Artistic practices of the Abramtsevo circle as a way to preserve and transmit folk culture

The aim of the study is to analyze the artistic practices of the Abramtsevo Circle (an association of artists created by the Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist Savva Mamontov in the second half of the 19th century), in the aspect of preserving and transmitting folk culture. The author used published and unpublished sources, including memoirs and correspondence of circle members, essays and articles by contemporaries. The methodological basis of the study was the semiotic and cultural-historical approaches. The author shows that the Abramtsevo Circle was a community of outstanding artists (Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Ilya Repin, Viktor and Apollinary Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, et al.), in which not only the study of the national cultural heritage took place, but also its actualization in the process of aesthetic transformation of the surrounding space by combining beauty and usefulness. The author explores the significance of the ideology of the artistic association for the preservation of traditional culture, paying attention to the characteristics of Mamontov’s personality; analyzes the educational activity of the artists who were members of the Abramtsevo Circle. The author notes that the members of the circle sought to return to the Russian people their culture, transformed by professional artists. In the estate of Abramtsevo, a literacy school for peasants and workshops for learning the craft were organized. The author emphasizes the role of friendly communication between artists, which helped them to transfer their creative experience from one generation of masters to another. She characterizes the correlation of traditions and innovations in the creative work of the circle members, and reveals that the considered artistic practices both renewed the traditions of folk art and embodied innovative creative searches. The author notes that the diversity of artists’ creative activities led to the creation of a significant component of Russian modernism - the “neo-Russian style”. Non-artistic forms of artistic creativity within the framework of the circle contributed to the implementation of the social function of art, which manifested itself in helping people, solving educational problems, and bringing art into people’s everyday life. The author concludes that the artistic practices of the Abramtsevo Circle combined original creative ideas, outstanding works of art ,and the aesthetics of a style based on the national cultural traditions of the Russian people.