Leningrad School of Book Graphics of the 1960s in the works of graduates of the I. E. Repin Institute

In the art of the post-war period, the Leningrad school stands out for both stylistic specificity and thematic originality. The characteristic features of the art of the 1960s became a complex stylistic system that combined the tendencies of realism, emotional dynamics and lyricism of the thaw and the principles of a harsh style. The pedagogical system of the I. E. Repin Institute, the activities of workshop managers and teachers, the specifics of the educational process and the nature of graduation assignments played a special role in the formation of the Leningrad school. A special attitude to the past is formed by the figurative language associated with the academic tradition, the legacy of the Silver Age and creative pursuits of the 1920s, the works of contemporaries and the aesthetics of cinema. The genre structure is becoming more complicated, easel, book and magazine graphics, industrial graphics and design, and ex libris are dynamically developing. The active activity of the workshops (lithographic), extensive exhibition practices and the emergence of interest in graphics in everyday life formed new principles of expressive language of art of the book of the 1960s. At the I. E. Repin Institute in the workshop of book graphics under the supervision of A. F. Pakhomova and M. A. Taranova are studying artists who are destined to form the Leningrad school of the 1960s – 1980s. The stylistics of book design and book illustrations of graduates reflect the key trends of Russian graphics of the 1960s: the principles of stylization of form and conciseness of language coexist with a realistic narrative approach, the lightness and lyrical openness of linear drawing with the work of planes and minimalism of a closed geometrized structure. B. V. Vlasov, K. Y. Shvets, M. S. Belomlinsky, T. P. Kapustina, M. S. Mayofis, S. K. Begin their creative activity. Artyushenko, R. M. Yakhnin. The graduation works of the book illustrators of the 1960s fully reflect the stylistic diversity and the search for the figurative language of the era.