IVAN KAVALERIDZE'S MONUMENTAL PLASTICS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EARLY XX-TH CENTURY EUROPEAN AVANT-GARDE

Establishment of stability of forms of plastic arts, their determination by universal natural formations is at the heart of aesthetics of one of the famous sculptors, the founder of Ukrainian avant-garde in monumental sculpture, film director, playwright – Ivan Kavaleridze (1887–1978).

Admiration by French cubist sculpture formed its own artistic trends. It was I. Kavaleridze who tried to bring Ukrainian monumental sculpture to the level of development corresponding to Parisian avant-garde. Cubism in accordance with the general trends of the time seems to free sculpture from salon layers, exposing structure, rhythm and dynamics, refining qualities peculiar to sculpture of the beginning of the XX century.

I. Kavaleridze expanded the Cubist doctrines, granting them the powerful national principle, drew attention to the important and special problems of sculpture in large urban and natural spaces of his time. The original vision of sculpture as an architectural structure, the adoption of constructivist ideas – the use of reinforced concrete as a material, the perfect mastery of its modifying abilities. I. Kavaleridze offers original monumental works where the Cubist and Constructivist principles of form creation are manifested, which correspond to the most current trends in the plastic arts on a world scale. Since the second half of the 1920 s, the social and artistic life in Ukraine has been influenced by politics. After a few years, it becomes the main criterion in the social and artistic assessment of the artist. The compromise in the artist’s relationship with the Soviet ideology is reflected in the sculpture, which was the first to assume the role of the propagandist of the Soviet state. The value of the plastic experiments of modernism begins to give way to the pompous and political meaning. In a very short time, it is this characteristic that will unite the trends belonging to different styles into a social and artistic phenomenon that goes beyond the goals of the plastic and visual arts.

The sculptor’s work is part of the phenomena of Ukrainian art that go beyond purely aesthetic dimensions and reflect the image of the era. The artist’s creations reveal the major events of his time, changes in art, culture, social consciousness that have defined the features of artistic development. The era of impetuous changes and social upheavals – the world war, revolutions, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the national revival of the 1920s, the years of totalitarianism and Soviet liberalization have forever left an expressive mark on the genius’s work.