CONTEMPORARY FIGURATIVE CHEKHOVIANA IN THE DON AND AZOV REGION: STATING THE PROBLEM

Abstract

DOI 0.18522/1995-0640-2022-1-25-36

Chekhov’s oeuvre is “the text of culture” which broadcasts meanings outside literature to the other kinds of arts. An artist, who perceives and conceives it, may find himself or herself in the milieu of different time and space. However, his or her vision and perception of Chekhov’s personality and works enrich both his/her own world of arts, the world of arts in general, and the understanding of Chekhov’s oeuvre and legacy. Artists of the Don and Azov Region, who come from the same part of the country as the great writer, react to the writer’s destiny and works in much more vivid way, creating some kind of the “Chekhovian text” in the fine arts of the region. Originality of artistic searches, specific features of artists’ manner and style, profoundly expressed focus of their creative efforts on Chekhov’s works and life, and allusions to writer’s works condition the selection of samples of the fine arts Chekhoviana in the Don and Sea of Azov Region. A sculptural portrait of A.P. Chekhov by S.N. Oleshnya illustrates the perception of the writer by his contemporaries: a combination of cheerfulness, love for life, humour, and sadness. A work by V.A. Kozin entitled Chekhov is a sample of Vector graphic art and depicts the writer as a “common man”, stressing the idea by a slightly changed Chekhov’s phrase given at the bottom of the sheet. A sculptural portrait of A.P. Chekhov by A.A. Sknarin, a sculptor, and Yu.D. Dvornikov, an architect, depicts Anton Pavlovich both as a genius writer and a great public figure and enlightener, who enlarged and enriched the stocks of a city public library in Taganrog with a great number of books. At the same time, the monument turned out to be harmoniously “inside” the Pushkin plot of Rostov-on-Don. The Monument to A.P. Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard” by D.V. Lyndin in Taganrog is a sample of site-specific and environmental art – the genre urban sculpture. A stage set study for the Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard by A.A. Mytnikov and a study-scale landscape by M.P. Volodina entitled The Cherry Orchard differently, but, at the same time, in Chekhov’s way convey the sense of the play. The fine arts Chekhoviana of the region is an independent and original phenomenon.

Key words: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, fine arts, Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog

Acknowledgements: The article is prepared within the state task of Southern Research Center of Russian Academy of Science “Political and sociocultural processes in the South of Russia in terms of modernization”, grant project No 122020100347-2.