On the Coffee with Kandinsky channel in Zen, the publication “Russian Christ. Illustrations for the novel “The Idiot” was published, where the author gives his interpretation of a series of works by Viktor Apukhtin to the novel of F. M. Dostoevsky.
Artist Viktor Apukhtin created very unusual illustrations for the famous novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The master not only depicted the key characters of the book, but found a special manner and interpretation for the great text.
Artists turn to the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky quite often, but few manage to create truly original images. Our contemporary Viktor Olegovich Apukhtin is a master of illustration, among his works are series for the novels “Don Quixote”, “Eugene Onegin”, “The Divine Comedy” and many others. The artist offered his version of the characters and events in the novel “The Idiot,” and it turned out to be outstanding.
Apukhtin sees his artistic mission as healing with art and changing people for the better. It is no coincidence, therefore, that he chose this particular novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which best thematically and semantically corresponded to his own idea.
The hero of the novel, Prince Lev Myshkin, becomes for the artist the personification of divine light. He is an incorporeal angel without a shadow, goodness incarnate. Myshkin’s light sometimes overshadows other heroes of the novel and thereby gives them a path to salvation - look at Nastasya Filippovna, into whom Myshkin’s wonderful face literally penetrates.
But for other characters, the saving light remains unavailable. Rogozhin’s meeting with Myshkin in a train carriage is actually a dialogue between light and darkness, and the artist offers a very clear image.
Rogozhin sometimes turns almost into an animal - in this illustration, something of a bull is clearly visible in him, a furious and unbridled element. Myshkin is in amazing goodness.
All illustrations are made using the simplest technique - pencil drawing. But the expressiveness of the pencil turned out to be quite enough to realize the plan. The contrast of a white sheet, barely touched by a pencil, and dense dark shading embodies the difference not only in characters, but also in the worldview of the characters.
In these illustrations, even the landscape is imbued with a mystical element. The artist's style with its nervous, dynamic, restless lines perfectly matches the feeling of impending tragedy in the novel.
Victor Apukhtin describes his understanding of the novel as follows: “F. M. Dostoevsky’s masterpiece “The Idiot” is written on the theme of the lines of the Gospel of John: “He was in the world, and the world began to be through Him, and the world did not know Him.” The Russian language of the novel is pure, precise and poetic. Russian landscape. Russian Christ. “The Idiot” is a text about how in St. Petersburg or in any other city the Savior is crucified every minute. It is transformation that is the nerve of the entire novel. Everyone who meets Lev Myshkin changes clearly. they see the dark and light sides of their soul... The final chord of the novel is murder, repentance and forgiveness."
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