Evolution of unreality

The debut series of notebooks by “Manuscript” company is titled “Evolution of Unreality,” which translates to “Эволюция нереальности” in Russian. In addition to featuring images of prominent figures in graphic art, it contains something quite unusual for the world of stationery – a storyline. As strange as it may seem, in creating a collection of five notebooks, the company’s designers depicted the story using a method that is characteristic of many modern art installations – the analysis of what is presented and the comparison of one object with another.

So, what is the storyline? As mentioned earlier, the collection includes notebooks with images of the following paintings: Vincent van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with Cypresses” and “Starry Night” from 1889, Cassius Coolidge’s “Friend in Need” from 1903. These paintings have entirely different styles, but they all share one common characteristic – they are all meant to represent reality in a completely unreal way. The turbulent swirls of van Gogh’s brushstrokes, Coolidge’s vivid satire, Pollock’s unconscious creativity, or Montgomery’s contemporary digital collage – all of these are some of the most significant moments in the development of psychedelic art culture over more than 120 years. In the images, you can clearly trace the evolution in the tools, techniques, and methods of image creation over time.

The “Evolution of Unreality” series perfectly demonstrates the quintessence of the thoughts, ideas, and visualization of the “expanded” consciousness of artists from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.