I’ve been not feeling artsy lately (anti-artsy?), so in an attempt to break my artist’s block (???) I’ma share some artists I admire starting with Ivan Bilibin. It’s no secret that Slavs and art are like arm and hammer (see Alphonse Mucha, Carl Fabergé and Valentin Serov), and Bilibin is no exception. The poor guy died in the Seige of Leningrad in 1942, but his beautiful illuminations of Russian folk tales live on. Behold the splendor:
If you ever have the chance to read the stories these works depict, do yourself a favor and DEVOUR THAT SHIT. Like most folk tales, there is copious amounts of gore, eating of children, bitchy older siblings, etc. but there’s also Baba Yaga. Bitch. Is. HARSH! Read all about her fuckery HERE.
Eat your heart out,
Sometimes serious, mostly sassy, frequently loud, seldom perky and always fancy.
that’s some pretty beautiful stuff. I love the one of the baba yaga on her mortar and pestil.
nice and very nice to hear…somebody interested and somebody young…
MMm about Faberge , He was not Russian and that helped him to get monopoly , get such success…As for Mucha he is son of Check land, and they are very proud of that.So they should be.
But in a way we have to note that this time was period of not so much elclectic but syntes…and national borders were washed way by the ideas. NO surprise that Der Blau Rtr included Austrian and Russian-German.In the same time there was revival of some National folk traditions.And it ws in Englnd as much as in Norway or Finland…Sometimes they were a bit carried away as with (Spass na krovi) Church of our Savior on Split Blood in Saint Petersburg.So Blibin here is that La Russ as it was called in Russia illustration.It was interesting time, a bit painful time when form( beauty inusefulness…not the best translation of motto of Mir iskousstva) of art went from union and national self-understanding to soome creepy,socialistic or nationalistic form of art language. bear in mind that Saint Petersburg was list Russian city up to 70s of XX century. now it all collapsed as in many countries… multi-culturlism got ugly face of separatism, so it normal, beneficial form still survives in art, but not in life … feel free to get in touch facebook or mail
thanks a lot,yours Irena9 Kogan, Stein,Petrova) now LINGARD
I was thinking about the same as Irena – Mucha was Czech, not Russian. But there are many wonderful artists in Russia, even today
Also, the last picture, lady on water, is not by Ivan Bilibin, but a Hungarian artist Timea Cherny or moon-pookah, who makes absolutely lovely muchaesque-bilibinesque work