YURI SOBOLEV’S CULTURAL CIPHER SYSTEM

This article focuses on Y. Sobolev's artistic work in different media: magazine illustration, independent graphics, animation and video-art, in which he practiced playing with images taken from different eras of art history. The author is interested in the degree of independence and originality of the artist in addressing heterogeneous traditions and pre-existing images. This article aims to use examples of his works to illustrate specificity of Sobolev's imagery, as he embodied his interest in metaphysics, esoterics and codes of other cultures in his art. The author aims to reveal and analyse the intercontextual practices of the artist, their peculiarities with the consideration of the genre of his projects, the search for the background of Y. Sobolev's original vision of art in his biography and his personal preferences in literary and philosophical fields. The description and analysis of the artist's works in different media were used as a method, with the focus on the works of Y. Sobolev in the illustrations for the popular science periodicals, in particular, for the “Znanie sila” magazine and “Nauka i mankind” anthology. After the research it was established that Y. Sobolev, while actively referring to a wide range of contexts, never was eclectic, but created meta-cultural artistic space according to its own logic, according to which dialogue with the past serves to better disclose the new meanings and challenges emerging with the development of science and progress of the second half of the 20th century. The individual works of the artist are put together into a coherent work, in which he involved contemporary artists as well. In the scientific literature, a comprehensive approach to the chosen topic with a description and analysis of the specific illustrations appearing in this text has not yet been given.