Irina A. Steklova

The purpose of this article is the manifestation of the influence of V.V. Kandinsky on the artistic processes in China in the 20th century. There is a resonance between Eastern aesthetic and philosophical conservatism, the centuries-old Chinese traditions of the symbolic expression of worldview meanings and individual experiences in landscape, still life, animalistic, plot and everyday compositions, and the revolutionary innovations of the generally recognized pioneer of Western non-objective art.

The phenomenon of this paradoxical resonance explains the rapid spread in an extremely inert cultural environment of the methods of alien abstract expressionism as a self-sufficient system of abstract pictorial-spatial relations: color, light-tonal, linear-rhythmic.

Thanks to the charm of innovative painting in combination with a program of original theoretical provisions, the work of V.V. Kandinsky performed the function of a conductor of abstractionism and modernism. Moreover, it helped Chinese artists to return to the national foundations and show their value to the world, the prospects for the humane humanity of the 21st century.

The purpose of this article is to reveal the world of Chinese nephrite miniature, to give an insight into the art of carving on semi-precious stone as one of the oldest artistic practices of benevolent culture in China.

Traditional themes, types, carriers of well-wishes and specificity of approaches to their interpretation in the lower segment of sculpture size range are shown, taking into account the unique pictorial and textural possibilities of each piece of nephrite. The work of the symbolic sense-making mechanisms in the construction of subjects, the benevolent symbolism plot synthesis logic with the help of the configurations of speech expression is traced. The specific forms of spatial implementation question of this synthesis is considered.

On the example of the collection created by the masters of modern jade crafts in the Xuyan region, the whole variety tythe whole arietypology of jade miniatures as single and complex plastic metaphors is established. In turn, with the help of cultural-historical, semiotic, formal-compositional analysis the types of complex metaphors as compositional solutions of greater or lesser spatial development, static or dynamic character, with the participation of one or more dominants are identified.

The subject of this article is the Chinese-born American architect Yo Ming Pei's the creative programme. It is believed that in the unique objects of Pei, which were built in China in the 1980–2010s, a full-fledged synthesis of architectural forming authentic Chinese and Western modernist principles was carried out for the first time. The aim of this article is to reveal the problems of this synthesis in the Maestro work.

Pei's creative programme as an interplay of professional and attitudinal factors is reconstructed using examples of Chinese objects through cultural-historical, artistic-stylistic, semiotic and formal-stylistic analysis, as well as through the systematisation of professional criticism and scholarly research.

In the process of achieving the aim, the following conclusions were drawn. Firstly, the conclusion about the formation of a consolidated viewpoint on the compatibility of orientations and values of Western modernism and the Chinese architecture unshakable traditions, which, in turn, are elevated to the paradigms of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism. Secondly, the conclusion of the four main factors the interrelationship in Pei's creative programme. Thirdly, the conclusion about the stylistic synthesis of national and international traditions of formation as a neo-romantic adaptation of modernism in China in the XXI century.

The research object within the framework of this article is the works of easel and monumental painting by Minas Avetisyan. The subject of the research is the artistic construction regularities of plots, themes, images of this painting in specific spatial, linear-rhythmic and light-tonal peculiarities. The aim is to determine the formal and substantive essence of Avetisyan's style in the circumstances of its formation and impact on his contemporaries, which continues to this day. In the formation of the style, the influence of the medieval frescoes and manuscripts traditions and Martiros Saryan's personal innovations, in which the fascination with French Fauvism was sublimated, is emphasised. It follows the traditions traditions and the innovations that the artist's evolution is traced, as well as the expression metamorphosis of patriotic, religious and philosophical themes in Armenian painting in the 20th century.

The comparison of the images on differently dated paintings is carried out in the methodology of semantic and formal-compositional analysis. As a comparison result, it is concluded that Minas Avetisyan's style is characterised by the modelling of simplified, expressively stylised forms in sharp light-tonal contrasts, saturated with epic drama <...>. First and foremost, it demonstrates national world-understanding stable priorities; secondly, of the supranational humanistic world-understanding. It is shown that Avetisyan's exceptional aesthetic sensitivity and outstanding scale of personality allowed him to organically combine the former and the latter, to become a kind of guide-educator for a multitude of inquisitive, truth-seeking viewers, to contribute to the fact that the various arts of Armenia are recognised almost immediately all over the world, and are perceived as an integral iconographic and symbolic-associative phenomenon.

The article studies the processes through which modernism was penetrating static Chinese architecture from the second half of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. The process is viewed as a phenomenon foreshadowing the unprecedented economic and cultural leap of the PRC observed in the late 20th century. The study examines two stages of the intensification of modernist trends, which acquired new qualities of development during the socialist period. The first stage (from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century) is characterized by adopting historicism, eclecticism, and Art Nouveau. These styles were used, on the one hand, to address the urgent problems of early urbanization and, on the other, to synchronize China with the pace of world history. It turned out that images of bygone eras, embodied in the forms of foreign architecture, helped to make sense of China's own present and stimulated the modeling of a promising future.

The second step — the Republican stage (1913–1949) — corresponds to the advancement of the Chinese vector of Eastern Art Deco, driven by both local and foreign architects. Chinese society's conviction in the perfection and completeness of its own architectural art ensured the vital necessity of its systematic renewal. In academic circles, as well as among professionals and general public, the awareness grew of the advisability of introducing Western experience into architectural practice, and the possibility of synthesizing this experience with the unique legacy of authentic Chinese architecture.