Lozova L. Theological Dimension of the Leningrad School of Avantgarde Art in 1920s-1960s.

The dissertation investigates the theological dimension of the art theory and practice of several representatives of the Leningrad school of the avantgarde art in 1920 -1930s and of the avantgarde art in the form of underground art in the 1960s: the suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, the ideas of the chinars and oberiuts (writers Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedenskiy and the philosopher Yakov Druskin), and the bowl-and-cupola art of Malevich's student Vladimir Sterligov. In the interdisciplinary key, the author analyzes the problematics of the connection of the philosophical and theological ideas of those figures with each other and with Orthodox theology. The author concludes that, while the theory of suprematism was theocentric, but developed as opposed to traditional theology (although it used its vocabulary), in 1960s Vladimir Sterligov aimed at creating a "new canon of Christian art," which would use the imagery and concepts of the avantgarde art of 1920s and 1930s, but went back to the tradition of the Orthodox Christianity in its essence.