A spiral is an architectonic imperative of the living and lifeless nature of the Cosmos. A work of plastic art as a miniature cosmos follows this universal, ultimately generalized model or its fragment in its spatial development.

The most perfect manifestation of this principle of plastic art and space is the life of a human, of their body, their mind, and their emotional and spiritual experience.

On Contrapposto of the Body and Plastics

The plastics of the human body and its parts are dependent on spiral movement.

Contrapposto may be considered the quintessence of the plastics of human body – a human figure standing with its weight on one foot, the other knee bent, and the leg relaxed, sometimes put aside, as if making a small step when the pelvis twists off-axis from the shoulders – thus creating a spiral movement of the torso as well as of the legs, arms, neck and head.

All other plastic movements of the body and its positions are traced back to contrapposto – the discovery of the Ancient Greek art. This position reflects sense of the world manifested in the Ancient Greek culture which considers the relaxed state of a human that is conducive to thinking, yet implies a certain readiness to act as the most important thing in his or her life.

Extract from the 'Study of Contrapposto of the Body
In Depicting Saints and Crucifixion;

In my opinion, the Alexeevsky Crucifixion (1380, stone) in the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod is the most impressive version of contrapposto with its bent knees. Jesus is exhausted and humbled. The contrast between movement and rest of the forms, diagonal rhythm of intersecting vectors of torso of the Crucified that seems to be "flowing down", his raised hands, stretched out, as if crying to Heaven – his head drooped down – all these elements form a polyphonic balance that underlines the self-sufficiency of the Spirit. The slightly bent knees in the contrapposto position enrich the image with infirmity and humbleness.

Vasily Rozanov adds: "...the highest spiritual enlightenments cannot be achieved without preliminary humility".

It is the most expressive Crucifixion I have ever seen. I believe that the unique fusion of Ancient Russian Christianity and national character is reflected in Crucifixions of this type.

The Crucifixion by Savva of Vishera, on a 15 century-wooden cross, becomes closer to the Alexeevsky Crucifixion in respect to the position on the body but it is more peaceful.

The Crucifixion of the Perm wooden sculpture comes close to it. Some of them are characterized by a drastic contrast between active diagonal rhythm of arms of the Crucifix and image's state of humbleness thus indicating the existence of the Moral principles of the Universe.

Dionisius is another (and the final) peak of Ancient Russian art on the subject of Crucifixion.

The deliberate use of contrapposto in the Crucifixion on his icons makes the image a plastic key to the architectonics of the Universal.

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The movement of the forms of a human body in contrapposto pose resembles the infinity symbol ∞ or number 8 both of which graphically repeat body forms in this spiral-shaped position and obtain the spatial properties of the body themselves following the spiral of contrapposto.

The infinity sign ∞ implies that it includes the past, present and future – which are united by eternity and have their own equivalents in the graphics of the symbol.

The plastics of the human body, which have a graphical and dimensional analogy with this sign, acquire the temporary characteristics of eternity in the meaning of intransience as a promise.

Plastics as an Aesthetical Measure
of Figurativeness in Art

The plasticity of a human body is an indispensable category of a work of art.

It acquires its visible fundamental manifestation in the spatial balance of the chest and the pelvis of a human body in contrapposto position.

While the plastics or its fragments are found in a work of art, it could be categorized as a work of the visual arts.

September 3, 2016

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…if I am not mistaken, only plastic form has a true value…*

Henri Matisse

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The curves of a form, the most attractive thing to the eye, turn into the aesthetic value of an a work of art as they produce emotional and expressive, spiritually and elevated state of a human being.

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Plastic intuition that reveals person's inner character in a composite portrait is the way to the highest form of the visual arts – only the icon is higher than that.

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The space which represents a type of reflection of the plastics of a human body is the most expressive. Space configuration may be the reflection of other models the content of which it corresponds to.

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Architectural forms are crowned with plastic movement just as a tree is crowned with leaves.

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Without plastics there is no idea of temptation as the opposite of the beautiful.

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To get one's own sense of space (rather than a borrowed one) in the plastics one should train oneself to work on studies with a model put in the position of contrapposto.

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One should make setups for a drawing with the maximum number of contractions of perspective, and elimination of forms – while preserving the main plastic motive.

February 23, 2010

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A pencil tip should feel the depth of shape and follow its spatial growth. The artist's experience of plastic drama of a body makes the line tenser, and allows to express artistically the mystery of drawing three-dimensional objects on the plane.

July 16, 2009

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The sculpture seeks to take the streamlined shape of a mandorla (in icons) or its fragment that creates a feeling of integrity, the meaning of which is the experience of individuation, isolation.

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The intersection of forms in the arts implies simultaneous existence and mutual penetration of subjects that belong to different "unearthly" worlds invisible to each other, thus shaping the united multidimensional Universe.

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Both spatial gigantism and rhythmicity of natural forms are striking, and man-made forms are far from their spiritless perfection.

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But Man feels insufficiency of the nature and tries to enrich it with intensity of the dramatic plastics of his body and the sacrifice of his spiritual image with the help of arts.

May 14, 2002
Sweden

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Professional Creative Work Offers Opportunities
for Spiritual Growth

Everyone feels their own imperfection. When one lives the best moments in life, he or she tries to overcome these imperfections or, at least, to rise to higher level of the mind through the creating spiritual space in physical space of plastic symbols – in life as well as in the art.

I have always wondered about the state when a person overcomes him or herself, rises at the moment of artistic or spiritual creation, moral revelation…

This state is expressed in a plastic way mostly as the movement of anthropomorphous forms upwards on the diagonal in my works. I believe that the spring of this movement is a constructive principle of Ancient Greek contrapposto of a body known as a spiral ("Steps", 1987, bronze; "Ascension", 1979, bronze, granite; "MYSTERY", 1997-1998, granite; "INFINITY", 2001-2011, granite).

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Spiritual Vectors in the Arts

Vertical – in the direction of The Absolute
Diagonal – a burst, self-insufficiency
Horizontal – humbleness
Spiral – circularity

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Composition and Language of the Plastic Arts Idea

The contrapposto of the Crucifixion, as the state of a hanged body, is an eternal source of the highest type of the plastics.

The plastics of contrapposto are a principle and a spring of the composition of the whole work of art that develops in the space of a spiral.

The interaction of two or several spirals can be the space of composition (Discovery in "The Tower" by Vladimir Tatlin).

A spiral is a universal, perfect model of the Universe. The heart – the symbol of life – consists of one muscle in a spiral form, according to modern science. Separate parts of this muscle contract in helical sequence and form a cardiac cycle.

Successively changing backgrounds of the spiralling form should make a viewer look behind the sculpture, to imagine its hidden part – thus creating the feeling of the depth of space.

The harmony of compositional thinking demonstrated in our creative work corresponds to the character and the degree of naturalness of our behaviour in life.

Spiritual processes also develop in a spiral way, and therefore the spiral may serve as a symbol of intellectual and spiritual achievements while preserving concentration on spiritual doing in the inner life.

In composition, just as in life itself, events of the human inner world sometimes happen at the same time and in the same place.

Sometimes principles of the composition become clear in a work of art before they are understood. It means that understanding follows intuition. If intuition appears sooner than knowledge, it is defined as a revelation.

August 9, 2010

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The Peace of Spiritual Contemplation Is Ideal
Content in a Work of Art

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Meaning of Creative Work

It is impossible to halt the moment, but it can be expressed in a fixed movement of the plastic form.

A halted moment is expressed as an aspiration for perfection and melancholy caused by its unattainability – as a fixation of the state at rare, high moments of life, as the existentia of "self", just like the process of creation of the Anderssein of individual spiritual experience in the Eternal Creation.

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"INFINITY" is a halted moment of the movement which lasts forever.

Valery Yevdokimov
August 2–30, 2011

* TN: Translation by Jack D. Flam.