Ideas and Ideals

The questions for determination of cultural and creative ideas of the symbolical art focused on transforming reality in philosophy of Vyach. Ivanov are considered in the article. The attention is drawn to his work "Two Elements in Modern Symbolism" in which the content of new art is explained opening creative opportunities of culture. Differentiating Realistic and Idealistic Symbolism as significant activity of the realist artist and converting – the idealist artist, the author comes to the idea about opportunity in Realism to show the myth creation installations focused on the divine unity opening the cathedral agreement of opinion and unanimity, establishing real connection of separate consciousness in live unity. In Vyach. Ivanov’s ideas about the nature of myth creation in symbolical art the problem for coordinating religious experience of life with cultural development of the world is stated, this problem is solved through the appeal to comprehensive synthesis of a teo-centrism and a culture-centrism.

The article describes the experience of novels interpretation. The novels are written by an American writer of the Russian origin, the founder of the philosophical trend of rational individualism (objectivism) Ayn Rand. A comparative analysis of the two lists of values that form the basis of Western civilization, one of which is the subject of her criticism (refuting). A new formulation of the question concerning the relationship between the values of charity and justice is suggested in the article as a response to A. Rand. The author substantiates that the notion of justice is derived from the notion of charity. The value of charity in Christian consciousness binds together humanity and freedom. The author highlights the idea, that the principle of «rational personal gain», proposed by A. Rand is the principle of cynical reason and it cannot be a sustainable basis for the modern society.

The article is a part of the investigation “Art Life of Novosibirsk of the XX Century”. The author considers the organizational forms of the professional and amateur painting, the evolution and interaction of easel painting and monumental kind of Art during a century. The given article is a continuation of a series of investigations published in “Ideas and Ideals”. The chronological frames of the article are the second half of the 1980s - the beginning of 1990s.

The paper considers a novel of antiquity-scientist A.N. Egunov who was writing under pseudonym Nicolev. Studying antiquity wasn’t considered to be antique. It led to the culture of the XX century and one’s own experience. In the 1920s it was insistently advised «to learn from classics». But the writer’s roles and social profile as well as his relations with his own gift were changing. A. Nikolev’s subtle and clever structures are involuntary perceived as «intensifying» editing. The novel is set in the specific topography. All the toponyms are acknowledged historically except for «the magical village Mirandino». «Ancient Tulsky district» represents the living tract, a museum «without walls». The names of Goethe and Tolstoy remind of definitive features which formed the world of culture. A slight touch on the meaning, writing-wandering, reading will become a storyline of the text. Physically «light hand» is a prevailing metaphor. The moments of revelation capture the turning points in a wonderful wandering. Essential is the suddenness of a crucial question. It concerns the semantics and function of the word «Faust» (fist). The character’s name is connected with the linguistic theory of nominations, with a long-standing argument about the nature of names. Semantics and grammar are opposed: the weaker sex is opposed to the stronger sex, «humane place» – to the chauvinistic culture. The main rhythm of emotions is repeated: violence, power, «weak» power. Egunov was a musically gifted person. In his translations from the ancient Greek language he kept the atmosphere of rhythmo-melodic inflexional features of the text. The novel is particularly in the need of contextualization. The context is constantly changing, and reminds of the Heraclitus river.

In this article the peculiarities of perception and interpretation of "The Diary of a Writer" by F. Dostoevsky are considered from historical and functional points of view in the following aspects: literary, cultural and political. The new paradigms of its study on representative examples of the latest research are identified. In the focus of modern interpretations intermedial and metadiscursive nature of Dostoevsky’s magazine, writer’s syncretism of creative thinking, the limited actuality and justification of many of his prophecies in the context of our time are substantiated. As a result, we can observe the full rehabilitation of “The Diary of a Writer” as one of the greatest works of Dostoevsky, which is remaining the standard of journalism and artistry.

The article substantiates the mechanisms of the relationship and interdependence of the institutes of private collecting and art market. The author analyses the peculiarities of mutual congruence and interaction of the art market and private collecting areas. Private collecting can also act as a form of consumption of cultural artifacts (material and symbolic), circulating within the art market as well as the method of their accumulation, saving, managing, promoting and communication. The author investigates the concept and principles of the existence of the modern art market and reveals multiple aspects of its essence as an economic and socio-cultural phenomenon, "the market of symbolic values", specific mechanism, through which the art reaches the consumer, and also controls the distribution of cultural artifacts in a society. The author analyzes the notion and essential features of private collecting as the social and cultural phenomenon and identifies the principles of private collection functioning. The system of interaction of the modern art market and the private collecting in the field of the art culture is highlighted in the article, within the framework of its values. At the same time both – the modern domestic art market and private collecting are involved in the strategy of the preservation of cultural heritage and cultural values, aimed at the global socio-cultural result of their introduction into the living space of modern society. The author argues that the institution of private collecting is one of the most significant factors in the development of the modern art market in the contexts of consumption, conservation, trade, systematization and interpretation of cultural artifacts, especially objects of art.

The article is devoted to one of the urgent problems of mass musical culture - the problem of parodying and mocking of authoritative cultural phenomena that has become one of the inherent properties of postmodern aesthetics. Genre of author's song, which has found unprecedented popularity since the mid-1950s as a focus of freethinking and lyrical outpouring, is regarded as an object of ridicule and irony in the era of the 2000s. A parody of "loud" and "quiet" bards became mandatory in the sitcoms of recent years, humiliating this layer of amateur song culture. The phenomenon of parodying of performers in the art song genre as one of the important components of mass music becomes for the first time the object of scientific understanding, bringing the issue to the field of cultural and artistic research. The author of the article analyzes the ways of debunking the bards’ pseudo-truthfulness and nostalgia, naive dilettantism and commonness. Parodies to bard songs are regarded as new forms of challenge to society, "laughter therapy" through sophisticated vulgarity and absurdist scenes. Musical and scenic component (whether it is expressive manner in the spirit of Vladimir Vysotsky, or quasi-fake, primitive sounding of "outdoorsy campfire" bards) involves methods of making comical and serves to create an atmosphere of fun.

The paper deals with the complex of challenges which the museum faces while conserving Digital Arts. The absence of unified strategies and norms of keeping digital art is actual both for the Russian and international museum practice. Basic approaches to its museumification (traditional museum conservation, migration, emulation and reinterpretation) are studied in the context of contemporary museological theory and on the basis of the analysis of their application towards certain digital artworks.

The article continues the earlier begun research in “Ideas and Ideals” (№-s 19, 21, 23). Now we examine the ethical aspect of the music function. ‘Music contributes to the moral perfection of people’- this well-known statement we meet in a great number of scientific and literary sources from Ancient Greece (music ethos, the “kalokagathia” doctrine – unity of Beauty and Kindness) till our days. The article's task is to argue our hypothesis about the moral aspect of music, describing the mechanisms of this impact. The main idea of the hypothesis is that it is the professionalism of a composer (as a talented person) that creates moral perfection of people and personal moral values of the composer have nothing to do with this process. The masterly organized music form triggers the mechanism of moral perfection. Just “well-made” music (not any accidental sounds' connection) evokes positive emotions, which have wholesome influence on listener's moral. The beauty of music forms has influence on auditorium; music harmony (in narrow and wide senses) contributes to the development of a harmonic person. The article contains some literary examples with the author’s music analysis, which prove the hypothesis (“Mozart and Salieri”, “War and Peace”). The highest form of this music transforming function is moral purgation (catharsis) as a result of emotional “explosion” during music listening. Music catharsis confirms “The Moral Law Within Me” (Kant).

The article offers the interdisciplinary culturological and art-critical approach allowing to reveal a number of the important semantic points in interpretation of a picture of the Altai artist A. Gnilitsky "Encounter". The painting became widely known due to its participation at exhibitions in Altai and Siberian exhibition in Omsk in 2013. Here the artist continues the tradition of Russian realistic portrait, and his manner of painting is close to the Russian Impressionism, going back to L. Turzhansky. The method applied here shows its prospects in the analysis of the works of contemporary artists, the painting reveals the figurative and psychological aspects of thematic portrait, makes it possible to describe and identify the specific features of the artistic manner of A. Gnilitsky.