WAR AS A TRIGGER FOR THE CREATION OF EXPERIMENTAL ART

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explore war as a factor that generates experimental artistic forms and to determine how traumatic experience reshapes the visual language of the artist. The study examines the transformation of artistic expression from traditional figurative representation to strategies of fragmentation, deformation, abstraction, and the use of unconventional materials. Methods. The research applies the historical-comparative method to trace the evolution of artistic strategies during the First and Second World Wars and the ongoing Russian–Ukrainian war; the structural-visual method to analyze compositional and expressive features in the works of Dadaists, Surrealists, Abstract Expressionists, and contemporary Ukrainian artists; and contextual analysis to correlate artistic practices with their social and cultural environments. This combination of methods allowed not only to outline examples of experimental forms, but also to reveal the mechanism of their emergence as a response to trauma and cultural collapse. Results. The study identifies the evolution of experimental artistic forms in wartime contexts. It demonstrates that Dadaism employed collage and assemblage as a representation of fragmented reality; Surrealism processed trauma through paradox and the unconscious; Abstract Expressionism developed alternative languages of war experience based on biomorphic structures and color fields; grotesque and deformation became universal means of generalizing collective trauma. The article also examines contemporary Ukrainian art during the full-scale invasion, where documentary strategies, spatial installations, and work with debris or unconventional materials form a visual language of memory and social response. Conclusions. War functions not only as a source of destruction but also as a catalyst for artistic innovation. Social trauma compels artists to abandon established forms and construct new visual strategies capable of expressing experiences that cannot be conveyed through traditional figuration. Experimental practices transform trauma into a symbolic cultural code that preserves memory, produces multilayered perception, and opens new pathways for social dialogue.