Steps, Ladders, Stairs in Art. Volume 1

A Note to the Reader

Back in the 1960s I began collecting, comparing and analyzing reproductions of works of fine and ritual art – Metaphysical Heads, Metaphysical Figures, – with the goal of synthesizing what these works by different masters had in common, understanding the essence of the image, and on that basis I hoped to create a system of “signs” in the art of the 20thcentury. With time my research and the number of themes I explored broadened, along with the development of my own artistic work and the broadening of my analytical visual experience.

It is important to stress that this research were and continue to be purely visual, independent of place and time. I have always been less interested in who created the work that interests me, or when it was created, than in the linear, rhythmic, compositional, coloristic and conceptual similarities of different authors, regardless of where and when they worked.

In the late 1990s it became clear that my research and the material I had collected and organized was of interest not only to me. Scholars, first scientists, then philosophers, theologians, historians, writers and art historians approached me with requests to work with my materials. Some of these colleagues and students needed more detailed information about the images collected in order to pursue their own work.

Unfortunately it is not always possible to obtain precise information about certain artists and their work. In recent years I have made efforts to collect and conserve information on the images in my research, and for exhibitions and publications I try to provide more historical information. But, again, I stress that exhaustive historic documentation of this or that work is not the primary goal of my research.

Mikhail Bakhtin, the author of a brilliant analysis of medieval carnival culture as seen in the work of Francois Rabelais, wrote, “The image is always broader and deeper (than the historical character upon whom it is based), it is co

In this book the reader will find captions and notes to each illustration, but I do ask that he not concentrate on the “entourage” of an image, but rather attempt to read the visual information in the analysis I have constructed.

Stairs in Contemporary Art: Form, Function, Context

Mihail Chemiakin’s research on “Stairs, Ladders and Steps in Life, Consciousness, and Art” examines and interprets this archetype as it appears in the work of modern artists. Archetypes take form as symbols through the process of objectification. “Ladder” symbolism not only unites many religions and worldviews, but also through its system of imagery reaches across time. We find the theme in the Babylonian ziggurat, in the Christian icon, in African ritual objects. The very shape of ladders and stairs, consisting of vertical and horizontal lines, is imbued with inter-cultural symbols: vertical lines literally suggest ascension and progress, horizontal lines evoke the ancient sign of the horizon and of passive contemplation. When co

Stairs or ladders can be counted among prototypes dating back to the birth of mankind. The earliest images we know are from the Paleolithic era, 65,000 years ago. Ladders and stairs figure in fairy tales, fables and folk expressions, poetry and myths, as well as classical and modern literature. They appear in ceremonies and rituals as well as on the stage. The obvious narrative element has inspired artists, architects, directors and psychoanalysts to study stairs and ladders in depth. They impart a wide variety of meanings to stairs, building on their traditional form and initial function; the degree of depth and actualization of those meanings depend on the religious or social context of the work. The religious context applies to such themes as the ladder as a link spatially co

At the same time, many artists focus solely on exploring the possibilities of the very form of stairs. Going beyond the given static structure, they treat stairs as malleable plastic material for their experiments, often creating absurd staircases.

The Biblical story of Jacob’s Dream has long fascinated artists both religious and secular, from icon painters to Marc Chagall. The St. Petersburg artist Vladimir Tsivin has treated the subject extensively.

“From the sketches I made it emerged that Jacob, asleep under a ladder to the sky, represents an ideal universal tombstone for Man. For all humanity. After all, someday, after many millions of years, in order to be saved, Man will have to wake up, climb the ladder to the sky and leave the horizon behind forever.”[1]

In Tsivin’s work the ladder Jacob sleeps under is of triangular form, suggesting a stepladder or a tent (V1: 80, 81); perhaps the shelter it provides indicates God’s protectiveness towards man. Or perhaps the tent, omnipresent in nomadic cultures like that of the Prophets, suggests the inevitability of the spiritual path that each of us must travel to reach our heights.

Anselm Kiefer often includes ladders in his works and in the German Romantic tradition seeks the perfect symbol to imbue his works with deep philosophical meaning. The titles of his paintings “Seraphim” (V2: 342) and “First” (V2: 343) refer to Biblical texts, one of the central motifs of his oeuvre. In Kiefer’s works, stairs and ladders are often reborn from the wreckage of the old world in accordance with established divine law. The ladder in “Seraphim” is the highest point, the culminating chord sounding in the void. This note does not oppose chaos; on the contrary, it is constructed from the elements of chaos. By mixing paints with dirt, sand, dust, straw, rusty metal and clay, the artist creates an archetypal image: a ladder, ideally capable of structuring chaos thanks to its structure, which arranges space horizontally and vertically. And just as God created man in his own image and gave him the right to create and destroy, so the artist combines these two poles in his paintings. Kiefer is acutely aware of each individual’s responsibility of for the fate of all mankind and his works often address the theme of war, destruction and subsequent rebirth. In many of those works ladders serve as harbingers of a new, mysterious life.

“For some, ruins are the end, but if there are ruins, you can always start over again.”[2]

In Ilya Kabakov’s installation “Red Wagon”, the ladders leading up from the city invite the viewer to make a bold leap into the future, promising liberation to everyone who dares to climb them. Its complex, constructivist form alludes to Tatlin’s “Tower of the Third International”, the Babylonian tower of Communism, embodying the utopianism of the idea itself.

“This is an image of the path along which the viewer should go, having experienced the begi