Russia, the Motherland of Abstract Expressionism?

It is widely surmised that artistic experimentation in USSR had mostly ended with state takeover of the artistic unions, some time in late 1920s and the rest was a belated imitation of the Western artistic movements. But the case continued...

Here I present images of the Russian Abstract Expressionists, who were most active in 1950s or early 1960s, i.e. simultaneously with Pollock and Rothko in the US, and Dubuffet and Wols in Europe.

Ely Bielutin (1925-2012)

Evgenii Mikhnov-Voitenko (1932-1988); but his most innovative work has been done in 1950s

Evgenii Kropivnitskii (1893-1979)

Yakov Chernikhov (1889-1951).

Yakov Chernikhov is better known as an architect and even better--as a designer of fantastic architectural-themed paintings. But his purely abstract output was also significant, though it was closer to Malevich's Suprematism than to the Abstract Expressionism of the fifties.

Tatiana Glebova (1900-1985)

Tatiana Glebova was a relative and a student of Pavel Filonov, the genius. Most of her output was figurative but Thyssen-Bornemissa collection includes some of her Abstract Expressionist work. 

Pavel Zaltsman (1912-1985)

(See the comment)

                                           
 P. Zaltsman

                                   

P. Filonov. Pedagogic. 

The darkest hour

Oscar-bound movie with a primitive plot. Gary Oldman is brilliant and totally believable in imitating Churchill's physicality but that's about it. Kennedy once quipped: "What is private is policy. What is public is propaganda." The movie substitutes Churchill's patriotic speeches and corny flag-waving scenes, probably invented, for his political maneuvers and shenanigans. His refusal to negotiate with Adolf is cursorily explained in the movie "you don't negotiate with a lion having your head in his mouth" but this line is never bolstered by cinematic means.

In fact, Churchill was not a naive fulminating every time his German counterpart was mentioned but a very practical politician who lived through German trashing of Munich agreements (which he supported), attacking Poland and kidnapping British intelligence personnel from then neutral Holland (Venlo Incident), which could have impressed him more than the two previous episodes. Nor was he a passionate anti-Nazi--after the WWII he contributed to the legal defense of Nazi war criminals in British custody.  He simply understood that if Adolf disregarded all previous agreements and understandings--probably a generic feature of German diplomacy from Friedrich II to Merkel--he will not stop now with victory seemingly in his grasp.

The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro

Good. Sally Hawkins is magnificent and the cast (Spencer, Shannon, Stuhlbarg, etc.) is very good but Guillermo del Toro becomes lazy. Could not he find people with genuine Russian pronunciation in New York City? Michael Stuhlbarg's character could be given another bio as, e.g. an Austrian communist to explain his accent. Soviet spies meet with their agent at an abandoned construction site, yet inexplicably come to his apartment in full view of the minders. Michael Shannon, a supposed top intelligence professional shoots an important agent instead of arresting and presenting him to the superiors. Less dramatic but more in-style conclusion would be if Michael Shannon presented a top Soviet agent to the general and was subsequently buried as hero among the accolades, while Hawkins and Doug Jones unite in a passionate embrace under the waves. These are, of course, details but details distinguish a good movie from great.

All the money in the world

Solid, well organized movie. Christopher Plummer as an inscrutable psychopath J. Paul Getty is magnificent. Michelle Williams' understated performance as suffering but steely mother is also good. The cinematic organization is traditional.

Detroit

Kathryn Bigelow got her groove back since her sycophantic "Zero Dark Thirty." The movie is well made and instilled with documentary and mock documentary parts. "The Game of Thrones", as always, appears as a star-making factory (Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and now, Hannah Murray).

Valerian

Luc Besson dedicated Valerian to his father. Unless his father would appreciate his son's ability to undress a large number of models, among them some top-bracket and at least one supermodel (Kara Delevigne) and also Rihanna, there is little in the movie, which can make his dad proud. But, as an experience of the Mad Max demonstrates, that it now takes very little besides special effects to impress modern audiences. But Valerian failed even in that. Characteristically, on imdb, there are few stills of movie itself but plenty of photos from post-film party events.

Baby driver

Excessively high ratings of the "Baby Driver" (90%+ on Rotten Tomatoes) cannot be explained rationally. The movie is a well-made but formulaic thriller (unless one excludes illogical last-minute conversion of Kevin Spacey into a sentimental pussy). The movie has certain coincidences with imperfect but rather brilliant and totally unnoticed "Trance", which also had much better acting work by Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson (2013), in particular the finale with destruction of the chief villain (Jon Hamm/VC) with a falling car. Anglo "Princess" Lily James is miscast--though not terribly--as a waitress with a deep Southern accent. Obviously, the joy of seeing indestructible Mad Man smashing the cars and firing an array of handheld weapons and the adulation by preteen girls of the male star Ansel Elgort outweighs everything.