Utopia of space in the book graphics by Francisco Infante

Vasilyeva Viktoriya Vasilyevna Postgraduate student, Department of History of Russian Art, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University st. Kolmogorova, 1, Moscow La-viva-rosa@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

  The key concept in the analysis of book illustration F. Infante, inspired by the theme of the cosmos, will be "infinity". It is equally essential in the ontological and artistic search for the master, and in understanding his creative path. Reflections on the abstract category, which for him in his youth was akin to a revelation, served as the reason for the formation of F. Infante as an artist. He perceived attending an art school as teaching a craft that had nothing to do with a real creative act. After a sudden insight, F. Infante set out to express this experience of infinity^[1]. How exactly he did not know yet, and he simply began to repeat geometric shapes many times in order to find a language in which to tell about what he had experienced. The first experiments of creating repeating geometric figures and the emancipation of creative forces became the foundation for further searches by F. Infante.

He expressed the experience of infinity, according to his terminology, in the "spiral construction", which he began to develop since 1963^[2] And then repeated many times both in painting and in easel graphics and, what is especially important for us, in illustration. The choice of this form is not accidental. The spiral is often found in nature. It may be a microcosm — the structure of DNA, the head of a sunflower, the shells of sea creatures; or it may be a macrocosm — the shape of a galaxy. The connection with the natural environment for F. Infante, as we will see, will be of paramount importance. In addition, the creative reinterpretation of this form is also a kind of legacy inherited by the artist from the constructivists — this is the monument to the III International of V. Tatlin, and the suspended structures of A. Rodchenko, but unlike them, the artist combines the rational and metaphysical.  At F. Infante spiral embodied, as D. Boult noted, first of all his own ideas about the mystery of the world and infinity^[3]. We fully agree with this assessment, based on the artist's own comments on this matter and taking into account the conclusions obtained during the analysis of his works, which will be given below.

The special significance of the spiral and its connection with the cosmic theme are shown in the illustrations of F. Infante of A. Clark's novel "Features of the Future", published in Russian in 1966 by Mir publishing house^[4]. This work reveals the possibilities of the human mind on the path of evolution. The English futurist reflects on what humanity will achieve in 2000, 2050, 2100. The infinite spiral of F. Infante in this case becomes a reflection of the evolution of humanity, which correlates with the text of A. Clark, but on a metaphorical level. The artist does not illustrate the contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations literally predicted by the author, the artificial recreation of life and the victory over death. On a flat blue background in the center of the illustration, the years from 1800 to 2100 are drawn in translucent ghostly white. The dynamics of the passage of time reflects the change in the size of the numbers from smaller to larger, from the past to the future.  Each date coincides with a turn of a large spiral superimposed on top. The numbers thus enclosed in a spiral reflect the rise to a new level of possibilities of our civilization at every moment of time. The desire for development, one of the main driving factors of evolution, is visualized in the graphic turns of the history line.

In the works of F. The Infante spiral also acts as an element on the basis of which complex artificial systems are built in an imaginary outer space. In 1970-1971, the work "Necklace System" appeared. 23 years after the artificial Earth satellite was put into orbit, F. Infante offers his own version of the device. It should be noted that this is not a real engineering solution or an attempt to predict how space architecture will develop further, although at that time it already was.  We are talking about the projects of space stations and ships by G. Balashova and the design of lunar stations by I. Kozlov.  Due to the secrecy, the information was not widely available, the first full-fledged publication of their projects appeared only in 2000^[5]. But the fact of the existence of a real space architecture was obvious. Of course, it is impossible to talk about direct influence and compare real extraterrestrial objects with the artist's designs, but their presence formed the context of time. In addition, for the architects of satellites, ships, stations, and for artists there was a common source of inspiration — the heritage of the Russian avant-garde. The ideas of buildings somehow connected with space and anticipating the possibilities of engineering for hundreds of years ahead were extremely diverse: K. Malevich's "planites", G. Krutikov's flying city and Y. Chernikhov's cosmic fantasies or V. Kalmykov's "Saturnium".

The "necklace" by F. Infante is a pure game of the mind, which gave rise to an aesthetic element of a planetary scale, a galactic decoration. Originally, in the Greek language, the word "cosmos" also had the meaning "to put in order and decorate". The author's name refers to this etymological relationship. The structure is not named by some scientific term, but in honor of an object that just performs the function of an ornament - a necklace that wraps, however, not around the neck, but the Earth. It is important that our observation point is located somewhere in the depths of space. As a result, the Earth is perceived from the outside as one of the objects of the Universe, a bio-ship lost in space for all mankind. Such a view by the 1970s was already absolutely realistic due to the successes achieved in space exploration. The enthusiasm of the epoch for the cosmic theme marked three points on the line of the history of human exploration of the Universe. The first point was set by the USSR in 1957 by the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, the second in 1961 by the flight of Yuri Gagarin, and in 1969 by a team of American astronauts who landed on the Moon. During this period, the perception of space is also changing in everyday terms: comfortable flights on TU-104 (the beginning of operation in 1965) and IL-18 (the first flight took place in 1957) become publicly available^[6]. The real conquest of space and the availability of the stratosphere disposed artists to fantasies of a special scope. 

To fully understand the meaning of the spiral as an element in the visual dictionary of F. Infante, it is necessary to evaluate her role in the broader context of the master's work. Spirals, as a rule, go beyond the boundaries of the space of a sheet or canvas: they are not bound by anything, they go to infinity. The dynamics inherent in this form, conveys, according to F. Infante, living space: in the drawing in the notebook, next to one of the spirals, there is the following author's explanation in pencil: "The spatiality of such a construction gives the idea that all of it (space) is curved. It's all alive"^[7]. This can explain the artist's choice of twisting, curved lines, and not a straight line, or even more so not a ray. The beam is limited, and the straight line, although not limited, is lifeless because of its rigidity of the intersection of space. At F. Infante meets a special kind of spiral: it is a line winding along a vertical or horizontal axis, resembling a sinusoid. This hypostasis also embodies the idea of infinity, starting outside of space and having no visible end. In relation to the rigor of the straight axis, it carries the momentum of movement, expressed in the rhythm of waves going up and down. The movement of spirals is revealed not only through their shape, but also through light pulsation. Due to the subtle gradations of tone within the same color, radiance appears around the curves. The spiral becomes a light wave, which connects it with outer space. Electromagnetic radiation pierces the cosmos and is used in the astronomical system of units of measurement. In addition, the spiral is one of the main types of galaxies.

The spiral on the covers of various publications will appear later. In 1976, a translation of A. Asimov's novel "The Gods Themselves" was published in the publishing house "Mir"^[8]. The cover, made by F. Infante, reflects the main conflict of the work and the object with which it is associated. Humanity, having come into contact with the parallel universe and the beings living there, decided to create an "Interuniverse electronic pump" for the exchange of resources between worlds.  The device gave access to colossal energy, but its use threatened the explosion of the Sun and the death of humanity. F. Infante combined the image of the mechanism from the novel with his favorite element on the principle of ideological similarity. A shining spiral stretched horizontally acts as a visualization of an energy formation that provides pulsation of space and filling it with life. Note that in the illustration there is an idea of infinity. The spiral pump is not interrupted, but continues beyond the edges of the image.

There is, of course, a new meaning in connection with the specifics of the novel's plot: these are three circles corresponding to the Earth, a paraglider and a flash in the center of the pump, probably hinting at the terrible consequences of using the transuniverse channel. And yet, they can be correlated with those characteristic of F.'s creativity. Infante with dot elements. A point in his artistic and theoretical system is a sign of a singularity, which is an explosion of the Sun, which can lead to the destruction of the Earth in the novel. In graphics and easel painting F. Infante also often has a dot. It marks the meeting of a spiral with a straight line — a moment simultaneously associated with two categories of time and space: the beginning and the end. The point turns into Nothing, concealing the potential of the subsequent development of the form, which is realized in a new spiral. A special attitude to the concept of Nothing, articulated by F. himself. Infante, we will meet later when referring to the series "Suprematist Games" in 1968. Close attention to the point in the history of Russian art was postulated earlier. P. Florensky's article "Dot" just revealed the antinomic essence of this sign, which passed into the category of a symbol ^[9]. With the presentation of V. Kandinsky and F. Infante is related to her ability to turn into a plane ^[10]. But unlike the vision of the point in the theory of the avant-garde, in our case there are no references to the sound characteristics of the sign in connection with its role in the text and references to philosophical systems of the past. F. himself . Infante has never indicated his continuity of vision of the point from anyone.

The points in the works of F. Infante can have different hypostases, correlated with the ideas of infinity and the cosmos. In the artist's book graphics related to space, they also appear as stars on the cover of the "New Astronomy" of 1976^[11]. The book is not devoted to fantasy worlds, but to a popular science exposition of the basics of astronomy. As a result, F. Infante's illustration has a realistic character: the cover depicts the starry sky without any additions or interpretations, and the movable antennas of the three radar dishes of the radio telescope are directed into it. In addition, the cover had to correspond both visually and in meaning with the internal illustrations. And they are photographs of space objects (stars, galaxies and nebulae), astronomical mechanisms, as well as scientific drawings and graphs. Moreover, it was the photograph of one of the mechanisms, the Radio Telescope of the Harvard Observatory against the background of the local landscape, that became the prototype for the plates on the cover of F. Infante: you can correlate the details and even how the shadow falls, and find an obvious similarity between the prototype and the drawing. However , F. Infante removes the landscape and adds a starry sky. As a result of the reduction of the surrounding world, the enhancement of color contrasts and the stylization of the image, the cover acquires a special effect. F. Infante managed to accurately convey the main idea of the book with the help of a minimum of artistic means about the incessant improvement of man and his eternal craving to constantly peer into space with the help of invented devices.

In the graphic series of 1965-1967. "Reconstruction projects of the starry sky" F. Infante is much freer with the theme of the starry sky than in the book cover we have considered. On sheets of paper, he creates a sky strewn with luminous dots with tempera and pencil and prescribes silhouettes of trees below. Due to the subtlety of drawing trunks and branches, fine spray paint near the stars, an image appears that resembles a photograph from a distance. The more radical is the deception of the viewer's expectations. Perception, soothed by the realism of the image, actually encounters a fantastic arrangement of celestial bodies. It would seem that since the stars are arranged in a certain order, therefore, we will talk about Zodiac signs. But such constellations as F. Infante, not to be found in any astronomical atlas. The artist emphasizes that this is not a real project to rebuild the sky. For contrast, it should be noted what was happening in the real historical context at that time. From the 1950s until the 1980s, serious discussions were held about the need for unprecedented changes in the natural environment: it was planned to change the course of part of the rivers of Siberia and direct their current to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Utopia threatened to turn into dystopia. In addition to historical parallels, one can also find artistic ones. In this work, there is also a certain kinship to the spirit of constructivism with its pathos to remake the world for itself. However, F. Infante removes the serious possibility of interpreting his project, noting that the Creator of all Things is One, and the human artist does only a mental reconstruction: "... for here the work of another demiurge is confirmed, while the Builder of the Cosmos is One"^[12]. However, it should be taken into account that in the night sky F. Infante, in addition to the highlighted ones, a whole scattering of stars still shines, and the viewer can make up his own constellations. That is, to relate oneself not to the Builder of the Cosmos, but to the artist-demiurge.

The prototype for illustrations for collections of science fiction in the 1970s. for the artist, his kinetic constructions can also serve. From the perspective of the chosen topic, the work "Space-motion-infinity" of 1963 is indicative. First F. Infante draws on paper not only the object itself, but also the motor that drives it: both are equivalent parts of the structure for him. Then he embodies it in reality. The three forms are nested into each other in halving increments. Movement in the same pattern accelerates from a large part of the structure to its core. All elements rotate at different angles. The work of the design reflects its idea, postulated by the name itself: the corners of the mobile are marked with flashing lights; space is comprehended through different planes in which the elements rotate; the rotation of segments and the flickering of light are responsible for the movement. Infinity is reflected in the continuity of revolutions. Of course, technically it all depends on the electrical supply, but metaphorically claims to be Asperpetuum Mobile. In a book illustration, an object becomes either part of fantastic scenery, as in the collection "Steel Jump" (1971) ^[13], or parts of more complex cosmic mechanisms, as in the collection "Brothers in Mind" (1977)^[14]. In both cases, the corners of these objects are highlighted. If light bulbs serve as an accent in the real model, then in the illustrations they are clumps of blackness with lines radiating from it or inversely white dots with a white halo. That is, in the book schedule F. Infante does not copy his kinetic object, but reinterprets it, preserving the main parts of the structure.

In 1972, F. Infante created illustrations for a science fiction novel with fantasy elements by K. Saimak "Goblin Reserve". It was from him that he borrowed the term artifact, which became the designation of his further activities and its results. The prerequisites of the artifacts were "spontaneous games in nature", which he started in 1968, even before the trips of "Collective Action", when F. Infante decided to reproduce K. Malevich's compositions in the snow^[15]. But it was important not to reconstruct a specific work, but to use suprematist elements. In the F. system Infante snow becomes synonymous with the function of suprematist white, that is, Nothing. This concept was also used by K. Malevich himself as a designation of perfection, limit and emptiness at the same time^[16]. In the perspective of our research, Nothing has a special meaning, becoming one semantic row with the concepts of "infinity" and "mystery". Nothing can be conceived, cannot be calculated, it has no beginning and has no end. As for classical artifacts, these objects often have a mirror surface, which was achieved with the help of a special film. Due to distorted reflections, optical illusions, artifacts act as points of revealing the mystery and mystery inside everyday reality. Considering the special significance of the category of eternity in the theory and practice of the artist, as well as its opposition to the earthly and the transitory, we fully agree with the opinion of D. Boult, according to which artifacts also emphasize the new meaning of the horizontal: the horizon line serves as the boundary between the temporary and eternal state^[17]. On the one hand, the earth with its changes, fragility and fragility of human presence, and on the other, the infinite sky is a space, although familiar to people, but completely unconquered, still remaining a metaphor for dreams and the highest beginning. The horizon also expresses infinity in technical terms – it is impossible to reach it with all your desire. The artifact is connected to the surrounding nature and does not look like a foreign body. An artist will not appear next to them, there are no traces of preparations. All frames, fasteners and rods remain behind the scenes. This enhances the sense of "mystery", which is so important to the artist, and which was the basis of the science fiction novel, from where he borrowed the term artifact. And to better understand the specifics of this word, let's turn to its interpretation in the book.

The main character of the work ends up on a Crystal planet, where the knowledge of a mysterious and wise civilization is stored. They can be obtained in exchange for an artifact obtained by scientists of the Institute of Time in the Jurassic period (a time machine was invented in this universe). In the world of the novel, "No one has yet been able to establish at least approximately what an artifact is <...> this is the only object in the world for which at least a hypothetically plausible explanation has not been found"^[18]. The whole plot revolves around this mysterious object and people's attempts to find out what it is, and as a result it turns out that the last dragon was imprisoned in a black block.  Illustrations by F. Infante, refers specifically to the "Goblin Reserve", although along with the novel, several short stories by K. Saimak were also published in the same edition. We made this conclusion based on the fact that all three illustrations are united by the image of a dragon related to the concept of an artifact. According to the plot, the last surviving dragon was imprisoned in a faceted black shape and was the essence of the artifact's mystery.

It is important to note how the genre affects the style of illustration in this case. The author introduces elements of fantasy at the character level: along with scientists, aliens and astronauts, goblins, banshees and dragons act in history. As a result, fabulousness manifests itself in F. Infante: he gives a generalized image of a castle; goblin dwarves in red caps; a rider sitting on a horse, resembling a medieval knight, in whose time, in fact, dragons and witches were found. And all these images appear on the rainbow bridge. Such naivety is not at all characteristic of F. 's work . Infante is not found in his other book illustrations. Moreover, in the worldview of F. Infante artifacts eventually become evidence of otherness and eternity, through them the mystery of the world manifests itself. However, it is important to emphasize that he borrowed only the title from the novel, based on the similarity of the author's personal ideas and thoughts, the artist's concept itself appeared earlier. 

Summing up, we note that the essential concept of infinity for F. Infante was experienced by him first as a revelation, a deeply personal experience, then he began to develop constructions reflecting this experience. One of them is the spiral we have considered. It also turns into a cosmic structure – both in his illustrations of science fiction works, and in graphic and pictorial works. Becoming more complicated, it forms autonomous space systems. The image of the cosmos by F. Infante appears as a metaphysical beginning, an exit into otherness, which requires a certain effort on the part of the recipient's consciousness. Otherwise, outer space will remain just a stellar background. The master has a sober view of his own extraterrestrial constructions, which was revealed during the description of the graphic series "Reconstruction of the Starry Sky", this approach is preserved in book graphics, because the images in it appear from the master's main artistic dictionary. Kinetic objects also become prototypes for book illustrations, multiplying or, conversely, breaking up into separate parts. Also note that F. Infante always took into account the genre of the works for which he made illustrations. A popular science publication will have a cover interpreted in a more "realistic" spirit, science fiction in a more abstract, and fantasy in a more generalized and naive.