ETHNO-HISTORICAL MOTIVES IN DESIGN DEVELOPMENTS OF LYUDMILA SEMIKINA

Abstract

The purpose of the article is the analysis of ethno-historical motives in the creative work of the Ukrainian artist Lyudmila Semykina. The article focuses on her design developments in the field of scenography and author's clothing series. All nonconformist artists to one degree or another developed national trends in painting, graphics, and decorative arts through the prism of mainly modernist stylistic artistic directions. However, the desire for national awareness, interest in Ukrainian history and culture remained prominent. The pluralism of thoughts and views of the "thaw" times became the impetus for large-scale polemics regarding innovative approaches in art. The problem of "modern style" for many non-conformist artists, including L. Semikinoi came to the fore. The understanding of this style was based on several main criteria. The first and foremost among them were the constructiveness and dynamics of the form. The second figurative and plastic criterion was the attraction to folk art with its inherent interpretation of color and composition. It is here, according to L. Semikina and her like-minded colleagues, the basic primary elements were stored in a concentrated form, from which archetypal plastic structures could be reproduced at the next stage of development. Finally, the third criterion was the revival of traditional techniques, as well as the use of technologies that involved the collaboration of an artist, technologist, and engineer with masters of folk art, that is, carriers of tradition. L. Semikyna, together with her colleagues and like-minded people, began to study the Ukrainian language, national traditions, and folklore at this time. For her, as well as for most of her colleagues, national folklore, ethnostylistics turned into sources of renewal and purification from the restrictions and prohibitions of the Soviet ideological policy. Later, these developments will significantly influence the formation of her artistic tastes, in particular in the field of stage clothing projects and author's collections. For performances based on Lesya Ukrainka's works "Happiness" and "Forest Song", the artist created costumes in the folk Ukrainian style. From the end of the 1960s she developed a series of clothing models based on Scythian-Sarmatian and Old Russian art: "Scythian Steppe", "Princely Age", "Polish Legend". In the 1990s L. Semikyna turned to the "retro" style in the "Baroque" and "Nika" cycles. The artist managed to reproduce the deep historical origins of the culture of Kyivan Rus, which were reflected not only in the folk costume, but also in the princely clothes. The artistic images she created became a real event in the cultural life of Ukraine in the 1970s.