Vbulletin Russian modernism in architecture. Modernism in Russian art

RUSSIAN MODERN (see Art Nouveau, “modern style”) is a conventional term reflecting the peculiarities of the development of art in Russia at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The term “modern” is difficult to designate a specific style, since in the period 1880-1910s. Various artistic movements and schools developed intensively. In general, the art of this period is characterized by anti-eclectic aspirations and the search for a “grand style” that unites different types of art. In Russia, we should add to this the tradition of objectivity, the materiality of artistic forms. These forms did not become ephemeral, destructive and atectonic, as happened in the art of French Art Nouveau or German Jugendstil (cf. "Vienna Workshops").

Moscow architectural modern. Stylizations on the Gothic theme and neo-Russian stylizations in Shekhtel’s work have a common feature - grotesque, based on a combination of exaggerated depiction of historical details and a plastic solution of internal space. In the neo-Russian style, he completed the projects of the pavilion of the Russian department of the International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901 and the Yaroslavl Station in Moscow in 1902, and the activities of V.M. had a certain influence on their decisions. Vasnetsova. The architectural image of these buildings reproduced the epic spirit of antiquity through a synthesis of traditional and innovative compositional techniques and means. Among Shekhtel’s buildings, the internationally decorative branch of Russian Art Nouveau, which had Franco-Belgian and Viennese roots, the most fundamental and landmark in terms of its development is the building of the Ryabushinsky mansion in Moscow. The theme of waves, plastic lines and shapes runs through various elements of decoration and equipment of the mansion’s interiors, designed by the architect himself.

Petersburg Art Nouveau is often seen as a variant of the northern Art Nouveau of Finland and Latvia. His feature - combination classicistic rigor and rationalistic clarity of solutions for facades and interiors. (Lidval, Meltzer, A.I. Gauguin, N.V. Vasiliev, Baranovsky, Brzhozovsky)

In St. Petersburg, at the Meltzer factory, light, comfortable furniture was made from light wood, including colored glass inserts that were fashionable for that time. Among Meltzer's interiors one can note the Great Gothic Cabinet of Nicholas II in Winter Palace, interiors of a cottage in Peterhof, interiors of the Ryabushinsky mansion in Moscow.

At the beginning of the 20th century. Two exhibitions were held, the task of which was to show the general public the possibilities of a new style in creating an interior. The first - “Architecture and artistic crafts of the new style” - in Moscow in December 1902. The second is “Modern Art” in January 1903 in St. Petersburg.

The spread of the new movement in art was facilitated by the St. Petersburg magazines “World of Art” and “Art and Art Industry”. The first issue of “World of Art” was published in November 1898, which subsequently took a leading place among literary and artistic publications in Russia at that time. The heart of the magazine was Sergei Diaghilev. The appearance of the magazine sharply contrasted with the periodicals of that time. The artistic orientation of the "World of Art" was associated with modernism and symbolism. In contrast to the ideas of the Wanderers, the artists of the World of Art proclaimed the priority of the aesthetic principle in art. With the creation of the World of Art, Lev Bakst became an active participant. There are almost no floral patterns on the covers and vignettes made by Bakst for the magazine. Bakst also worked successfully in the portrait genre.

A striking example of Russian Art Nouveau is the work of the outstanding artist Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (1856-1910). The cult of fragile beauty, mystery and painful tenderness, which characterizes the aesthetic ideal of the Modern period, was not alien to Vrubel. However, even in the most fantastic subjects inherent in the Western European tradition, for example, in a series of sketches for the panel “Faust,” the artistic and figurative structure and even the conventional Vrubel style are much deeper and more traditional than those of the European symbolists. As an artist of the Modern period, Vrubel is more erudite and broader, his talent goes beyond the boundaries of a certain era, method and style. In the painting “Demon Seated” (1890), surrounded by fantastic “stone flowers,” Vrubel depicted a sad, naturalistically painted figure, similar to an academic sitter, designed to personify the demon - “the spirit of denial, the spirit of doubt.” In Russian Art Nouveau painting, decorative stylization tendencies close to Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau (Fig. 309) coexisted with oriental aspirations (see Russian ballet seasons in Paris). Similar trends are characteristic of the architecture of this time. An outstanding artist, architect Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel (1859-1926) fluctuated between the styles of Viennese Art Nouveau, French Art Nouveau, Neo-Gothic and Neoclassicism. A characteristic monument of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau is the building of the Vitebsk Station (design by S. A. Brzhozovsky and S. I. Minash, 1902-1904). Its main façade is asymmetrical, which is typical of Art Nouveau architecture; the interiors are dominated by Floral Art Nouveau motifs, and the north-eastern, spectacularly rounded corner of the building is decorated with a Doric order colonnade in an unusual combination with “Modern” ornaments. Similar allusions, the combination of classics with new elements, are also characteristic of other stylistic trends in St. Petersburg Modern architecture.

Modernism in architecture is a new style that originated in Europe at the end of the 19th century (1890s) and continued its development until the First World War. It was especially evident during the construction of mansions and industrial buildings.

History of development

Perhaps the most famous representative of the Art Nouveau style in architecture is the Spaniard Antonio Gaudi. His sand castles are famous all over the world. He erected most of his unearthly buildings in Barcelona.

In every country architectural style acquired his distinctive features. For example, Russian modernism in architecture stood out. He followed already generally accepted models and enriched the style with traditional folk motifs.

Modernism in architecture arose during social industrialization. This meant that there was a need for buildings for stations, industrial enterprises, chambers of commerce, exchanges, and banks. The construction of private mansions in this situation faded into the background, but despite this, many buildings have survived to this day.

Art Nouveau became the last classical style in architecture.

Peculiarities

The main features of modernism in architecture are decorativeness and rational designs. Architects began to use many new materials - glass, reinforced concrete, ceramics for cladding buildings.

It was almost impossible to determine the practical purpose of buildings by eye, because aesthetic principles, beauty and decor were put at the forefront.

The main task of the architects was to create a unity of external and interior decoration building. Therefore, everything was thought out to the smallest detail. Stairs, terraces, moldings, cornices were decorated with fancy flowers, leaves and were shaped like lines of wave-like shapes.

The main features of the Art Nouveau style in architecture are:

1. Refusal of straight and angular lines in favor of more natural ones, referring to nature.
2. Use of new technologies.
3. Increasing the role of decorative and applied arts.
4. A combination of artistic and utilitarian functions.
5. Use of oriental motifs.
6. Individualization of figurative style.

The architecture of the Art Nouveau era rapidly rethought old ones and discovered new artistic forms and techniques. Its representatives broke the existing framework and went beyond the boundaries of reason, creating their creations.

The era lasted several decades, but during this time many truly great structures were created. Each of them had their own traits and characteristics. This is largely due to the fact that the Art Nouveau style had several directions:

• neo-romanticism;
• neoclassicism;
• rationalism;
• irrationalism;
• brick style.

Russia developed its own special features of modernity.

Petersburg Art Nouveau

Modernism in the architecture of Russia, or more precisely its northern regions, has been developing since the beginning of the twentieth century. This took place under the influence of Swedish and Finnish art, mainly in St. Petersburg. In modern history this style is known as Northern Art Nouveau.

In a broad sense, the concept is an appeal to national origins, a rethinking of the medieval architecture of the Baltic. The emergence of the style is associated with the name of S. P. Diaghilev, who in 1898 organized a series art exhibitions Finnish and Swedish masters. Russian creators were inspired by the works of their colleagues, the “national romantics” - A. Zorn, K. Larson, A. Gallen-Kallela.

In addition, the architect from Finland, the famous Eliel Saarinen, often visited St. Petersburg and was a member of the Academy of Arts of this city. It is under his influence that the architects of the Russian Empire fall.

Already in 1904, the house of I.V. Besser was built in St. Petersburg. The project was created by Finnish architect A. Shulman.

From 1901 to 1907, the architect of Swedish origin, Fyodor Lidval, erected buildings according to his own drawings. Of course, he created, also inspired by the works of foreign architects. They were: G. Klasson, F. Boberg.

The next master who contributed to the formation of northern modernism was Robert Meltzer. Art Nouveau in the architecture of St. Petersburg at an early stage did not have eclecticism. This came later. Therefore, Meltzer's mansions on Kamenny Island (for example, Vollenweider) are faced with granite blocks, decorated with simple ornamental moldings and most have rectangular towers.

Modernism in the architecture of St. Petersburg at a later stage attracted more and more young masters. Among them was Nikolai Vasiliev. He created more than ten projects for the city streets, for example, the Kazan Church, the Cathedral and Cathedral Mosques, and a thread manufacturing workshop. Oriental motifs predominate in these buildings.

After 1914, the Art Nouveau style in Russian northern architecture was criticized. In particular its decorative elements. Therefore, architects preferred to use rational techniques.

The main signs of style in the Northern capital were:

1. A combination of artificial and natural materials in decoration.
2. Granite cladding (either rough or smooth with sculptures).
3. The colors were selected with special care, which is why most of the facades resemble northern cliffs and medieval castles.
4. Small ornamentation is practically not found.

Moscow modern

Russian Art Nouveau in architecture had pronounced national features. The philosophy of this style began to take shape in the Abramtsevo circle, which was a community of creatively gifted people. Its central figure was S. Mamontov, a philanthropist and industrialist.

Even before a holistic architectural image was created, Art Nouveau features appeared in the church building by Polenov and Vasnetsov.

Another center for the revival of national greatness was the Telashkino estate near Smolensk, where carpentry, pottery, and embroidery workshops were organized.

In contrast to the St. Petersburg architecture of this period, in Moscow private buildings of mansions predominated, which underwent transformation in accordance with the style. One of the venerable architects of that time was Fyodor Shekhtel. It was according to his design that the first modern mansion in Moscow was built. This was the house of Z. G. Morozova, built in 1893. M. Vrubel painted several panels for this mansion.

Art Nouveau is represented quite widely in Moscow architecture. A classic example is the mansion of S.P. Ryabushinsky, a collector. Shekhtel decorated the light yellow facades with lilac mosaics depicting irises and installed them on the windows different shapes forged grilles with floral motifs.

The architect also did the interior decoration. Everything there is subject to the law of the sea wave: the mosaic on the floor, the stucco molding on the ceiling, and the curves of the stairs.

Abramtsevo craftsmen often worked on the facade and interior, creating thematic paintings and beautiful ceramic tiles.

Modernism in Russian architecture had a number of features, including:

• asymmetrical composition of the facade;
• difference in textures in building cladding;
• bay window as a leading architectural accent;
• elements of ornament in the decor (combinations of circles, straight and wavy lines).

Each region of the country gravitated towards its own direction. In Moscow it was a neo-Russian style.

Art Nouveau in Belgium and France

In these countries the style was called "Art Nouveau". Beginning in the 1880s, changes were brewing in art that were shocking in their novelty. This first appeared in the Tassel House by architect Victor Orte in 1892.

The Solvay Hotel, built from 1894 to 1900, is considered his most exquisite work. The rooms in it are separated by removable glass walls, and the main role is assigned to the staircase, as in all other projects of the architect.

The French leading architect of the style was Hector Guimard, educated at the School decorative arts and at the School of Fine Arts. During a trip to Brussels he was inspired by Horta's work. Returning to his homeland, he immediately radically changed the design of the building already under construction, known as Castel Beranger. The result is a fantastic flight of stairs with a metal frame made of iron, tiles and glass elements. The following materials were used to decorate the façade: brick, sandstone, crushed stone and glazed ceramic tiles.

His projects include the metro pavilions, the Quallo House and many other villas and mansions.

Art Nouveau in Austria, Germany and Italy

Art Nouveau in these countries sounded like Art Nouveau. One of the first representatives was the Viennese architect I. M. Olbrich. His steady hand belongs to several houses with sophisticated ornaments and statues: the Wedding Tower, which in its image refers to the Middle Ages, the House of the Vienna Secession.

Germany was the center of development of textiles, home decorations, wooden furniture. To a lesser extent, 19th century architecture flourished there. Art Nouveau opposed the official tastes of the Academy of Arts.

The leading Viennese architect was Otto Wagner, with whom Olbrich studied. Beginning in 1894, he gave lectures at the Vienna Academy in which he called for the abandonment of historically consistent styles. Wagner expressed his thoughts on this matter in several of his books.

The principles of new architecture were expressed in his buildings: Vienna metro stations, the Majolika House apartment building, the post office and savings bank buildings. The Church of St. Leopold was built according to a design characterized by a more fantastic style. Wagner uses gilded copper not only for the domes, but also in the decoration. There are dominated by figures of angels, wreaths, and statues of saints. The building is lined with bleached marble, decorated with colored glass and mosaics.

Many architects from these countries were inspired by the works of their English colleagues. For example, Joseph Hoffman. He built the Stoclet Palace after his trip to England, but despite the abundance of detail inherent in the architecture of that country, the influence of Wagner is more noticeable there.

Among the most revered architects in Germany are Hermann Obrist and August Endel.

Italian masters experienced the enormous influence of Wagner. Giuseppe Sommaruga created in a monumental style, this is especially clearly expressed in the Palazzo Castiglioni.

Raimondo d'Aronco has been focused on the architecture of Turkey for some time. Among his works are many round buildings with complex ornaments and ancient symbols in decoration. His projects resemble certain fluid forms, which gives them a fantastic appearance.

Spain

The peculiarities of Art Nouveau in Spanish architecture are that it was based on the revival of the culture of Catalonia. The craftsmen were interested in aspects of local artistic crafts and significant historical moments, which they sought to perpetuate in their works.

When talking about Spanish Art Nouveau, the name of Antonio Gaudi, who was the leading architect of this country, comes up.

Gaudi began working in the neo-Gothic style, but even then he was different from other architects. Art Nouveau elements are visible in his early projects (eg Casa Vicens). They are already expressed in the form of bars, railings, and forged gates.

Antonio's father was a blacksmith and taught his talented son a lot. Very often, already being a seasoned architect, Gaudi spent many hours in the forge, independently making metal constructions for your creations.

He preferred Constructive decisions. For example, almost all gates were made in the form of parabolic arcs. At Palais Güell, Gaudí used glass and mosaic cladding to ventilation pipes and chimneys.

Basically, all the buildings constructed by the master are located in Barcelona. Ordinary residential buildings with incredible facades are especially popular among tourists. They have a wave-like shape and are lined with glossy light blue tiles. The roof is also extraordinary: the tiles have an uneven structure, making it look like dragon scales. The building has several wrought iron balconies, shaped like seaweed flowing through the water.

The most mysterious and beloved building of all architecture connoisseurs is the Church of the Holy Family. The history of its construction is quite confusing. Gaudi was a deeply religious man, and the construction of this church once again confirmed this. He strove to express all the details naturally and even studied zoology and biology. But, despite the knowledge gained, his creation was distinguished by completely phantasmagorical forms.

The outer walls of the projections and niches were decorated in the Gothic style. The eastern façade, which was dedicated to the Nativity of Christ, took Gaudi a long time to design. Pediments appeared there, reminiscent of stalactites, towers of extraordinary height, decorated with fragments of colored tiles.

The western facade was built according to the master’s sketches almost thirty years after his death.

The central part of the building has not yet been completed. Work is also being carried out based on the sketches of the great architect, who is buried in the crypt of his remarkable structure.

England and Scotland

Art Nouveau in 20th century architecture was not as common in England as in others European countries. More precisely, there are very few examples of the development of this style. Although the British and Scots made a huge contribution to the formation of interior design and its details.

Scotsman Charlie Mackintosh gained wide popularity, whose main activity was the creation of furniture and interiors.

In Glasgow, where the master was born, the prevailing classic style in architecture, embodied by D. D. Barnet, J. McLaren. Of course, Mackintosh was an ardent opponent of this style, but was inspired by Scottish fortresses and manors, made in the so-called baronial style.

In 1896, the architect began working on the project for the School of Arts. It was built in the likeness of a fortress. On one side, the façade is lined with granite and has huge windows. On the other, located on a slope, the windows are small, like in dungeons, and the walls are decorated with small uncut stones.

A few years later it was decided to add a library. Mackintosh designed this building as well. All the principles of the master were expressed much more clearly in it. For example, he used tall bay windows, and interior decoration echoed the traditions of wooden architecture.

Two houses built by Mackintosh outside Glasgow were featured in an architecture magazine. It was then that they learned about him in Germany and Austria. Charles has repeatedly participated in international exhibitions decorative arts, popularizing their ideas.

Mackintosh became the inventor of a new decorative style. Its essence is that geometric elements are connected with each other by flying lines, the ideas of symbolism are intertwined with classical concepts of architecture. Art critics even proposed introducing the concept of “Mackintoshism,” which would define a new movement in art.

USA

Leading role in modern architecture North America The Chicago School played. It was an association of serious artists and architects. They strived for the verticality of the lines of their buildings and their multi-story structure. The American style had practically nothing in common with the European one.

Architecture from Art Nouveau to Constructivism was reflected precisely in the first American skyscrapers. And although it is generally accepted that constructivism is a purely Soviet phenomenon, one should not forget that the famous Eiffel Tower was built precisely according to the principles of this style.

The leading architect of American Art Nouveau was Louis Sullivan. He specialized in multi-story buildings, where metal carcass lined with brick.

Sullivan's work has great importance even for the modern appearance of Chicago, since it began its work after a huge fire that destroyed half of the buildings. His hand belongs to: the Russian Orthodox Church, the National Farmers Bank, the Bradley Mansion, etc.

Sullivan was the first to develop the concept of a high-rise building.

Other prominent architects of that period include Dankmar Adler, D. Burnham, and W. Lee Baron Jenney.

Features of American Art Nouveau were:

1. The use of steel frames in construction.
2. Vertical elements were emphasized, while horizontal ones were reduced to a minimum.
3. The use of decorative friezes and protruding cornices.
4. The use of rectangular windows (in the specialized literature there is even the term “Chicago windows”).
5. Plants and flowers were used in decoration geometric shapes, cast iron ornaments, pressed terracotta.

Modernism in architecture, a photo of which will tell you everything without words, was definitely the most unusual phenomenon in the art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In America, this style received a second name - “Tiffany”, after the name of one of its main ideologists. Louis Tiffany was an artist and designer. Among his achievements are the invention of the technique of joining glass with copper foil, the development of new types of glass, and the creation of amazing interior items in the Art Nouveau style. Its stained glass windows adorn the best buildings in the country. For example, at Yale University there is a memorial stained glass window “Education”, which belongs to the hand of the master.

Conclusion

Despite its short-term reign in the world of art and architecture, the Art Nouveau style gave the world many beautiful creations. And also influenced the further development of art both in Europe and America. Thanks to this style, many original finds appeared in the decoration of ornaments and the formation of buildings. Individual solutions of architects made Art Nouveau an elite art.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a new movement emerged in the art of a number of European countries. In Russia it was called "modern". "Crisis of Science" At the beginning of the century, the rejection of mechanistic ideas about the world gave rise to artists’ attraction to nature, the desire to be imbued with its spirit, to reflect its changeable elements in art. Following "natural beginning", the architects rejected "fanaticism of symmetry", opposing it to the principle "mass balance". Architecture of the era "modern" was distinguished by asymmetry and mobility of forms, free flow "continuous surface", the flow of internal spaces. The ornament was dominated by floral motifs and flowing lines. The desire to convey growth, development, movement was characteristic of all types of art in the style "modern"- in architecture, painting, graphics, house painting, lattice casting, on book covers.

"Modern" was very heterogeneous and contradictory. On the one hand, he sought to assimilate and creatively rework folk principles, to create an architecture that was not ostentatious to the people, as in the eclectic period, but genuine. Setting the task even broader, the masters of the era "modern" ensured that everyday objects bore the imprint folk traditions. In this regard, a lot was done by the circle of artists working in Abramtsevo, the estate of the philanthropist S.I. Mamontov. V. M. Vasnetsov, M. A. Vrubel, V. D. Polenov worked here. The business begun in Abramtsevo was continued in Talashkino near Smolensk, the estate of Princess M. A. Tenisheva. Among the Talashin masters, M. A. Vrubel and N. K. Roerich shone. Both in Abramtsevo and Talashkino there were workshops that produced furniture and household utensils based on samples made by artists. Theorists "modern" They contrasted living folk craft with faceless industrial production.

But, on the other hand, architecture "modern" made extensive use of the achievements of modern construction technology. A careful study of the capabilities of materials such as reinforced concrete, glass, and steel led to unexpected discoveries. Convex glass, curved window frames, fluid forms of metal gratings - all this came into architecture from "modern".

From the very beginning in the domestic "modern" Two directions emerged - pan-European and national-Russian. The latter was, perhaps, predominant. At its origins stands the church in Abramtsevo - an original and poetic creation of two artists who acted as architects - Vasnetsov and Polenov. Taking the ancient Novgorod-Pskov architecture, with its picturesque asymmetry, as a model, they did not copy individual details, but embodied the very spirit of Russian architecture in its modern material.

The fairytale-poetic motifs of the Abramtsevo church were repeated and developed by Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev (1873 - 1941) in the Cathedral of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. He also owns the grandiose project of the Moscow Kazan railway station. Built somewhat chaotically in appearance, like a series of adjacent stone "chambers", it is clearly organized and easy to use. The main tower closely reproduces the Syuyumbeki tower in the Kazan Kremlin. Thus, the motifs of ancient Russian and oriental culture are intertwined in the station building.

Yaroslavsky station, located opposite Kazansky, was built according to the design of Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel (1859-1926), an outstanding Russian architect of the era "modern". Following the path of Vasnetsov and Polenov, Shekhtel created a fabulously epic image of the Russian North.

A very versatile artist, Shekhtel left works not only in the national Russian style. Numerous mansions built according to his designs, scattered along Moscow alleys, exquisitely elegant and unlike each other, have become an integral part of the capital's architecture.

For early "modern" was typical "Dionysian" the beginning, i.e. the desire for spontaneity, immersion in the flow of formation and development. In the late "modern"(on the eve of the World War) calm and clear began to prevail "Apollonistic" Start. Elements of classicism returned to architecture. In Moscow, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Borodino Bridge were built according to the design of the architect R. I. Klein. At the same time, the buildings of the Azov-Don and Russian Commercial and Industrial Banks appeared in St. Petersburg. Petersburg banks were built in a monumental style, using granite cladding and "torn" masonry surfaces. This seemed to personify their conservatism, reliability, and stability.

Century "modern" was very short - from the end of the 19th century. before the start of the world war. But it was a very bright period in the history of architecture. At the beginning of the century, its appearance was met with a storm of criticism. Some considered him "decadent" style, others - bourgeois. But "modern" proved its vitality and democracy. It had folk roots, relied on an advanced industrial base and absorbed the achievements of world architecture. "Modern" did not have the rigor of classicism. It was divided into many directions and schools, which formed a multicolored palette of the last flowering of architecture on the eve of the great upheavals of the 20th century.

Over the course of a decade and a half, coinciding with the construction boom, "modern" spread throughout Russia. It can still be found today in any old city. One has only to look closely at the rounded windows, exquisite stucco molding and curved balcony grilles of any mansion, hotel or store.

The Art Nouveau style originated in European architecture in last decade 19th century as a protest against the use of techniques and forms of styles of the past in art.

This style originated in the art industry and was associated with an attempt to create new artistic forms carried out industrially. In Belgium, Austria and Germany, mechanized workshops appeared, designed to produce furniture and household items according to artists’ sketches. From the sphere of applied arts, Art Nouveau soon spread to architecture and fine arts.

Early modernism in architecture is distinguished by the use of whimsical, complexly outlined curved lines and forms that distort the historically established architectonics. Intricate, capricious, abstracted curves along which the outlines of cornices and pediments, window and doorways, stairs, balcony railings, canopies over entrances, sometimes even the walls themselves, a complicated rhythm of “breaking down” window openings, emphasized asymmetry in the placement of masses and “spots”, countless pinnacles and turrets crowning the roofs, peculiar flat ornamental compositions - such is the reserve artistic means, which are used by an architect working in the Art Nouveau style.

Originally conceived as a style for city mansions and country villas, Art Nouveau soon became widespread in the construction of apartment buildings and public buildings. The extreme individualism of Art Nouveau, which consists in the desire of the architect to create original works, unique in their appearance, and excluding any possibility of using their forms in other buildings, was essentially associated with decadent trends in artistic culture that time. As a style, it was not inspired by big ideas and therefore, having existed in Europe as a fashion trend for a little over ten years, it began to die out, finally disappearing by the beginning of the First World War.

Art Nouveau appeared in Russia in the second half of the 1890s. A new style, in which Russian architects began to work, although it came from Europe, even there by this time it had not yet received final design. Therefore, Russian Art Nouveau developed to a large extent independently, leaving its mark on many works of architecture, fine and applied art.

Representatives of Russian modernism viewed it as an attempt to overthrow the dominance of any retrospective stylization, including the pseudo-classical direction.

For representatives of Russian Art Nouveau, at least for the most talented architects, this style in the first years of its existence seemed to contain great opportunities for the development of rational tendencies in architecture.

However, after the first few years of construction of residential and public buildings In the Art Nouveau style, architects began to reconsider their attitude towards it as a purely decorative, ornamental style, which, in their opinion, became a stumbling block to the development of rational architecture. This is where the desire of architects to free themselves from the decoration characteristic of early modernism and to achieve simplicity comes from. architectural forms, revealing and emphasizing constructive basis building.

The first steps of modernism in Russian architecture are associated with the Second Congress of Russian Architects, held in 1895. At the exhibition organized by him, the works of future representatives of Art Nouveau were exhibited - F. O. Shekhtel, L. N. Kekushev and I. A. Ivanov-Shits. However, despite some inclination towards rational planning, the features characteristic of new trends were still faintly outlined in these works. The principle of symmetry, which underlies the composition of the building of the Mazurin Orphanage in Moscow, designed by I. A. Ivanov-Shitz, fettered freedom planning solution. In the facade of this building, designed in the “neo-Greek” style, one can still discern the hand of the architect who later built the building of the Shanyavsky University on Miusskaya Square in Moscow. High, ridged roofs on the Shekhtel project country house(built on the estate of V. E. Morozov Odintsovo-Arkhangelsk, Podolsk district of the Moscow region; 1890s), are found more than once in the later buildings of this architect, and the free layout of the building, corresponding to the functional requirements, testifies to the rationalistic aspirations of the architect even at the early stage of his creativity. The asymmetrical plan of S. T. Morozov’s house on Spiridonovka (A. Tolstoy St., No. 17) is also well thought out. At the same time, its façade, made in English Gothic forms, and lush interiors make Morozov’s mansion a characteristic example of eclectic architecture, through which elements of the new still very faintly appear.

The period between the I and III Congress of Russian Architects was essentially the time of formation and formation of Russian Art Nouveau in its early stage. A significant milestone towards the recognition of the “new style” was the Third Congress (1900), which took place during the era of industrial growth. At the exhibition organized at this congress, the number of works made in the “new style” increased. Many architects decisively switched to the use of typical Art Nouveau decoration. Among them, we should mention the St. Petersburg architect A. I. von Gauguin, who had previously used eclectic forms in his projects.

Kekushev, Shekhtel and Ivanov-Shitz again participated in this exhibition - this time with an even larger number of works, and, moreover, in a “new style”.

The interpretation of architectural traditions in the projects of Moscow architects was very free. The development of the Art Nouveau style in architecture proceeded under the sign of the struggle against retrospective stylization and eclecticism. But the result of this struggle was often only a new processing of traditional techniques accumulated over centuries in Russian and world architecture in accordance with new building materials and designs. Representatives of Art Nouveau, rejecting centuries-old artistic traditions in architecture and trying to invent new forms, at the same time turned to the motifs of half-forgotten or little-known styles, such as Gothic and Japanese architecture.

Issues of rational architecture occupied a significant place in the work of the Third Congress of Russian Architects. Much attention of the congress participants was attracted by the report of the builders of the Polytechnic in Warsaw, who sought to use the latest technical achievements in its architecture. The start of construction of the polytechnic was preceded by a business trip of its creators to big cities Europe to get acquainted with modern requirements requirements for buildings of higher educational institutions.

The architects of that time sometimes rose to some degree of foreknowledge of the future of architecture. But, being completely dependent on the customer, they could do little to bring this future closer. And yet, the sprouts of rational architecture, breaking through the decorative shell of the emerging modernism, matured and grew stronger.

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