes caused by the teacher’s explanation: “The tree trunk is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom,” and the children literally follow this instruction. The teacher, along with verbal instructions, needs to show a picture of a tree trunk.
In the older group, when drawing on the theme “Beautiful House,” the teacher shows on the board how different the shapes of windows and doors can be. Such a variable display does not limit the child’s ability to create the entire drawing.
During repeated exercises to consolidate skills and then use them independently, demonstrations are given only on an individual basis to children who have not mastered a particular skill.
Passion for constant display methods of completing a task will teach children to wait for instructions and help from the teacher in all cases, which leads to passivity and inhibition of thought processes.
14. List verbal methods and techniques used in the process of teaching preschoolers visual arts. Reveal the conditions for the effective use of verbal methods and techniques in visual arts classes. Justify the need for use artistic word in the process of teaching preschoolers visual arts.
Solve a pedagogical problem:
Having finished sticking the truck for Mishutka, Yulia shows the work to the teacher: “Did I stick it well?” - "Let's watch! - Lidia Fedorovna responds. “There is a cabin, the body also holds tightly, but as soon as the car starts moving, the wheels will immediately fall off!” The teacher shows the girl the loosely glued wheels. Yulia takes work and goes to glue the wheels. Having finished the job, she meets the teacher’s approving glance and, pleased, shows the work to Mishutka, who “agrees” to take a ride in this car.
Interpret the proposed situation. Design your activities as a teacher in a similar situation.
Verbal methods and techniques: conversation, teacher's story, pedagogical assessment and analysis of children's work
questions, encouragement, advice, directions, artistic expression.
Conversation – one of the leading verbal methods of teaching visual arts . A conversation in art classes is a conversation organized by the teacher, during which the teacher, using questions, clarifications, clarifications, contributes to the formation in children of ideas about the depicted object or phenomenon and ways of recreating it in drawing, modeling, and appliqué. The specifics of the conversation method provide for maximum stimulation of the child's activity. That is why conversation has found widespread use as a method of developmental teaching in visual arts.
The conversation is used in the first part of the lesson - when the task is to form a visual representation, and at the end of the lesson - when it is important to help children see their work, feel their expressiveness and strengths, and understand their weaknesses.
The conversation technique depends on the content, type of lesson, and specific didactic tasks.
IN subject drawing when children are taught to convey a plot, during the conversation it is necessary to help the children introduce image content, composition, features of motion transmission, color characteristics of the image, i.e. think over visual means to convey the plot. The teacher clarifies with the children some technical techniques of work and the sequence of creating an image.
Depending on the content of the image (based on a literary work, on topics from the surrounding reality, on a free topic), the conversation methodology has its own specifics. So, when drawing (sculpting) on the theme of a literary work it is important to remember its main thought, idea; emotionally revive the image(read lines from a poem, fairy tale). Describe the external appearance of the characters, recall their relationships, clarify the composition, techniques and sequence of work.
Drawing (sculpting) on topics of the surrounding reality needs revitalization life situation, reproducing the content of events, settings, clarifying means of expression: composition, details, methods of conveying movement, etc., clarifying the techniques and sequence of the image.
When drawing (sculpting) on a free topic necessary preliminary work with children. In conversation, the teacher revives impressions. Then he invites some children to explain the idea: what they will draw (blind), how they will draw, so that it is clear to others where they will place this or that part of the image. The teacher clarifies some technical techniques of work. Using the example of children's stories, the teacher once again teaches preschoolers how to conceive an image.
In classes where the content of the image is a separate subject, conversation often accompanies the process examination (examination). In this case, during the conversation, it is necessary to evoke an active, meaningful perception of the object by children, to help them understand the features of its shape, structure, determine the uniqueness of color, proportional relationships, etc. The nature and content of the teacher’s questions should aim the children to establish dependencies between the external appearance of the object and its functional purpose or features of living conditions (nutrition, movement, protection). Completing these tasks is not an end in itself, but a means of forming generalized ideas necessary for the development of independence, activity, and initiative of children when creating an image. The richer the children’s experience, the higher the degree of mental and speech activity of preschoolers in conversations of this kind.
In design and appliqué classes, where the subject of examination and conversation is often sample, also provide for a greater degree of mental, speech, emotional and, if possible, motor activity of children.
At the end of the lesson in the process of viewing and analyzing children's works we need to help children feel the expressiveness of the images they created. Learning the ability to see and feel the expressiveness of drawings and sculpting is one of the important tasks facing the teacher. At the same time, the nature of the adult’s questions and comments should ensure a certain emotional response from the children.
In older groups, during the conversation, the teacher leads children to independently establish the dependence of the expressiveness of the image on the methods of action.
Age characteristics influence the content of the conversation and the degree of activity of children. Depending on specific didactic tasks nature of the issues is changing. In some cases, questions are aimed at describing the external signs of a perceived object, in others - at recall and reproduction, at inference. With the help of questions, the teacher clarifies children’s ideas about an object, phenomenon, and ways of depicting it. Questions are used in general conversation and individual work with children during the lesson. The requirements for questions are of a general pedagogical nature: accessibility, clarity and clarity of formulation, brevity, emotionality.
Explanation- a verbal way of influencing the consciousness of children, helping them understand and assimilate what and how they should do during classes and what they should get as a result. The explanation is given in a simple, accessible form simultaneously to the entire group of children or to individual children. Explanation is often combined with observation, showing ways and techniques of performing work.
Advice used in cases where the child finds it difficult to create an image, but do not rush to give advice. Children who work at a slow pace and are able to find a solution to a given issue often do not need advice. In these cases, the advice does not contribute to the growth of independence and activity of children.
Painters and sculptors, designers and architects - all these people bring beauty and harmony into our lives every day. Thanks to them, we look at statues in museums, admire paintings, and marvel at the beauty of ancient buildings. Contemporary fine art amazes us, classical art makes us think. But in any case, human creations surround us everywhere. Therefore, it is useful to understand this issue.
Types of fine arts
Fine art is spatial. That is, it has an objective form that does not change over time. And it is precisely by how this form looks that types of fine art are distinguished.
They can be divided into several categories. For example, by the time of appearance. Until the 19th century, only three types were considered the main ones: sculpture, painting and architecture. But the history of fine arts developed, and soon graphics joined them. Later, others emerged: arts and crafts, theatrical decoration, design and others.
Today there is no consensus on which types of fine art should be distinguished. But there are several basic ones, the existence of which does not cause any controversy.
Painting
Drawing is a type of fine art in which images are conveyed using paints. They are applied to a hard surface: canvas, glass, paper, stone and much more.
Different paints are used for painting. They can be oil and watercolor, silicate and ceramic. At the same time, there is wax painting, enamel painting and others. It depends on what substances are applied to the surface and how they are fixed there.
There are two directions in painting: easel and monumental. The first unites all those works that were created on various canvases. Its name comes from the word “machine”, which means easel. But monumental painting is a fine art that is reproduced on various architectural structures. These are all kinds of temples, castles, churches.
Architecture
Construction is a monumental art form whose purpose is to construct buildings. This is practically the only category that has not only aesthetic value, but also performs practical functions. After all, architecture involves the construction of buildings and structures for the life and activities of people.
It does not reproduce reality, but expresses the desires and needs of humanity. Therefore, the history of fine art is best traced through it. At different times, the way of life and ideas about beauty were very different. It is for this reason that architecture makes it possible to trace the flight of human thought.
This view is also different high degree depending on the environment. For example, the shape of architectural structures is influenced by climatic and geographical conditions, the nature of the landscape, and much more.
Sculpture
This is an ancient fine art, samples of which have a three-dimensional appearance. They are made by casting, chiselling, hewing.
Mostly stone, bronze, wood or marble are used to make sculptures. But recently, concrete, plastic and other artificial materials have become equally popular.
The sculpture has two main varieties. It can be circular or embossed. In this case, the second type is divided into high, low and mortise.
As in painting, there are monumental and easel directions in sculpture. But decorative items are also distinguished separately. Monumental sculptures in the form of monuments decorate the streets and mark important places. Easel ones are used to decorate rooms from the inside. And decorative ones decorate everyday life like small plastic objects.
Graphic arts
This is a decorative fine art that consists of drawings and artistic printed images. Graphics differ from painting in the materials, techniques and forms used. To create engravings or lithographs, special machines and equipment are used to print images. And the drawings are made with ink, pencil and other similar materials that make it possible to reproduce the shapes of objects and their illumination.
Graphics can be easel, book and applied. The first is created thanks to special devices. These are engravings, drawings, sketches. The second decorates the pages of books or their covers. And the third is all kinds of labels, packaging, brands.
The first works of graphics are considered cave drawings. But her highest achievement is vase painting in Ancient Greece.
Arts and crafts
This is a special type of creative activity, which consists of creating various household items. They satisfy our aesthetic needs and often have utilitarian functions. Moreover, they were previously made precisely for practical reasons.
Not every fine art exhibition can boast of the presence of decorative and applied items, but every home has them. These include jewelry and ceramics, painted glass, embroidered items and much more.
Fine and applied arts most of all reflect the national character. The fact is that its important component is folk arts and crafts. And they, in turn, are based on the customs, traditions, beliefs and way of life of the people.
From theatrical and decorative art to design
Throughout history, more and more new types of fine art appear. With the formation of the first temple of Melpomene, theatrical and decorative art arose, which consists of making props, costumes, scenery and even makeup.
And design, as one of the types of art, although it appeared in ancient times, was only recently singled out into a separate category with its own laws, techniques and features.
Genres of fine art
Each work that comes from the master’s pen, hammer or pencil is dedicated to a specific topic. After all, when creating it, the creator wanted to convey his thoughts, feelings, or even the plot. It is by these characteristics that genres of fine art are distinguished.
For the first time about any systematization of a huge amount cultural heritage thought in the Netherlands in the 16th century. At this time, only two categories were distinguished: high and low genres. The first included everything that contributed to the spiritual enrichment of a person. These were works dedicated to myths, religion, and historical events. And for the second - things related to everyday life. These are people, objects, nature.
Genres are forms of displaying life in the visual arts. And they change with it, develop and evolve. Entire eras of fine art pass while some genres acquire new meaning, others die out, and others emerge. But there are several main ones that have passed through the centuries and still exist successfully.
History and mythology
The high genres of the Renaissance included historical and mythological. It was believed that they were intended not for the common man in the street, but for a person with high level culture.
The historical genre is one of the main ones in the fine arts. It is dedicated to recreating those events of the past and present that are of great importance for a people, country or individual settlement. Its foundations were laid back in Ancient Egypt. But it was fully formed already in Italy, during the Renaissance, in the works of Uccello.
The mythological genre includes those works of fine art that reflect legendary subjects. Already in ancient art its first examples appeared when epics became ordinary instructive stories. But the most famous are the works of the Renaissance. For example, frescoes by Raphael or paintings by Botticelli.
The subjects of works of art of the religious genre are various episodes from the Gospel, the Bible and other similar books. In painting, his famous masters were Raphael and Michelangelo. But the genre was also reflected in engravings, sculpture and even architecture, given the construction of temples and churches.
War and life
The depiction of war in art began in antiquity. But this topic was actively developed in the 16th century. All kinds of campaigns, battles and victories found expression in sculptures, paintings, engravings and tapestries of the time. Name works of art on this topic battle genre. The word itself has French roots and is translated as “war.” Artists who paint such paintings are called battle painters.
In contrast, there is an everyday genre in the fine arts. It represents works that reflect everyday life. It is difficult to trace the history of this trend, because as soon as a person learned to use tools, he began to capture his harsh everyday life. Everyday genre in the visual arts allows you to get acquainted with the events that took place thousands of years ago.
People and nature
Portrait is the image of a person in art. This is one of the most ancient genres. Interestingly, it originally had cult significance. Portraits were identified with the soul of a deceased person. But the culture of fine art has developed, and today this genre allows us to see images of people of past eras. Which gives an idea of the clothing, fashion and tastes of that time.
Landscape is a genre of fine art in which nature is the main subject. It originated in Holland. But on my own landscape painting very diverse. Can depict both real and fantastic nature. Depending on the type of image, rural and urban landscapes are distinguished. The latter includes such subspecies as industrial and veduta. In addition, they talk about the existence of panoramic and chamber landscapes.
The animalistic genre is also distinguished. These are works of art depicting animals.
Marine theme
Seascapes represent primarily the early Dutch painting. The fine art of this country gave rise to the marina genre itself. It is characterized by reflections of the sea in all forms. Marine artists paint seething elements and serene water surfaces, noisy battles and lonely sailboats. The first painting of this genre dates back to the sixteenth century. On it Cornelis Antonis depicted the Portuguese fleet.
Although the marina is more of a genre of painting, you can find water motifs not only in paintings. For example, decorative arts often use elements seascapes. These can be tapestries, jewelry, engravings.
Items
Still life is mainly also a genre of painting. Its name is translated from French as “dead nature.” In fact, the heroes of still lifes are various inanimate objects. Usually these are everyday items, as well as vegetables, fruits and flowers.
The main characteristic of a still life can be considered its apparent plotlessness. Nevertheless, this is a philosophical genre that at all times has reflected the connections between man and the outside world.
Prototypes of still lifes can be found in monumental painting Pompeii. Later this genre became part of other paintings. For example, religious paintings. But the name behind it was established only in the 16th century.
Fine art is a way of understanding reality and man’s place in it. It allows you to recreate reality using various visual images. Works of this art find a place not only in museums or exhibitions, but also on city streets, in homes and libraries, books and even envelopes. They are all around us. And the least we can do is learn to appreciate, understand and preserve the amazing heritage that we inherited from the great masters of past eras.
Modern photography has the richest possibilities for reflecting and understanding the reality around us. But at first, photography was tended to be considered only a technical way of recording life material, which is covered by the angle of view of the camera lens or, as they now say, “enters the frame” and is reproduced on a photosensitive layer.
This assessment of photography was based on the fact that a photographic image is created using a mechanical instrument - a camera, drawn by an optical system - a lens, and subsequently undergoes chemical processing using a developer, fixer and other solutions.
Thus, in determining the possibilities of photography, the decisive moment was considered technical means obtaining a photographic image.
But technical means exist not only in the field of technology. They also exist in art in a specific form: a painter, for example, creates an image on canvas with a brush, using paints that are diluted with oil. But what does this mean? And what does this in itself determine? Using the same tools, a craftsman will write a sign, and an artist will create a work of art.
Using photographic technology, a craftsman photographer uses it to copy reality. Often he records random moments, as a rule, receives dry, expressionless photographs and, trusting everything to the technology, really replaces creative process– technical.
A photographer-artist does not copy life, but creates artistic pictures of reality. His work begins with the search for a theme, a vivid plot that reveals typical phenomena of our time. Since an artist can achieve completeness of his work only in the unity of its ideological and thematic content and visual form, the photographer looks for a compositional and lighting solution for the frame, enhancing the artistic expressiveness of the photograph. And only after this big creative work, photographic technology comes into play: exposure calculations are made, focusing is achieved, the lens aperture division is set, etc. This technique is not a defining moment: two photographers, working on the same topic, being in the same conditions, even if they are armed with the same equipment, can get pictures of completely different quality. Everything will depend on the creative individuality of each of these photographers and, to a lesser extent, on what technical means were used, and more on how these means were used.
This view of photography opened up wide avenues for its comprehensive development and improvement.
Soviet photography is the heir to the best that was in Russian and foreign photography from the end of the past and the beginning this century. Russian photography developed independently, and we can safely say that Russian photographers were among the first to take the path of realism, discover photography as a new unique type of fine art and show its artistic and visual capabilities.
The famous Russian photographer S. L. Levitsky (1819-1898) more than once received medals at Russian and international photographic exhibitions for the artistic merit of his portrait and landscape photographs. The group portrait of Goncharov, Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy, Grigorovich, Ostrovsky and portraits of other outstanding figures of Russian literature and art by S.L. Levitsky are widely known.
Outstanding masters photographs A. O. Karelin (1837-1906), M. P. Dmitriev (1853-1938), S. A. Lobovikov (1870-1941) and many others highly raised the art of Russian photography, revealed its capabilities, found and developed it visual media.
S. L. Levitsky conducts his experiments on the use of electric lighting for shooting portraits and achieves interesting light patterns and great softness of chiaroscuro. He is also studying the possibilities of using electric and solar light simultaneously, in their various combinations.
A. O. Karelin is looking for expressive lighting effects and introduces real light sources in the form of windows, direct sunlight, etc. into the composition of his group portraits. Chiaroscuro becomes an active element of his photographs, and he subordinates the distribution of chiaroscuro in the frame to reproducible real effects. Karelin also works to improve photographic optics and uses attached lenses and other optical devices for artistic purposes. A subtle artist, A. O. Karelin achieves exceptionally interesting compositional structures in his photographs and, in particular, develops new principles for that time for deep, multifaceted compositions in photography.
M. P. Dmitriev, who is rightfully considered the founder of journalistic photo reporting in Russia, reveals the power of the documentary nature of the photographic image. S. A. Lobovikov’s insightful and highly artistic genre photographs are full of great social truth and full of sympathy for the plight of ordinary people in Tsarist Russia.
Associated with the progressive public, with the work of the Peredvizhniki artists, Russian artistic photographers not only provided a gallery of portraits of famous writers, artists and painters, but also managed to depict the life of the Russian people in a number of interesting photographs. Best works masters of Russian photography, for example, “Alms” by A. O. Karelin (photo 1), “Housekeeper” by S. A. Lobovikov (photo 2) and many others, were included in the artistic fund of Russian and Soviet photography.
Photo 1. A. Karelin. Alms
Photo 2. S. Lobovikov. Housekeeper
Already in those days, it became obvious that photography can be an art, and with its help, genuine works of art can be created. “Photography is constantly making more and more progress,” wrote the magazine “Art News” in 1884. “This essentially technical method of reproducing and transmitting images has now been elevated to the level of a special branch of art. Some of the modern photographic images are not devoid of true aesthetic beauty, preserve the harmony of tones and are generally distinguished by great, purely artistic merits."
Later, K. A. Timiryazev, who widely used photography in his scientific work, loved it and knew its power and capabilities very well, in one of his public lectures given on April 18, 1897, puts forward a brilliant argument in defense of photography as a realistic art. “Just as in a picture behind the technical artist one can see the artist in the narrow sense, the artist-creator, so behind the impersonal technique of the photographer a person should appear; in it one should see not only nature, but also the person admiring it. Photography, freeing him from technology, from everything that is given to an artist by school, years of hard work, does not free him from this, for the most part, human element art.
Of course, if the photographer clicks left and right with his Kodak, shooting casually" interesting places", then the result will be only a tediously motley inventory of living and inanimate objects... Is this how a true artist approaches his task?
Having taken the path of art, photography has developed its own specific pictorial forms, its own methods of working on the theme and plot, and now a full-fledged photograph shows the typical phenomena and events of the life around us in a generalized, truthful, expressive, artistic and impressive way. This perfect shot meets all the requirements for artistic painting, to art.
The classic heritage of the art of photography provides excellent examples of authentic artistic use photography possibilities. But the figures of Soviet photography are not limited to studying the perfect works of photography itself, its best examples, mastering the creativity of Russian and Soviet photographers and progressive figures in photography from foreign countries; they carefully become acquainted with the features and patterns of other fine arts, and primarily painting.
Composition, lighting effects and color in works of art provide rich material for photographers. It's about here is not about copying, imitation or simple reproduction of compositions by the best master painters, but about continuity, understanding of Russian pictorial culture, perception and creative development the best traditions of domestic and foreign art. Of course, the laws of painting cannot be mechanically transferred to photography and “picturesqueness” must be considered in a completely new way for photographic compositions.
The fine culture of painting, its rich experience in the coloristic solution of colorful canvases help the development and improvement of black-and-white and color photography.
Socialist realism, which marks the highest stage in the development of Soviet art, is creative method every artist, including a photographer, when he creates an artistic photograph using photography.
Socialist realism means a truthful, historically specific depiction of reality in its revolutionary development with the goal of communist education of the masses. This is a synthesis of all the best, advanced, progressive that has been accumulated in the process of development of realistic art.
Socialist realism developed in a decisive struggle against formalism, naturalism and other reactionary movements in art.
Formalism separates art from public life and shape work of art from its content, considering form to be the only important element in art. Having crossed out the main reason for which a work of art exists—the content—the formalists introduced into photography unjustified angles, arbitrary light constructions, contrived compositional techniques, trickery. And the more unusual the photograph looked, the more “artistic” it seemed to the formalists. In fact, such photographic photographs led to a direct distortion of reality; they were often rebuses, riddles, did not enrich the viewer in any way, did not develop his ideas about life, his artistic taste.
In portrait photography, formalists abandoned the need to obtain similarity between the image and the original and here resorted to the use of unusual angles that distort the plastic shape of the face, to contrived lighting effects that amaze the viewer with their paradoxical nature, to compositional structures based on showing only part of a person’s face in the frame, etc. Thus, the beautiful in art was gradually replaced by the ugly and ugly.
Examples of such formalistic images include photo 3, where all common sense is lost; photo 4, where an extremely abstruse visual form was found for developing the theme “Rainy Day”, the entire characteristic of which is reduced to showing the strange shape of water drops, which the viewer does not immediately recognize.
Photo 3. Example of formalistic photography
Photo 4. Example of formalistic photography
And it is no coincidence that ultimately the formalists arrived at complete abstractions in which photographic image real objects were replaced by incomprehensible combinations of tonal spots and lines (photo 5).
Photo 5. Example of formalistic photography
The above photographs clearly show that the rejection of content and passion for the so-called “pure form”, the breaking of the dialectical connection between form and content in a work of art inevitably lead formalists to the destruction of the form itself.
One of the main provisions of Marxist-Leninist aesthetics, its doctrine of form and content in a work of art becomes completely clear: a contentless form does not exist, an artistic form can only exist as a carrier of a certain content, a certain idea; in other words, there is content necessary condition existence itself artistic form in a work of art.
Another false direction in the art of photography was naturalism.
Most often, the defining feature of naturalism is considered to be the abundance and depiction of details, that is, the transfer of the smallest details of the depicted object and purely protocol copying of reality without any selection of material, without dividing the elements of the image into main and secondary ones. However, these are only external manifestations of naturalism, its essence lies in the desire to place the small, particular, insignificant at the center of attention of art, which leads to attempts to impose on this small and insignificant significance unusual for it.
Naturalism believes that art should neither promote nor condemn the phenomena of reality, nor select or interpret them in its works, but is called upon only to state, that is, to blindly record what comes into the artist’s field of vision. Naturalism, therefore, is characterized by a passive attitude towards reality, ignoring the typical phenomena of life.
Naturalism, like formalism, is alien and hostile to Soviet photographic art, since it belittles reality, gives only a one-sided idea of it, and thus often leads to its distortion.
Formalism and naturalism are opposed ideological content art, but formalism wages this struggle openly, and naturalism often tries to act under the guise of realism, disguised by the fact that it allegedly strives to achieve “complete similarity” of the object depicted on the canvas or photograph with the real object. However, exact copying and blind adherence to nature are not a prerequisite for creating a work of art, since with such an approach to the tasks of art it becomes wingless, loses the power of generalization, and moves away from comprehending reality.
What is the difference between naturalism and realism, which also does not deny the need to detail the image, to individualize the image?
In a work of realistic art, detail is used only to concretize, develop and clarify the general. It is assumed, therefore, that in order to fully and comprehensively express an idea, the artist resorts to a detailed display of what is happening, specific people, specific settings for the sole purpose of expressively depicting them through the means of art.
The founders of Marxism teach that only an understanding of the social meaning of events can help the artist depict reality in its most significant, important manifestations, but they resolutely fought against such individualization of the image, “... which comes down to petty cleverness and is an essential feature of the exhausted literature of the epigones.”
Naturalistic tendencies are alien to the realistic direction of Soviet photography. Its main principle is to show the main, leading, typical features of reality.
However, naturalism in photography sometimes manifests itself not as a conscious creative attitude, but as a consequence of poor skill: ignorance of the basics of constructing a photographic picture, the principles of material selection, frame composition, and the primitive use of lighting.
The inability to select the essential features of reality, to find a bright and expressive episode that reveals the essence of what is happening, to correctly place accents, to clearly construct a photograph, to expressively illuminate the subject, to use linear and tonal perspective to reveal the topic often leads to the fact that the photographer only mechanically copies reality and captures In a photograph, everything that falls within the field of view of the lens.
An ill-conceived shooting point, inexpressive lighting conditions, and arbitrary cropping of the frame make such a photo largely accidental, and therefore unconvincing.
This is confirmed by photos 6 and 7. Both of them are devoted to the same topic and have a common name “Stream”, but in the first of them the topic is solved graphically poorly, and in the second the visual means and expressive possibilities of photography are used correctly.
Photo 6. Stream (an example of naturalistic photography)
Photo 7. N. Danshin (VGIK). Creek
In the first case, the author did not select material for his future composition, but with indifference recorded everything that came into the field of view of the lens: the main thing is not highlighted here, secondary material loads the frame, and the picture reproduces the necessary and the accidental with equal naturalism. The frame is cluttered with many unnecessary details, diffused light evenly illuminates the entire subject. As a result, the photo turned out to be motley and at the same time dull and uninteresting. From this it is clear that mechanical copying of reality, naturalistic fixation of the subject of photography are far from true art.
The second photograph demonstrates the author’s creative attitude to solving a given topic. A correctly chosen shooting point and a high horizon in the frame allow you to see the winding bed of a stream, the line of which is successfully inscribed in the frame of the frame. The size of the plan is also correctly determined. The lighting conditions were well chosen: backlight expressively reflects the texture water surface, the sun is covered by a translucent layer of clouds, and therefore the glare on the water is soft, harmoniously combined with the overall somewhat muted tonality of the photo. When composing the frame, the author combined its semantic and visual centers: the main thing – the stream – occupies the central part of the picture, and this also includes the light accent.
Thanks to this construction of the frame, the viewer’s attention is immediately drawn to the main object of the image, and the secondary elements of the landscape, although they participate in general decision topics, but occupy the appropriate place for them.
Thus, its expressiveness, intelligibility, and degree of persuasiveness depend on the pictorial solution of the photograph.
