Syncretism and Symbolism in the Language of Contemporary Art: an Invitation to Scholarly Debate
Elena V. Zvonova
Abstract. Art evolves in parallel with the evolution of human cognitive processes. Contemporary art utilizes a unique language reflecting the laws of cultural-historical thought. The language of contemporary art exists in the context of interdisciplinary and intercultural counterpoint. A defining characteristic of the language of contemporary art is syncretism. Contemporary syncretism creates the conditions for the emergence and interpretation of the meaning of a work of art. The process of creating meaning is determined by the author of the work of art. The consciousness of the listener (viewer, reader) creates an aesthetic image by comparing the identified syncretism with the main, guiding idea of the work of art. The guiding idea is based on lofty ideals, and the chosen artistic means are focused on an aesthetic response. The syncretism of contemporary art takes into account potential differences in stimulus modality and allows the respondent to choose the most compatible stimulus type. Contemporary art, at its best, is symbolic. The nature of a symbol lies in its polysemy, cultural variability, and the need for intense intellectual activity. The syncretic language of contemporary art determines the dominant position of syncretic art forms. Cinema, in particular, defines specific standards for the transmission of information, as well as standards for the aesthetic perception of modern man. The subject’s specific intellectual development and aesthetic Literacy transform the perception of a work of contemporary art into a creative process, a search for meaning that reveals the individual’s inner world.
Keywords: contemporary art, language of art, syncretism, main idea, symbolism, intellect, aesthetic response, image, syncretistic artistic forms.
Zvonova E. V.: Dr. Sci. (Philosophical Sciences), Associate Professor, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, Russia, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9271-8367, e-mail: zevreturn@yandex.ru.
1. Abe, A., Falusi, J. (2025). Trends of opera in Nigeria from pre-colonial to contemporary modernism. Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 2025, 3, 35–43. https://utafitionline.com/index.php/jvpa/article/view/1469
2. Asatryan, A. (2025). Dikran tchouhadjian’s opera keusse Kehya. Yegah Müzikoloji Dergisi, 2025, 8, 3021–3061. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/doi/10.51576/ymd.1761120
3. Awa, K. N., Brown, M., & Zabelina, D. L. (2024). Individualizing and binding moral values as a function of evaluations of artwork depicting nudity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000668
4. Baker, D.J., Müllensiefen, D. (2017) Perception of leitmotives in Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Front. Psychol, 2017, 8:662. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00662/full
5. Bateman, A. (2014). Playing away: the construction and reception of a football opera (interview with the composer Benedict Mason). Sport in Society, 2014, 17, 358–370. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/doi/10.51576/ymd.1761120
6. Bibler, V. S. (2020). From the “Doctrine of Science”1 to the logic of culture. Russian Studies in Philosophy, 58 (5), 346–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/10611967.2020.1863722 (In Russian).
7. Bruder, C., Poeppel, D., & Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2024). Perceptual (but not acoustic) features predict singing voice preferences. Sci Rep, 2024, 14 (1), 8977. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-58924-9
8. Burrows, G. (2022). Your life in the metaverse: everything you need to know about the virtual internet of tomorrow. London, UK: Gideon Burrows, 2022.
9. Cannon, R. (2012). Directors and the direction of opera. Opera. Cambridge Introductions to Music. Cambridge University Press, 2012, 380–386. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511980558.022
10. Castells, M. (2009). Communication Power. London, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009.
11. Cruz, M., Oliveira, A. Unravelling virtual realities – gamers’ perceptions of the metaverse. Electronics, 2024, 13, 2491. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13132491
12. Curtis, F. (2024) Image, sound, water: Ursula Biemann’s Acoustic Ocean (2018). MIRAJ: The Moving Image Review & Art Journal, 2024, 13 (1–2), 45–64 https://doi.org/10.1386/miraj_00129_1
13. Daglio, L., Kousidi, S. (2023). From ornament to building material: revisiting the aesthetics and function of green architecture. Arts, 2023, 12(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010012
14. Davis, S. (2004). Themes in the philosophy of music. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2004, 62 (4), 397–399.
15. Davis, S. (2003). Themes in the philosophy of music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
16. Démuth A., Démuthová S. On the indeterminacy of the concept of beauty and the reasons for its use. ESPES. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics, 2023,12 (2), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10479732
17. Evnine, S. J. (2016). Making objects and events: a hylomorphic theory of artifacts, actions, and organisms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
18. Frascaroli, J., Leder, H., Brattico, E., & Van de Cruys, S. (2024). Aesthetics and predictive processing: grounds and prospects of a fruitful encounter. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2024, 379 (1895), 20220410. http://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/42736
19. Funch, B. S. (2022). Emotions in the psychology of aesthetics. Arts, 2022, 11 (4), 76. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11040076
20. Gingerich, J. (2025). Aesthetic harmony and aesthetic agonism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2025, 83 (4), 318–329. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpaf043
21. Grosenick, U. (2005). Art now artist at the rise of the new millennium. Riemschneider, Burkhard, eds. Köln: Taschen, 2005.
22. Hesse, H. (2012). Das Glasperlenspiel Versuch einer Lebensbeschreibung des Magister Ludi Josef Knecht samt Knechts hinterlassenen Schriften Erscheinungsdatum. Berlin: Verlag Suhrkamp, 2012.
23. Hutchinson, P. J., Pinkney, Т., Mohan, М., Cromwell, D., Meulen, J., Coomer, М., Tomlinson, R., King, S., Akkulak, М., Hinchliffe, R., Beard, J. D., Morton, D., Orr, L. (2023). From opera buffa to opera seria: anniversaries of Royal College of Surgeons of England research initiatives. British Journal of Surgery, 2023, 111 (1). https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad412/7471859
24. Krauss, R. (2000). “A Voyage on the North Sea”: Art in the Age of the Post-medium Condition. London:Thames & Hudson, 2000.
25. Krauss, R. (2025). On The Painted Word. October, 2025, (191), 119–123. https://direct.mit.edu/octo/article/doi/10.1162/octo_a_00548/128826/On-The-Painted-Word
26. Kehlmann, D. (2017). Tyll. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, 2017.
27. Kemperdick, S. (2018). Jean Fouquet: The Melun Diptych. Petersberg, Hesse: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2018.
28. Key, A., Clark, J., De Silva, J., & Kangas, S. (2024). Acheulean handaxes in medieval france: an earlier “modern” social history for palaeolithic bifaces. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2024, 34 (2), 253–269. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0959774323000252/type/journal_article
29. Lech, K. (2024). Multilingual Adaptations // Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre. London: Springer Nature, 2024, 141–176. https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-031-40624-9_5
30. Leder, H., Pelowski, M. (2024). Metaphors or mechanism? Predictive coding and a (brief) history of empirical study of the arts. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2024, 379 (1895), 20220427. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0427
31. Lee, H., Ashwell, C., Sperling, M., Rai, L., & Orgs, G. (2025). Engaged and confused: aesthetic appreciation of live and screened contemporary dance. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2025. https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/aca0000727
32. Liu, Y. (2025). A Review of research on the opera the wilderness. International Journal of Education and Humanities, 2025, 21, 256–259. https://drpress.org/ojs/index.php/ijeh/article/view/33154
33. Mehl, K., Gugliano, M., & Belfi, A. M. The role of imagery and emotion in the aesthetic appeal of music, poetry, and paintings. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2023. https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/aca0000623
34. Minissale, G. (2013). The psychology of contemporary art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
35. Penner, N. (2025). The tenderness of silent minds: Benjamin Britten and his war requiem. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2025, 83 (4), 361–364. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpaf037
36. Reicher, S., Haslam, S.A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: the BBC prison study. Brit. J. Soc. Psychol, 2006, 45, 1–40. https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466605X48998
37. Scheller, J. (2024). The borders of boundlessness: a reassessment of the dissolution of boundaries in in the contemporary artworld. Artium Quaestiones, 2024, (35), 35–53. https://doi.org/10.14746/aq.2024.35.2
38. Shakespeare, W. (2021). Hamlet. Chicago, Illinois: Independently published, 2021.
39. Sheppard, W.A. (2005). Cinematic realism, reflexivity and the American “Madame Butterfly” narratives. Cambridge Opera Journal, 2005, 17(1), 59–93. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0954586705001941/type/journal_article
40. Specker, E. (2025). A personal perspective on psychology of aesthetics and the arts: ecologically valid, interdisciplinary, and diverse methodologies. Creativity Research Journal, 2025, 37 (2), 293–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2023.2269339
41. Stephenson, N. (2000). Snow Crash. New York City, NY: Del Rey, 2000.
42. Summers, F. (2025). Mike Kelley: ghost and spirit, curated by Catherine Wood, Fiontán Moran and Laura López Paniagua. Art Journal (MIRAJ), 2025, 14 (1), 125–131. https://doi.org/10.1386/miraj_00144_5
43. Wilson, A. (2025). Opera for All. Someone Else’s Music. Oxford Academic, 2025, 23–46. https://academic.oup.com/book/60076/chapter/519274401
44. Zvonova, E. (2022). Symbolik der musikkunst als unterrichtsmittel der interkulturellen kommunikation. Psychologiedidaktik und Evaluation XIV, 2022, 237–246. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.8248
For citations:
Zvonova E. V. Syncretism and Symbolism in the Language of Contemporary Art: an Invitation to Scholarly Debate. Arts in Cultural Dialogue, 2026, 1(2), 4–20. https://doi.org/10.67019/3033-8298.2026.2.2.007