Mir iskusstva

also: World of Art · Мир искусства

movement 1898-1927 Russia Europe

Mir iskusstva ('World of Art') was both a Russian magazine and the movement it fostered, founded in St Petersburg in November 1898 by Alexandre Benois, Konstantin Somov, Dmitry Filosofov, Léon Bakst and Eugene Lanceray, and launched as a journal in 1899 under Sergei Diaghilev's editorship. It stood against the didactic realism of the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) and for artistic freedom, beauty and Art Nouveau elegance. Retrospective and playful, the group loved the eighteenth century and rococo, Watteau, Venetian carnival, masks, marionettes and fairy tale, working lightly in watercolour, gouache, graphics and book design. Six exhibitions (1899-1906) marked its classical period; the magazine ended in 1904. Revived in 1910 under Nicholas Roerich and later Ivan Bilibin, it outlasted the revolution in name - last exhibition Paris, 1927 - while its theatre design and publishing reshaped Russian art and the Ballets Russes stage.

Boris Kustodiyev. Group Portrait of the World of Art Artists. Sketch. 1916-20. oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Fr
Boris Kustodiyev. Group Portrait of the World of Art Artists. Sketch. 1916-20. oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. FrPublic domain (credit: Boris Kustodiev) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Light, decorative handling in watercolour and gouache rather than heavy oils
  • Retrospective fantasies: eighteenth-century parks, gallant scenes, Venice and carnival
  • Mask, marionette, puppet-theatre and fairy-tale subjects played with humour and self-parody
  • Graphic elegance: firm line, ornamental borders and exuberant book design
  • Neo-romantic nostalgia - beauty cultivated against industrial modernity

Key figures

  • Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) — Chief editor and ideologue of the journal; later founder of the Ballets Russes
  • Alexandre Benois (1870-1960) — Painter-critic and leader of the revival; stage designs and book illustration
  • Léon Bakst (1866-1924) — Designer who reinvented stage colour for the Ballets Russes
  • Konstantin Somov (1869-1939) — Painter of rococo reveries, masks and carnival scenes
  • Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (1875-1969) — Graphic artist known for Petersburg cityscapes, book design and theatre work

Example works

  • Stage designs and costumes for Petrushka — Alexandre Benois (1911)
  • Set and costume designs for Cléopâtre — Léon Bakst (1909)
  • Costume and set designs for L'après-midi d'un faune — Léon Bakst (1912)

Sources

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