MEZHYGIRSKY NIGHT DOLLS OF THE 1920S AS A TYPE OF WOODEN SCULPTURE BY BOICHUKIST ARTISTS

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the artistic features of plastic modeling of the wooden sculpture of the Mezhyhirya Nativity Scene by Boychuk artists, performed within the avant-garde style of the 1920 s against the background of other European schools.
Results. Thus, the sculpture of the cohort of artists of the Mezhyhirya Art and Ceramics College of 1923–1924 (teacher Yevhen Sahaidachny, students Mykola Tsivchynsky, Ilko Zaika, Dmytro Golovko), developed for the «Revolutionary Nativity Scene», fits into the trends of development of European scenography of the avant-garde era, also represented within the framework of Ukrainian, Italian and German fine art and design by a number of outstanding authors (Olexandra Ekster, Enrico Prampolini, representatives of the Bauhaus).
At the same time, there is a high probability that, in addition to the above-mentioned masters, the artists Oksana Pavlenko, the wife of Vasyl Sedlyar, and Sofia Nalepynska-Boychuk, the wife of Mykhailo Boychuk, participated in the development of the graphic series of sketches of nativity scenes in Mezhyhirya.
Ideas about popular characters of medieval miracles (God, Tsar, Pastor/Rabbi/Priest), or modern for artists political figures of the world economy, business (founders of famous corporations), the military sphere, the diplomatic corps), in this complex of characters were developed alongside representatives of people from the people (the so-called «Petrushki», typical of Chernihiv traditional nativity scenes, heroes «Baba», «Did», etc.).
At the same time, the plastic solution of the figures was usually based on a somewhat «deformed», sarcastic display of the chosen hero, with elements of ridicule of his role in society as a «fat man», a person who thinks like an «unterprishybeyev», or looks like a corrupt politician, and not a representative of the intelligentsia from the elite circles.
Therefore, the negative connotation accompanied the listed images in the plots of the play scripts and their productions. In general, of the nativity dolls of the «Revolutionary Theater» in Mezhyhirya, 7 heads are especially interesting, which were made within the framework of the cubist-futurist stylistics fashionable at the beginning of the 20 th century, which was based on the principles of plastic modeling of traditional African sculpture, the lapidary forms of which were also most often made of wood by cutting off excess material, due to which they had a corresponding «chopped» manner of execution. Of the entire legacy of ready-made nativity figures of the Boychukists, made according to the aesthetic guidelines of teacher Yevhen Sahaidachny (twenty-one in the material from the collection of the Museum of Theater,
Music and Cinema of Ukraine, one in sketches, several from photographs), about ten have interesting details of the execution of the head, as well as the costume, which is held on wooden shoulders and a stick in the middle for gripping with the hand during the performance. Thus, of particular interest among them are McDonald (Ramsey McDonald), the French diplomat (Paul Deschanel), Lord Curzon (George Curzon), who was sometimes called Chamberlain, the American representative (Hugo Stinnes), the accidental diplomat (Woodrow Wilson), General Ludendorff (Erich Ludendorff), and accidental capitalists (Gustav Stresemann, Raymond Poincaré), some of whom were also characterized in the theater as world political figures of the 1920 s. These figurines were also made by representatives of the student body of the Mezhyhirsk Art and Ceramics College – Mykola Tsivchynskyi, Ilko Zaika, Dmytro Holovko.
Research methodology. The following scientific tools were used in the study: the principle of scientific comprehensiveness, art history and museum studies approaches, axiological, ontological, hermeneutic, historicalchronological, historical-genetic, comparative, socio-cultural, formal-stylistic, iconographic, typological, as well as the method of art history analysis.
The novelty of the study is based on the understanding of the artistic features of the sculpture of dolls of the Mezhyhirya Nativity Scene, associated with the aesthetic features of European scenography of the avant-garde era.
The Practical significance. The obtained results of the study allow us to understand the reflections of cubofuturistic searches in the field of designing the forms of dolls of the Mezhyhirya Nativity Scene during 1923–1924 against the background of the shifts of Boychuk artists in Ukrainian fine and monumental-decorative art of the first third of the 20 th century, as well as to reveal the historical, cultural and artistic significance of this part of the heritage of domestic avant-garde artists in the context of unique developments made by representatives of the galaxy of the «Shooted Renaissance».