Polemical dialogue with artists of the past: On the creative heritage of E. L. Rotenberg. Unknown pages of biography

The article is devoted to the creative heritage of the Russian artist Evgeny Lvovich Rotenberg (1899-1968), whose works are presented in the leading state museums of St. Petersburg. The aim of the study is to reveal previously unknown pages of the artist’s biography; to appeal to his pictorial heritage, which has undoubted artistic value. The article sheds light on the facts of the early period of the artist’s life and the formation of his creative style under the influence of his teachers and mentors, the artists S. M. Zeydenberg, V. E. Savinsky, A. E. Karev, P. N. Filonov. The style of E. L. Rotenberg, discovered from an early age, has been preserved over time – an expressive style with the maximum permissible exposure of the momentary internal state. It is shown that, despite the lack of attention to the “style impulses of the time”, the artist often turned to the pictorial classics, entering into a plastic dialogue with the old masters. The study is novel in that it sheds light on previously unclear facts about E. L. Rotenberg’s life path. In addition, the article notes the artist’s creative feature, such as the need for the pictorial and plastic transformation of the masterpieces of the past. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that E. L. Rotenberg’s biography and the specifics of his plastic language occupy an important place in the history of Leningrad underground art.