The simultaneous existence of modernist and neo-avant-garde tendencies in nonconformist art of Ukraine in the 1980s

Abstract

In the early 1980s, the nonconformist art movement in Odesa, which had been developing since the mid-1950s, was widened by a new generation of artists. Their art searches differed significantly from their senior colleagues, which led to the formation of a separate movement within nonconformism, which later became known as APTART. The differences were mainly in the worldview of artists, aesthetics, themes, artistic techniques. The art of the new generation was closer to the Western neo-avant-garde, while their older colleagues tended toward modernism. The presence of two different well-defined movements within the nonconformism, a phenomenon in itself countercultural to official culture, distinguished the artistic process in Odesa in the 1980s from other cities in Ukraine. It is these features of the artistic life of that time, still insufficiently covered and analysed. The text considers the part of the work of the Odesa APTART artists, which the most clearly displays the elements of neo-avant-garde aesthetics, that, accordingly, affected the artistic means: acts, performances happenings; the differences between the two groups of artists belonging to the nonconformist subculture were analysed. Specific acts, works of the APTART artists opposed to the background of creative activity of their colleagues are considered. The stages of the APTART artists’ creativity development are traced. Within the disclosure of the research theme, the text highlights the processes of nonconformist artistic life in the main cities of Ukraine, traces parallels to similar phenomena in world art. Due to the experience of recent researches, the terms that directly affect the subject of the paper are specified: nonconformism, informal art, avant-garde, modernism, neo-avant-garde.