THE BURNING DECADES - 60-year cycle of "avant-garde" decades

Our life is cyclical, and now (in 2024) we are in the last year of the meditative decade that began in 2015, characterized by contemplative moods, directed into the depths of one’s inner world, of a creative person seeking harmony and peace that are not available in the surrounding reality.

This decade was a kind of reaction to the time of controversy, turbulent social activity and a series of so-called color revolutions from 2005 to 2014.

If we look back into history, we will see a series of active decades, filled with action and the search for new, non-standard, revolutionary solutions - followed by decades of the creative intelligentsia leaving the realm of active practical life for the realm of meditation, reflection and sensory perception of reality.

So, every 10 years humanity changes both the direction and style of its activities quite radically – during the “meditative” decades, the people, the patriotic and conservative forces of society, take on the solution of practical issues. At this time, discussions ceased, and most wars arose, including all world wars.

On the contrary, during the "active" decades, the intelligentsia comes to the fore, life becomes bright and colorful, disputes and discussions arise, often taking the form of popular unrest and revolutions. Paradoxically, during these decades, wars occurred much less frequently and their scale was relatively small.

The "active" decades gain their greatest strength once every 60 years. Let's agree to call them "avant-garde". One of them gains particular strength once every 120 years.

Let's call it the decade of the "first avant-garde". Note that it was in this decade (1785-1794) that the "Great French Revolution" took place, during which a profound breakdown in human psychology occurred, which continues to this day. Exactly 120 years later - in the decade (1905-1914) - a new tectonic shift in the layers of the human psyche occurred, expressed in the revolutionary emergence of modern avant-garde art, reflecting not only a change in thinking, but also in our entire lifestyle.

The decades of the “second avant-garde” * follow 60 years later, like an echo, repeating and developing the style of the first avant-gardes.

An example is the revolutionary atmosphere of the time of the creation of the Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1845-1854 – the “second avant-garde” (exactly 60 years after the decade of the Great French Revolution). The same applies to the time of the emergence of global student unrest in 1965-1974 – the second avant-garde, as an emotional echo of the events of 1905-1914.

Today, 120 years later, we await with hope, anxiety and excitement the arrival of the next decade of the first avant-garde 2025-2034.



But it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times - we have the opportunity to look into these decades through the eyes of the world's most famous artists who have received public recognition.

In order to see the 600-year-old brightest period of our life, which has just passed into history, you will need only ten artists who worked in these decades.





1425-1434 – The turbulent decade of the “first avant-garde” (rational cycle)



The activities of Joan of Arc, feudal strife in Russia and throughout Europe, Dante's readings in Florence, L. Valla's treatise "On Pleasure".











1485-1494 – Decade of the “second avant-garde” (rational cycle)




The time of departure from medieval asceticism – emotional excitement – revival of interest in the beauty of earthly reality and the naked female body. – P. Mirandola – “Speech on the Dignity of Man” – “… (man) not constrained by any limits… in the center of the world…” From 1491 Savonarola’s sermons – Hymn: “Intoxicated with love for the bleeding son of God on the cross, wild, joyful and noisy – we are crazy, we are crazy, we are crazy in Christ!” - 1492 – Columbus discovers America – Metropolitan Zosima declares Moscow the third Rome. – In Michelangelo’s relief “Battle of the Centaurs” – a tangle of naked, intertwined bodies – dynamics, energy, sensuality, plasticity, expression.











The revival of the ancient myth, the revival of the ideal of love, sensual joy - energy, swiftness, joyful movement - the ideal image of the sensual world - this is not sensuality, but this is the desire for a sensual ideal - the antithesis of the Christian mortification of the flesh - not joy, but the ideal of joy, not a feeling, but an ideal, the idea of feeling, not reality, but a goal, a symbol, a new direction of movement.





1545-1554 – Decade of the “First Avant-garde” (Sensual Cycle)




Syphilis epidemic in Europe (1546) – Michelangelo - the huge dome of St. Peter's Cathedral - grandeur, majesty, power. – 1547 – Henry II creates the Fiery Chamber - The reign of Ivan the Terrible. – From 1550, Ronsard's odes – 1552 – Du Bellay - "The Lament of the Despaired" - "... The poems now flow in a different direction... their streams, previously transparent and measured, let them now be muddy and stormy..." - 1553 - Ronsard's "low" style - The beginning of the reign of Bloody Mary.









Alexandre Benois on Tintoretto’s “The Miracle of St. Mark”:

"The work of the young master is seized with some kind of feverishness, almost "madness". Everything here is different from what has been in Venice or anywhere else. The laws of equilibrium are violated; the masses bend, twist, hang in a dizzying whirlwind. The picture as a whole is filled with anxiety..."





1605-1614 - Decade of the "second avant-garde" (sensual cycle)




1605 – “Knowledge is power” – F. Bacon’s grandiose plan for the “Great Restoration of the Sciences”. – The capture of Moscow by False Dmitry. – 1606 – Bolotnikov’s Rebellion – 1607 – Mannerism (F. Zuccaro’s treatise) – Shakespeare’s tragedy “Coriolanus” – 1609 – Formation of the Republic in Holland – Lope de Vega “…to curry favor with the mob…” – up to 1610 – The drama and energy of Caravaggio’s works









Catastrophism, formalism - torn forms - extreme excitement - screaming emotion





1665-1674 – Decade of the “first avant-garde” (rational cycle)




1665-6 – Newton thinks about universal gravitation – In France, the Journal of Scientists is founded – Moliere’s comedy “Don Juan or the Stone Guest” – Nikon’s reforms – Revolt in Russia – Civil war in Poland – 1670-1 – Razin’s rebellion – Moliere’s “The Bourgeois Gentleman” – ridicule of the vices of society









The Collapse of the Rebellion of Youth – Drama, generalization.






1725-1734 – the decade of the “second avant-garde” (rational cycle)




1725 – Beginning of the era of palace revolutions in Russia – The concept of Utilitarianism (F. Hutcheson) – 1726 – Swift’s satire and fantasy - “Gulliver” – 1727 – I. Newton’s coffin is carried in the arms of dukes and earls – Satires and parodies by A. Pope, J. Gay – 1730 – The comedy of disguises “The Game of Love and Chance” (P. Marivaux) – A fairy-tale, satirical, mocking comedy about “…The life and death of the great Tom Thumb” (G. Fielding) - “Critical poetics” - “…the ideal of beauty, based on reason…” (I. Gottsched) – 1731 – A series of paintings “A Prostitute’s Career” (Hogarth) – 1734 – “English or Philosophical Letters” (Voltaire)









The power of spiritual aspiration, dynamics, energy, exalted and excited expression, formality and generalization.





1785-1794 – Десятилетие «первого авангарда» (чувственный цикл)




1785 - J. Schiller - Hymn "To Joy" - "Millions! To our arms! The world is a kiss to you!" - "Revolutionary classicism" of David's painting "The Oath of the Horatii" - "The Merry Beggars" by R. Burns - "All are equal and all are drunk" - "The categorical imperative" by I. Kant - 1786 - Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" - C. Beaumarchais "... The spirit of the nation is experiencing a kind of happy crisis: a bright, all-pervading light ... Everywhere there is anxiety, activity, a search for reform ..." - 1787 - J. Goethe - a surge of creative energy - the tragedy "Egmont" - 1789 - French Revolution - "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" - Melting of ice in Greenland (abnormal general warming). – 1790 - W. Blake - the poem "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" - 1791 - Mozart - "Requiem" - Hegel, Schelling and Hölderlin plant the symbolic "Tree of Liberty" - 1793-4 - (France) - "Avant-garde" (Jacobin magazine) - "TERROR" - tribunals, repressions - Dictatorship of the Jacobins - "Gothic Novel" by A. Radcliffe.











1845-1854 – The Decade of the “Second Avant-garde” (Sensual Cycle)





1845 – The struggle between the earthly and the heavenly in R. Wagner’s opera “Tannhäuser” - Painting by A. Menzel – etude, light, gust of wind - A. Herzen – “…no way out in sight…” - Agrarian-industrial crisis in France – Short story “Carmen” by Mérimée - E. Poe – collection “The Raven” - 1846 – W. Turner, painting “The Hero of a Hundred Battles” – “flash, drama, expression” - Novel “Poor People” by Dostoevsky – Critical realism of Fedotov’s painting - 1847 – World financial crisis - 1848 – Revolution in France - “Manifesto of the Communist Party” - 1848-9 – Painting by O. Daumier – “Drama, asceticism, energy of hopelessness…” - “Gold Rush” in California – 1849-50 - Courbet - "To Peasantize Art" - "Funeral at Ornans" - 1850 - "The Ninth Wave" by Aivazovsky - 1854 - Dostoevsky - "I am a child of the century, a child of disbelief and doubt ... a thirst to believe." - F. Liszt - "Mazepa", symphonic poem - "... A furious ride ..." "... unprecedented worries, painful whims ..."








“…Expression, energy, dynamics, emotionality, contrast, presence here and now, expressiveness…”






1905-1914 – The Decade of the “First Avant-garde” (Rational Cycle)




1905 – In Russia – “Tsushima” – “Bloody Sunday” – “Dubinushka” – Revolution – V.I. Ivanov - "hateful bliss" - Lehar, operetta "The Merry Widow" - "The Wild Ones" - Matisse - Derain - "Paints... cartridges and gunpowder..." - "Expressionism" - Freud's "Libido" - Einstein's "Relativity" - 1906 - Chulkov's "Mystical Anarchism" - J. London's "White Fang" - Sinclair's "Jungle" (muckrakers) - 1907 - "Minkowski Space" - "Cubism" - Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" - 1907-8 - Financial Crisis - Shestov "Anything but Reasonable" - 1909 - "The Futurist Manifesto" - "War... the Hygiene of the World" - "The Firebird" - Stravinsky's ballet - 1910 - Kandinsky's "Abstraction" - 1911 - Planetary model of the atomic nucleus – Rutherford – “Atonal music” by Schoenberg – 1912 – “A slap in the face of public taste” by Mayakovsky – “Man is the future” by Blok – “Metaphysical painting” by Chirico – “Quantum theory” by N. Bohr – 1913-14 – Mondrian – “Black square” by Malevich (shown in 1915). – The image of the “tramp” by Chaplin.








Decorativeness, simplification, return to the pre-cultural primitive state of human society – Dynamics of a round dance, bacchanalia, orgy – Rejection of the culture and conventions of a 19th century man…





1965-1974 – The Decade of the “Second Avant-garde” (Rational Cycle)




1965 – “A poet in Russia is more than a poet” (Yevtushenko) – “Antiworlds” by Voznesensky on Taganka – “Fantomas has gone wild” (Jean Marais) – In the USSR – “Nonconformists”, “Dissidents”, “Underground”, “Moscow Left”, “Underground”, “Unofficial”, – USA – Riot in the Negro ghetto – 1966 – China “Cultural Revolution” - “... Art is free, shameless, irresponsible...” (Bergman) – “The Beatles” - “Theatrical boom” (Italy) – “Pop art” - 1967 – “Hippies” “... White clothes, flower, love” - USA – “Summer of love” - 1968 – France “Student revolt” - “Imagination in power” - “Be realistic – demand the impossible! ", "Already 10 days of happiness!" - "Conceptualism", "Body Art" - "Pesnyary" (Minsk) - 1969 - Woodstock Festival - "Kitsch" - "Theater of Action" (USA) - "Satyricon" (Fellini) - 1970 - "Hyperrealism" - "Spiritual Catastrophe" (Furastier) - "Red Brigades" - "Moscow-Petushki" (Erofeev) - 1971 - The idea of "The Clock of History" by Nesterov - "The Desire to Understand the Chaos of Life" - 1971 - "Orthodoxy and Patriotism" (Solzhenitsyn) - "Andrei Rublev" (Tarkovsky) - 1972 - "The Godfather" (Coppola's film) - "Solaris" (Tarkovsky) - USSR - Brodsky's Expulsion - 1973 - Petrushevskaya "Lessons music" - Energy crisis - 1974 - Moscow - "Bulldozer exhibition" - "Star Wars" (Lucas' film) - "Against the Method" (Feyerabend).








Expression, dynamics, contrast of light and shadow, of the earthly and heavenly…




Grigory Nesterov 12.27.2024 ©



* M. Grobman's term in relation to the style of art in the USSR from 1965 to 1974.




All rights belong to the author. Citation with indication of the source.



See illustrations:https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366601




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Eightieth anniversary of the end of World War II (cyclicity and painting of the war decade) https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366941

On the benefits of mistakes (Cyclicity of historical time) https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366891

Active post-avant-garde decades (3) https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366721

Post-avant-garde meditative decades (2) https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366651

Turbulent decades (1) (60-year cycle of avant-garde decades) –
https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366601

See history https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=365901

Painting and thirty years of wars https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=365861

Thirty Years' War or the redivision of the world https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=365821

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World of Culture - https://www.facebook.com/groups/321408011981360/




Rhythms of world culture - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=263461

Eras of history (cycles of world culture) - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=274781

Sixty-year cycle of "avant-garde" decades - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=278531

About 60-year cycles of culture - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=361801

Meditative decades - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=362921

Acceptance of the subtlety and beauty of the world (the "final" decade of the 60-year cycle) - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=281241

All cycles of the 600-year stage summer - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=283691

Sensuality and rationality. (Human psychology and the cyclical nature of time) - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog....5561&goto=prev

Yin and Yang - interaction and coexistence of opposites - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog....5771&goto=prev

Objectivity and non-objectivity (global cycles of world culture) - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog....0791&goto=next

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The Golden Age - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog....5851&goto=next

Stylistic trends of the new century https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=344491

"Sovrisk" - (art of the 20th century) - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog....4561&goto=next

Worldwide synchronicity of changes in public sentiment - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=364451

Global synchronicity of psychophysical processes - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=364401

Panpsychic waves - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=286091

What awaits humanity? - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=284071

Megayear of Human Culture - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=350291

The Second Megayear of Human Culture - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=353361

Megayear - Summary - https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog....1201&goto=next

What does history say? https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=365751

What awaits us in the next 600 years? https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=366351

The Clock of History. Rhythms of World Culture. - https://vk.com/doc790580877_66157159...0Wmm848SBFSiED

The Clock of History. Rhythms of World Culture file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/Часы%20Иистории.PDF



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Museum Night on May 18 in Sochi Museum D,D. Zhilinsky https://vk.com/wall429042872_574?z=v..._429042872_574

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Culture and Consumption https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=364351

A Miser Pays Twice?... https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=362491



World Exhibition of Painting. Minsk https://forum.artinvestment.ru/blog.php?b=354021



25.05.2025