Experiencing of Tradition (About the World of Lazar Gadaev’s Creativity)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the heritage of Lazar Gadaev and those facets of his works that are associated with the author’s interpretation of the key values of human existence, the transmission of existential experience in its national and universal features in plastic images. The methodological basis for the analysis of the sculptor’s work is the ideas of M. M. Bakhtin about “expressive and speaking being” as a subject of the humanities, the role of extra-textual space, semantic context, the author’s voice, the difference between “small” and “big time”, which emphasizes the “work” of the image in the near temporal perspective and its “distant contexts” — in consonance with the cultural traditions of the past and the potential horizon of the cuture. Particular attention is paid to the role of experience in the works of L. Gadaev, the author’s ways of conveying the psychological state of the hero, his emotional mood and the features of existential situations are considered. Such methods include a combination of simplicity or “primitivism” with the monumentality of the image, the use of small details as symbols that fi x or shade semantic shades, the language of the face and body with elements of the author’s simplifi cation to fundamentally important features in the composition. The appeal to tradition, which includes a romantic attitude to nature and the historical past, is an essential part of the artist’s conceptual perspective. Tradition in his works is given primarily through the experience of characters, relationships, key life situations that have an archetypal significance, refers to the idea of the integrity of life and creativity, on the basis of which, according to M. M. Bakhtin, art grows as the responsibility of the author.