(from French decadence or from Latin decadentia - decline)– direction in literature and art late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, characterized by resistance to public “philistine” morality, the cult of beauty as a self-sufficient value, which often goes along with the aestheticization of sin and vice, dual experiences of disgust for life and skillful enjoyment of it. Decadence is one of the central concepts in the criticism of culture by F. Nietzsche, who associated decadence with the increasing role of the intellect and the weakening of the original life instincts, the “will to power.” The period of decadence is imbued with hopelessness, disappointment, loss of vitality and aestheticism.
Traditional art criticism considers decadence as a general definition of crisis phenomena European culture 2nd half of the 19th century- the beginning of the 20th centuries, marked by moods of despondency, pessimism, morbidity, hopelessness, rejection of life, extreme subjectivism (with similar, close to tendentious, shocking formulas and cliches - stylistic devices, plastic, compositional structures, accentuations, etc.). This complex and contradictory phenomenon in creativity in general has its source in crisis. public consciousness, the confusion of many artists in the face of sharp social contrasts - loneliness, soullessness and antagonisms of reality. Decadent artists considered art’s refusal of political and civil themes to be a manifestation and an indispensable condition for creative freedom. Constant themes are the motives of non-existence and death, the denial of historically established spiritual ideals and values.
Decadence in painting is a rather contradictory phenomenon in itself; it has never been able to take shape in any specific direction. The art of decadence had nothing in common with the art of energy and youth. However, decadence, immorality, aestheticism, as well as longing for bygone days contributed to the creation of outstanding works. It was dissatisfaction with “banal progress”, the cult of profit of wild capitalism that led to the opening of new horizons in creativity. Here we can note the individualism of the artist Aubrey Beardsley, his ability for virtuosic stylizations, which made his graphic works masterpieces, and their artificial nature only emphasizes the isolation of the subjects from nature. Representatives of decadence were the following painters: Arnold Böcklin, Max Klinger, partially Mikhail Vrubel and Borisov-Musatov, as well as Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Moreau, Franz von Stuck, Edvard Munch, N.K. Kalmakov. Criticism regarding the paintings of the decadents is ambiguous. Visiting the gallery feels like being in a madhouse, as their art was a reflection of the public misunderstanding that resulted in their mental state.
Decadent artists were not afraid to experiment with the mind, and they often teetered on the edge. They shocked the public with their novelty and their ideas about the world, which were alien to the majority of the population. The era of decadence was marked by the following works: “Salome” by Aubrey Beardsley, “The Seated Demon” by Vrubel, “Christ at Olympia”, “The Verdict of Paris” by Max Klinger, “Crown of Thorns”, “Puss in Boots” by Kalmakov and others.
“Book in painting” - Where books are burned, people will be thrown into the fire.” Still life with candles and books. 2002. Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527/30 - 11 July 1593). The fact itself is interesting. Andriyaka S.N. (born July 1, 1958). Very little time passed, and people ended up in the ovens of the concentration camps. Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin. Bonfires of books burned throughout Germany.
“The meaning of colors” - Throat and thyroid gland. "Rainbow of Life" 12 colors of the chromatic circle. Flu and claustrophobia. Despair. Psychology and color: Balakovo 2010. Julia Tishinskaja. Exhaustion of the nervous system. Affects the flow of bile, which plays a role in the absorption and digestion of fats. Insomnia. Like blue, it has antiseptic properties; like green, it harmonizes.
“Composition” - In ancient times, all information was represented by drawings. Any letter or hieroglyph is first of all an image. Text and image as elements of composition 8. Variety of forms graphic design. A. We are influenced not only by the meaning of the word, but also by the character of the font. Color. Serifs are additional elements.
“Drawing an elephant” - How to draw an elephant? Stage 4: And last but not least – the eyes, fangs and tail of our elephant. Step by step drawing. Stage 2: Next we draw the trunk and legs of the elephant. Pick up a pencil. Stage 5: Erase all auxiliary and no longer needed lines. You don't know how to draw an elephant? Now you can outline the elephant brighter and even decorate it beautifully.
“Directions in painting” - Do you remember what we saw in the summer? Representatives. The prevailing motives are despair, disbelief in human strength. “Down with logic and clarity! T. Pound, F. Kaiser, I. Toller, M. Proust. Critical realism. The writer is an impartial researcher. And pieces of the skeleton were already grinning into the sky, like large flowers.
“Painting of the 20th century” - P. P. Konchalovsky. Roses, 1955 Innovation in all areas of art - this is the main slogan of the avant-garde. Self-portrait, 1912. Futurism. Subject: MHC. Fauvism. Aristarkh Vasilievich Lentulov. Pierre Boulez. Cubism. Picasso. In 1910 he became one of the organizers of the art association “Jack of Diamonds”.
There are a total of 14 presentations in the topic
On the face, you need to be an actress or just go to a photo shoot with a friend. When you know what's nearby close person, then you can allow yourself to open up a little more. This is exactly what our Wedding Angel Natasha-Bambulya did. Retro seems to be in her blood. Remember her incredible vintage wedding, which was included in the top 20 best weddings of 2012, the wedding was preceded by a vintage love story (the outfits were made by the heroine), and Natasha’s sensual retro boudoir can raise even the dead from the grave. Now the era of languid decadence has come in Natasha’s life. I liked the pictures, and you?
What kind of shooting was this? Why did you choose this style?
The bohemian era of the early twentieth century... Languid ladies with sophisticated cigarette holders, emitting clouds of smoke... Careless eroticism of the image... Perfection of taste... And, of course, the mystery and attractiveness of an old photograph...
How could I pass by when I found out that such a photo project was being held in our city? Of course not!
Describe your favorite/significant/interesting moment of the photo shoot? Why?
One of my favorite moments is posing with my girlfriend! We made such pained faces, stood in such forced poses that it was incredibly funny to watch each other! And after almost every successful photo, we burst into friendly laughter!
Well, it was very unusual to see myself in the mirror after everything that the makeup artist and hair stylist did to me! “Is this really me???” – was the first reaction to my reflection in the mirror.
Write down the top 3 pieces of advice you would like to give to others. creative girls in preparing photo sessions
- Don't be afraid to experiment! It's so cool to see photos of us in which we are completely different!
- Study the topic of your future photo shoot in more detail: read a book, watch a movie, listen to music, this will help you feel your image more fully.
- Well, trust the professionals! Only with complete trust will the result exceed all expectations!
I really liked the clothes, accessories and shoes in this project. Was it really all vintage or a pastiche? How impressed I am by the linen style of the dress on Natasha’s friend. Girls, you are beautiful!
P.S. When looking at the photo report, I immediately remembered one of my favorite songs
There are words whose meaning many people know. But if you ask them to explain, you will hear completely different definitions.
Such is the one who came from French the term "decadence". What is this beautiful word means decline and decay, many remember, and then discrepancies begin among interpreters...
First - a literary term
At the end of the stunning nineteenth century, humanity began to lose its usual moral and cultural supports. Neoclassicism and romanticism lost relevance in the race with technical progress and economic reforms; the advent of the new century gave rise to new hopes for some, and instilled fear and disappointment in others.
Gloom and pessimism for many authors seemed a natural outcome historical development. In their search for images of the new century, they relied on the aesthetics of the Gothic novel and sought inspiration in the fascinating world of poetry and prose of Edgar Allan Poe. Decadence is the product of the frantic romantics of the past, in particular the work of Victor Hugo, his search for ideal beauty and pure art in escaping reality.
For those who, in their poetry, prose, painting and music, found methods that were not similar to the usual classical ones, aggressive criticism came up with the stigma of decadence. No one expected that this word would lose its negative context and be picked up by the decadents themselves to denote the fight against dull philistinism and banal progress.
Philosophical foundations
The birth of a new philosophy was involved in the emergence of new forms of art at the dawn of the century. The bright ideas of F. Nietzsche and A. Schopenhauer were taken up by the ideologists of decadence. How could they get past the denial of church and bourgeois morality? In a world where the gods are dead, everything is permitted. The rational world order, based on classical philosophy, collapsed, leaving the only value left - the world of human individuality.
Disconnect from the banality of universal human problems - such main task had decadence. What did this mean in the work of poets and artists? First of all, the excess of form over content. The meaning was lost in pretentiousness, mysticism, and uncertainty. The external effect and vague symbols with apocalyptic, tragic allusions quickly became the main feature of public speeches by apologists of decadence.
Singers of Decadence
They shook the foundations of morality, despised banality in creativity and everyday life. Oscar Wilde and Maurice Maeterlinck, Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Gabriel D'Annuzio - in their works the attitude to life that was later called "decadence" was born. It was their creative searches and shocking actions that aroused great delight among young people and terrible indignation among the conservative part of Europe.
The visual image of decadence is an ornate and complex art nouveau pattern, it is inseparable from the virtuoso graphics of Aubrey Beardsley. The Pre-Raphaelites - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Arthur Hughes - are considered the inspirers of decadence in painting, although not always justified. Arnold Böcklin's painting "Island of the Dead" expresses the essence of this attitude towards the world. What decadence is in music could be understood by watching Richard Strauss's opera "Salome" based on Oscar Wilde's drama. It is full of images and sounds of the "era of decline."
The Russian face of decadence
The pretentious and gloomy aesthetics of the death of old values, born in Europe, turned out to be relevant for Russian society during the crisis of the early twentieth century. Russian decadence - what is it if not the generation of gloomy moods in society after the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution? Creative youth shielded themselves from reality with the masks of Pierrot and Columbine, and spoke in poems full of abstract and vague symbols.
The poetry of Russian decadence shines with unimaginable heights. To varying degrees, this includes Valery Bryusov and Konstantin Balmont, Fyodor Sologub and Zinaida Gippius, Innokenty Annensky and Igor Severyanin. They had many imitators in their creativity, clothing and lifestyle - they were too bright and expressive a phenomenon in the life of Russian society.
The prose of Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Leonid Andreev, the painting and graphics of Konstantin Somov, Mikhail Vrubel and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, the musical experiments of Alexander Scriabin belong to that era, both by the time of creation and by the feelings evoked in readers, viewers and listeners.
The main feature of Russian decadence was its inherent mystical premonition of global upheaval. It is visible from our future and is truly impressive.
Ever-living decadent style
The very course of history implies the onset of periods when the ideas of crisis and collapse become dominant. Creative freedom for innovative artists working in such historical periods, even if used to create dark and inhumane images, is a cultural phenomenon of great significance.
Artistic images born on the verge of good and evil are especially expressive; the aesthetics of destruction and even death suddenly becomes attractive to sensitive people.
The meaning of the word "decadence" varied significantly in different times and in different cultures. For some it had the meaning of a stylistic feature, for others it became a global characteristic of the state of the entire society. All these definitions are relevant for the past, present and future.
Recently, a large exhibition entitled “Decadence” opened at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna. The exhibition is dedicated to the art of Austrian symbolism. More precisely, he tries to re-look at the place of Austrian symbolism in European art beginning of the 20th century. I hope it turned out interesting. At least the name is intriguing...
Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl "Souls on the Banks of Acheron". 1889 Collection of the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna.
Unfortunately, the gallery compiled the catalog very confusingly, so I was never able to figure out which paintings were brought to the exhibition from other museums, and which were simply printed in the catalog. It is only obvious that Belvedere himself thoroughly gutted his own storerooms. For example, for the first time in recent years a giant painting by Max Klinger, “The Judgment of Paris,” is on display, one of the key works of German symbolism. In addition, it is probably known that one of the versions of Franz von Stuck’s “Sin” was brought from Zurich, and his “Pallas Athena” was brought from a private museum in Bavarian Schweinfurt. They hang next to the famous “Judith” by Gustav Klimt. Czech symbolism presented early painting Frantisek Kupka “Road of Silence” from a Prague private collection and lithograph by Alphonse Mucha.
I would also like to mention two not so famous artists Eduard Veit and Vezzel Gablik, whose works are quite abundantly presented at the exhibition. Both were born in the Czech Republic. A native of New Jicin, Eduard Veit specialized more in theater paintings. For example, he painted the Prague Opera and theaters in Ostrava and Ústí nad Labem. As it turned out, he was also a good painter. A native of the city of Most, Wenzel Gablik generally stands a little apart in European art of the early 20th century - somewhere at the intersection of symbolism, expressionism and surrealism. Anyone who has been to the branch of the Prague National Gallery in the Fair Palace will probably remember his gorgeous painting “Crystal Castle in the Middle of the Sea”. At the exhibition in Vienna you can see a very hallucinogenic painting “Starry Sky” by Wenzel Gablik, brought from the museum named after him in Itzehoe, Germany.
Karl Meditz "Red Angel" 1908. Private collection, Vienna.
Max Klinger "The Judgment of Paris". 1885-87. Collection of the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna.
Giovanni Segantini "Evil Mothers". 1894 Collection of the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna.
It should be added that the symbolic “Decadence”, apparently, will play the role of the main exhibition project of the coming summer in the Austrian capital. Apart from the photography exhibition, nothing else particularly interesting is expected in Vienna in the coming months. It is tactically correct to either go and see “Decadence” in the coming days, before it closes at the Albertina, or, on the contrary, to postpone the visit to Vienna until the very end of September, when a large exhibition of Henri Matisse and associates opens in the same Albertina.
