Amaravella

Amaravella (Russian: Амаравелла; from Sanskrit amaravella), or the Cosmists (Космисты), was a group of young Soviet artists active between 1923 and 1928. Its members included Aleksandr Sardan (Barabanov) (1901–1974), Boris Smirnov-Rusetsky (1905–1993), Pyotr Fateyev (1891–1971), Sergey Shigolev (1895–1942?), Viktor Chernovolenko (1900–1972) and Vera Pshesetskaya (1879–1945/46).

Formation

In 1922, the artists group was founded by Fateyev, a painter who was then 32 years old.[1] The name Amaravella, however, was introduced in 1928 when Sardan coined it based from a Sanskrit word that means "bearing light" or "creative energy".[1]

Style

Ideologically the group belonged to the Russian cosmism movement. It embraced a range of ideas and artistic approaches that explored cosmic harmony.[1] The artists, who lived in a commune, were heavily influenced by the ancient East's works, as well as those of Helena Blavatsky, Nicholas Roerich, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, and Victor Borisov-Musatov.

Like M. Sokolov and V. Komarovskiy, members of the Amaravella were persecuted because their work did not conform to the "socialist realism" style prescribed for Soviet art.[2] Particularly, their works were categorized as "formalism" through the 1932 decree On Restructuring Literary and Artistic Organizations, which repressed creative freedom.[3]

Works

Several paintings of the Amaravella artists were collected by Iury Linnik, who claimed to be a cosmist poet and philosopher,[4] and Igor Savitsky.[3]

References
  1. Siddiqi, Asif A. (2010). The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Russian Imagination, 1857-1957. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9780521897600.
  2. Ibbotson, Sophie; Lovell-Hoare, Max (2016). Uzbekistan. Guilford, CT: Bradt Travel Guides. p. 256. ISBN 9781784770174.
  3. "Gallery". www.savitskycollection.org. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  4. Rosenthal, Bernice Glatzer (1997). The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture. Cornell University Press. pp. 199. ISBN 080148331X.


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