Olena Onishchenko
Institute for Cultural Research of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv.
ORCID ID 0000-0002-7118-3276
DOI:
Keywords: art of rivalry, tandem creativity, artistic stimuli, the ugly, artistic continuity.
Abstract.
The article analyzes Sebastian Smee’s cultural studies project, which aims to expand strategies for investigating the phenomenon of the creative personality through an emphasis on the concept of the “art of rivalry”, exemplified by the relationship between two outstanding representatives of the avant-garde movement, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The logic of the study necessitates consideration of three related issues: the phenomenon of the creative tandem, the stimuli of artistic creativity, and the phenomenon of artistic continuity. Together, these issues activate and broaden the mechanisms for developing the theoretical foundation of the concept of the art of “rivalry”.
The first issue—the phenomenon of tandem creativity—is examined through the framework of both the “anti-tandem” and the “tandem”, represented by two pairs: Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso (the “anti-tandem”), and Gertrude and Leo Stein (the “tandem”). In Smee’s project, the latter are positioned as moral-psychological and aesthetic provocateurs who performed a complex and significant function in the lives and creative development of both painters.
The second theoretical issue within the conceptual logic of analyzing the “art of rivalry” concerns the stimuli of artistic creativity. The article emphasizes that the extensive empirical body of evidence presented in Smee’s study leads to an expansion of the methodological tools used for its interpretation and focusing on the reflection of the ugly in the works of Matisse and Picasso, actualizes the analysis of the following processual sequence: the ugly — stimulus of creativity —the art of rivalry.
The third related issue addressed in this study is the articulation of one of the fundamental factors of the creative process—artistic continuity traditionally regarded as an object of aesthetic analysis but within the context of the rivalry between Matisse and Picasso, it activates new research strategies in both ethical and psychological dimensions.
Author‘s biography.
Olena Onishchenko
Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, professor, senior researcher, Institute for Cultural Research of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine; Head of the Department of Humanities, I. K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, Kyiv.
References:
Hassel, K. (2024). Istoriia mystetstva bez cholovikiv [The story of art without men]. ArtHuss. (in Ukrainian)
Kryvosheia, T. O. (2013). Estetychne vykhovannia v suchasnomu kulturotvorchomu protsesi [Aesthetic education in the contemporary culture-creating process]: Monograph. Kyiv. (in Ukrainian)
Menzhulin, V. (2010). Biohrafichnyi pidkhid v istoryko-filosofskomu piznanni [The biographical approach in historical-philosophical cognition]. Kyiv: National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; Agrar Media Group. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305755258_Biograficnij_pidhid_v_istoriko-filosofskomu_piznanni_monografia_Vadim_Menzulin (in Ukrainian)
Onishchenko, O. (2011). Pysmennyky yak doslidnyky: Potentsial teoretychnykh idei (O. Wilde, T. Mann, A. France, I. Franko, S. Zweig) [Writers as researchers: The potential of theoretical ideas (O. Wilde, T. Mann, A. France, I. Franko, S. Zweig)]. Monograph. Kyiv: Institute for Cultural Research of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. https://icr.org.ua/vydannya/knygy/pysmennyky-yak-doslidnyky-potentsial-teoretychnyh-idej-o-uajld-t-mann-a-frans-i-franko-s-tsvejg/ (in Ukrainian)
Onishchenko, O. I. (2017a). Kulturotvorchyi potentsial epistoliariiu: Yevropeiskyi dosvid druhoi polovyny XIX – pershoi polovyny XX stolittia [The culture-creating potential of epistolary heritage: European experience of the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century]. Lira-K Publishing House. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34026/1997-4264.26.2020.202674
Onishchenko, O. (2017b). Fenomen potvornoho v kontseptualnomu prostori yevropeiskoi humanistyky: “Reabilitatsiia” Karla Rozenkrantsa [The phenomenon of the ugly in the conceptual space of European humanities: Karl Rosenkranz’s “rehabilitation”]. Naukovyi visnyk Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu teatru, kino i telebachennia imeni I. K. Karpenka-Karoho, 21, 130–135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34026/1997-4264.21.2017.221085 (in Ukrainian)
Polishchuk, O. (2007). Khudozhnie myslennia: Estetyko-kulturolohichnyi dyskurs: Monografiia [Artistic thinking: An aesthetic and cultural discourse: Monograph]. Kyiv: Parapan. https://eprints.zu.edu.ua/13130/ (in Ukrainian)
Schifano, Laurence. (1990). Luchino Visconti: The flames of passion. Collins.
Shynkarenko, O. V. (2018). “Kulturnyi povorot” yak zapyt do kulturolohii [The “cultural turn” as a challenge to cultural studies]. Ukrainian Cultural Studies: Collection of Scholarly Papers of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 1(2), 55–58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/UCS.2018.1(2).13 (in Ukrainian)
Smee, Sebastian. (2020). Mystetstvo supernytstva. Chotyry istorii pro druzhbu, zradu y podvyhy v mystetstvi [The art of rivalry. Four friendships, betrayals, and breakthroughs in art]. Kyiv: ArtHuss. (in Ukrainian)
Syrbu, H. V. (2025). Tandemna tvorchist u khudozhnii kulturi druhoi polovyny XX – pochatku XXI stolit [Tandem creativity in the artistic culture of the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries]. Manuscript. Kyiv: National Music Academy of Ukraine. (in Ukrainian)
Zhukova, N. A. (2016). Elitarna literatura v imenakh [Elite literature in names]. Institute for Cultural Research of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. https://icr.org.ua/vydannya/knygy/elitarna-literatura-v-imenah/ (in Ukrainian)
The article was received by the editorial office on 08.16.2026.
The article was accepted for publication after review on 24.06.2026.
The article was published on 26.06.2026.
Vol 29 No 1 (2026)
Section: THEORY AND HISTORY OF CULTURE.