Soviet art

THE FIGHTING AGAINST FORMALISM IN SOVIET FINE ARTS AND THE SOVIET PERIODICALS OF THE SECOND HALF OF 1940s

The analysis of publications in the soviet periodicals of the second half of the 1940-s demonstrates that the fight against formalism in fine arts was organized not so much by the top party functionaries, as by the group of the artists and critics associated with the former Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia and was used to get the key positions in the Academy of Fine Arts of the USSR established in 1947.

Key words: the fight against formalism, cosmopolitism, the Peredvizhniki (members of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions), impressionism, socialist realist painting, Nikolai Punin, Abram Efros, Osip Beskin.

The propaganda posters created from 1917 to 1991 in the Soviet Union are  stylistically, and artistically incredible works of graphic design which informed the art movements of the time. In the propaganda posters, despite technological, social, and political changes, women are portrayed as peasants. When a society uses women as symbols, what does that say about the place women have in that society?

Catalogo della mostra dedicata a Viktor Ladviščenko (Виктор Михайлович Ладвищенко), pittore monumentalista sovietico. Il testo espone in ordine cronologico e ragionato tutte le opere, fin'ora rintracciate, del maestro di Leningrado, ripercorrendo il suo operato artistico.

FUNCTION, CONTENT AND FORM OF THE DECORATIVE ARTS OF THE SOVIET ERA
Abstract:
The history of development and factors that formed the phenomenon of decorative art of the Soviet period are considered. The conditions of ideological and political management of the artistic process, peculiarities of the morphological structure of decorative art are considered in view of the hierarchical system of Soviet art. Detected approaches to the interpretation of decorative art in different periods, the significance of this sphere of creative activity in the artistic process of Soviet era.
Keywords: the phenomenon of decorative art, Soviet art, ideology, the artistic process.

FUNCTION, CONTENT AND FORM OF THE DECORATIVE ARTS OF THE SOVIET ERA
Abstract:
The history of development and factors that formed the phenomenon of decorative art of the Soviet period are considered. The conditions of ideological and political management of the artistic process, peculiarities of the morphological structure of decorative art are considered in view of the hierarchical system of Soviet art. Detected approaches to the interpretation of decorative art in different periods, the significance of this sphere of creative activity in the artistic process of Soviet era.
Keywords: the phenomenon of decorative art, Soviet art, ideology, the artistic process.

Розглянуто історію розвитку та чинники, що сформували феномен декоративного мистецтва радянського періоду. Висвітлено умови ідеологічно-політичного керування художнім процесом, особливості морфологічної структури декоративного мистецтва з огляду на  ієрархічну систему радянського мистецтва. Виявлено підходи до трактування декоративного мистецтва на різних етапах, значення цієї сфери творчої діяльності у художньому процесі свого часу.
Ключові слова: феномен декоративного мистецтва, радянське мистецтво, ідеологія, художній процес.

Ознакомительная версия.

Автор статей и составитель альбома Д. Ю. Кривошей, автор аннотаций к предметам каталога М. И. Вилькин. — М.: ООО «Буки Веди», 2021. – 160 с.: ил.

Альбом посвящен искусству златоустовской гравюры на стали периода ранних Советов. Книга рассказывает о становлении, расцвете и угасании этого самобытного промысла, редкие архивные материалы раскрывают личности златоустовских мастеров и демонстрируют авторские эскизы украшенного топора.
Каталог, составленный на основе коллекции М.И. Вилькина, дает возможность увидеть уникальные предметы в полном размере и подробно рассмотреть детали. Издание адресовано как специалистам, так и широкому кругу читателей, интересующихся русским агитационным искусством 1920–1930-х годов.

Constructivism was a modernist avant-garde art movement, originating in Russia around the 1920s. With the historical political context of the 1917 October Revolution, there was an emerging need for ‘new’ art that engaged with the proletariat class, creating a ‘new’ way of life. Artists accepted that a revolutionary art was an inevitable accompaniment to the prominent social struggles, which defined the birth of Constructivism.

This edition traces the events of the Soviet art practice second half of the XXth century. The focus of the analysis is on the destiny of the monumentalist artists who graduated from leading art school of the country in 1960—1970s and immediately faced a new “art format” characterized by its denial of the Soviet epoch’s Big Ideas. The processes of the “epoch of change” are traced in the creative evolution of the honored artist of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Moshkov, a graduate of the V.I. Mukhina Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry (presently Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design). The edition is intended for artists, art historians, cultural researchers, historians, professors, postgraduate and graduate students, and all those interested in the Russian artists’ creative work.

В монографическом исследовании рассматривается ряд событий,
происходивших в советской художественной практике второй половины ХХ века. Анализируется творческая судьба художников-монументалистов, которые на рубеже 1960-70-х гг. стали выпускниками ведущих художественных Школ страны и сразу же вошли в новое «художественное пространство», прощавшееся с большими идеями советской эпохи. Эти процессы прослеживаются через творческую судьбу заслуженного художника России Вячеслава Мошкова, выпускника Ленинградского высшего художественно-промышленного училища им. В. И. Мухиной (ныне Санкт-Петербургская государственная художественно-промышленная академия им. А.Л. Штиглица). Издание адресовано художникам, искусствоведам, культурологам, историкам, преподавателям, аспирантам и студентам гуманитарных вузов, а также тем, кто интересуется творческой практикой российских художников.

In this paper, I explore photography as a new and unconventional art emerging in the Soviet Union after World War II. I discuss the paradox that this art appears apolitical, seemingly socially passive, and escapist, but at the same time this passivity in some cases can be seen also as an active political position or at least a statement of a certain level of artistic freedom in the given political circumstances. Besides, I talk about some major difficulties of analysis and interpretation of this art from the perspective of western canon of history of photography.

У статті йдеться про чинники формування явища тематичного килимарства в  українському  мистецтві 1930 – 1960-х рр. Висвітлено специфіку розвитку цієї мистецької практики в умовах радянської тоталітарної системи та з’ясовано визначальний вплив ідеології соцреалізму на образотворчу стилістику і жанрову структуру тканого панно. Основну увагу зосереджено навколо  тематики килимів, ієрархії жанрів, а також показано як даний врізновид килимарства відобразився на перспективах української та інших пост-радянських національних шкіл художнього текстилю. 
Ключові слова: тематичний килим, мистецтво соцреалізму, ідеологія.


Olha Yanborko. UKRAINIAN THEMATIC CARPET OF 1930 – 1960s AS AN ART PRACTICE OF SOCIAL REALISM.
Abstract.
The article deals with the factors of the formation of the phenomena of thematic carpet weaving in the Ukrainian art of the 1930s-1960s. The specifics of the development of this artistic practice in the conditions of the Soviet totalitarian system were highlighted, and the decisive influence of socialist realism on the visual stylistics and the genre structure of the woven panel was determined. The main focus is on carpet themes, hierarchy of genres, and also shown as this kind of carpet weaved on the prospects of Ukrainian and other post-Soviet national textile art schools.
Key words: . thematic carpet, socialist realism, ideology.

Котломанов А.О. Паблик-арт: страницы истории. Современное русское искусство в общественном пространстве. Часть 1. Монументальная скульптура. Вестн. С.-Петерб. гос. ун-та. Сер. 15. Искусствоведение. 2015. Вып. 4. С. 55—65.
Kotlomanov A.O. Public art: the pages of history. Contemporary Russian art in the public space. Part 1: Monumental sculpture. Vestnik SPbSU. Series 15. Arts, 2015, issue 4, pp. 55–65 (In Russian).
The article continues the series of publications on the topic of public art. It looks at some trends of Russian art life, the key subject is monumental sculpture of 1990–2000s. The article presents a comparative analysis of the strategies of the Western public art and public art of the Soviet Union. It highlights the work of Zurab Tsereteli that characterizes the situation of the traditional monumental sculpture as a whole. The author also focuses on some of the works of Ernst Neizvestny, Mihail Chemiakin and Rezo Gabriadze representing an alternative method of expressing ideas in the sculpture material. The final conclusions of the article are connected with the analysis of the possibility of development in Russia new forms and methods of public art.

Soviet-art is more often considered an instrument of politics than a full-fledged art-movement. Because of its subjection to communist ideology, the visual heritage of the USSR is still subject of current heated political debate. In this paper I give a brief background on public artworks and socialist modernism in architecture, to consequently observe policies and standpoints taken by politicians in Ukraine towards these visual remnants of the past.

This is my MA thesis, in which I describe a district that was built to create a new type of citizens, people who were able to work in a control room, a particular type of architecture that required visual training. Rusanivka was one of such projects, a space which creates and organizes a community for multitasking and collaborative work.

Котломанов А.О. Тимур Новиков и «нулевые». Петербургское современное искусство в поисках идентичности // Вестн. С.-Петерб. гос. ун-та. Сер. 15. Искусствоведение. 2012. Вып. 2. С. 173—183.
Kotlomanov A.O. Timur Novikov and the Zero years. Petersburg contemporary art in search of identity. Vestnik SPbSU. Series 15. Arts, 2012, issue 2, pp. 173–183. (In Russian).
Considered the actual problems of the St. Petersburg art life of the last decade. Analyzed the role of the artist Timur Novikov in the art of St. Petersburg of the late 1990s — early 2000s, his influence on the formation of the myth of St. Petersburg Neo-Academism in the art criticism of the 2000s. Also considered the figure of the artist and art critic Marina Koldobskaya, in the 2000s the director of the St. Petersburg Center for Contemporary Art. The final conclusions of the article related to the analysis of the phenomenon of the artist-leader, as well as a statement of the current state of artistic life in St. Petersburg.

У статті розглянуто особливості мистецької діяльності в контексті радянської системи виробничих відносин-планової економіки. Представлено інституційну систему художньої галузі радянського зразка, її функції, коло пріоритетів та роль, яку в цій моделі влада відводила митцеві. Висвітлено директивний і монопольний вплив держави на мистецький процес в СРСР, зокрема через структури Спілки художників та Художнього фонду. Ключові слова: мистецтво радянського періоду, художня промисловість, статус художника, Спілка художників, Художній фонд.
The peculiarities of artistic activity in the context of the Soviet system of planned economy are considered. The institutional system of the art industry of the Soviet era, its functions, the range of priorities and the role assigned to the artist in this model are presented. The legislative and monopolistic influence of the state on the artistic process in the USSR, in particular through the structures of the Union of Artists and the Art Foundation, is highlighted. The centralized policy of the Soviet state in the art industry, carried out through a number of institutions and regulated by the decisions of the government, was motivated by the program's task of carrying "art to the masses". Accordingly, the system formed the specific status of the artist, guided by the slogan "Artist-for production!". The Soviet ideology has formed a corresponding demand-especially on unique works of monumental art for public objects, which was mainly handled by the Art Fundation as well as copied objects of "artistic crafts" for the population that was the departmental branch of "Ukrhudozprom". This increased the need for skilled decorative arts artists, for the preparation of which the state has developed a network of higher, secondary specialized education institutions.

In current Russian art theory, it’s relevant the discussion about the priorities in the study of late Soviet art, the chronological framework of which coincides in time with the genesis of postmodernism in the United States and Western Europe (mid 1960s — mid 1980s). The focus of this article is the phenomenon of official criticism of modernism in Soviet culture during the “stagnation” period, and, at the same time, the question of the true role of the unofficial trend (Nonconformist Art) in Soviet art. From this position, the author analyzed the selected examples of Soviet criticism of the 1980s, as well as the strategies of Nonconformist Art of the same time in relation to its ambition to take a leading position in the new historiography of Russian art of the second half of the 20th century.

В современном российском искусствознании актуальна дискуссия о приоритетах в изучении позднесоветской художественной культуры, хронологические рамки которой совпадают по времени с генезисом постмодернизма в США и Западной Европе (середина 1960-х — середина 1980-х гг.). В центре внимания данного материала — феномен официальной критики модернизма в советской публицистике периода «застоя», и, в то же время, вопрос об истинной роли в советском искусстве неофициального направления (нонконформизма). С этой позиции анализируются избранные примеры советской критики 1980-х гг., а также стратегии неофициального искусства того же времени применительно к его амбиции занять лидирующее положение в новой историографии российского искусства второй половины XX в.

This exhibition catalogue features black-and-white photographs taken by the artist Durdy Bayramov (1938-2014) in the rural villages of his native Turkmenistan. In making these images available for the first time, this book introduces a broad audience to that country’s rich cultural heritage.

[Available here for download: images of cover & front matter pages only.] For information on purchase of full book, visit: www.durdybayramov.org

The Russian Revolution of 1917 has been considered the essential cause of the awakening of the artistic avant-garde of that country for a long time. One hundred years after the revolutionary events on the political and social scenes, we examined the development of the Russian artistic avant-garde prior to 1917, during the events of the October Revolution of that year and thereafter until 1932. We demonstrate that avant-garde ideas were already present and active in Tsarist Russia and that the Revolution of 1917 would only provide a more glaring framework for the proposals of avant-garde artists. In the same way, it will be demonstrated how the new Soviet status quo ended up drowning the vanguard vortex and establishing a methodology of action and production in art that would be far from the originality of the avant-garde works prior to 1917.

На сегодняшний день творчество Татьяны Николаевны Глебовой начало наконец обретать заслуженную известность, что происходит во многом благодаря интересу зарубежной общественности к творчеству художников советского, в особенности, ленинградского, авангарда, долгое время пребывавших в тени более известных представителей движения, в случае Т.Н. Глебовой, а также А.И. Порет и П.М. Кондратьева, стоит говорить о фигуре их учителя, основателя группы «мастеров аналитического искусства» (МАИ), П.Н. Филонова. Помимо растущего интереса к деятельности советских художников, исходящего из–за рубежа, имеет место упомянуть об открытии сотрудниками Ярославского художественного музея «Дома в разрезе», написанного Глебовой в сотворчестве с Порет, а также — живописных и графических работ Костромским историко–архитектурным и художественным музеем–заповедником.
Глебову на фоне деятельности МАИ выделяет как особый уровень доверия со стороны Филонова, так и работа с представителями «Объединения Реального Искусства» (ОБЭРИУ). Эта коллаборация примечательна и своим содержанием — иллюстрированными произведениями для детей, живыми картинами, замысловатыми фильмами, и своей сутью — совместной деятельностью поэтов–абсурдистов и художников–«мастеров аналитического метода», имевшей место во время колоссальных историко–культурных сдвигов. Пожалуй, следующее высказывание Е.В. Терещенко, относящееся к современности можно справедливо отнести и к веку ушедшему:
«Много кризисов искусство пережило за свою историю. <…> Мы присутствуем при кризисе искусства вообще, при глубочайших потрясениях в тысячелетних его основах. Окончательно померк старый идеал классически–прекрасного искусства, и чувствуется, что нет возврата к его образам. <…> Человек последнего творческого дня хочет сотворить еще никогда не бывшее и в своем творческом исступлении переступает все пределы и все границы. <…> С противоположных концов намечается кризис старого искусства и искание новых путей» .
К истовому поиску новых способов выражения сводится как искусство прошлого, так и нынешнего столетий. Продолжая разговор о кризисе искусства, разразившемся на рубеже XIX–XX вв., нельзя обойти вниманием такой его аспект, как кризис поэтического мироощущения, который заключает в себе упадок интереса к поэтической реальности, с одной стороны, и деградацию её доступности для восприятия — с другой. Сегодня человечество переживает новый виток коллапса поэзии, к чему привело растущее в геометрической прогрессии число контактов, в которые вовлечён человек настоящего. Поэзия есть общение, сопереживание, единение с автором — к этому теперь человек практически не способен. Решение проблемы кроется в использовании визуального ряда: художник–иллюстратор способен стать проводником в мировосприятие поэта, — в современном мире, где стираются грани между иллюстративным и информативным изображением, это становится особенно актуальным. Таким образом, изучение творчества художников, иллюстрировавших произведения не постфактум, а непосредственно участвуя в работе над ним, открывает бо́льшие возможности для анализа деятельности обеих сторон, вовлечённых в процесс создания. Творчество же Татьяны Николаевны Глебовой в таком контексте представляет особый интерес, как ввиду малой изученности, тем более, в сравнении с творчеством поэтов, с которыми она работала, так и благодаря принадлежности к одной из самых примечательных школ русского авангарда — МАИ.
Историография творчества Глебовой исчерпывается упоминаниями в дневниках Филонова, Порет, Хармса, Друскина, собственными воспоминаниями, к примеру, в каталоге выставки её работ в Государственном Русском музее, составленном старшим научным сотрудником отдела рисунка и акварели XVIII–XX вв. Л.Н. Вострецовой ; кратким очерком на портале «Дом в разрезе» ; о детской иллюстрации — парой слов в статье британского писателя Ф. Пуллмана «Как детская книга процветала при Сталине» .
Цель работы: анализ творчества поэтов ОБЭРИУ через призму иллюстраций Т.Н. Глебовой.
Задачи:
 исследовать историко–культурный контекст творчества художника;
 рассмотреть возможности передачи поэтического опыта при помощи изобразительных средств;
 соотнести текстовую составляющую произведения с её иллюстративным выражением;
 выявить наслоение художественных особенностей творчества Т.Н. Глебовой, сложившихся к моменту сотворчества с ОБЭРИУтами, при работе над иллюстрациями их произведений.

Anche in: Storia della civiltà europea. Vol. 16 - il Novecento. Arti visive,  RCS Quotidiani - Special edition for Il Corriere della Sera, Milano 2008, ISBN: 9771828050157, pp. 42-47.

Dal mondo antico allʼinizio del terzo millennio: migliaia di saggi e oltre 10.000 immagini, un imponente corpus testuale e iconografico organizzato in periodi cronologici e in aree tematiche: storia, filosofia, arti visive, scienza e tecnologia, musica, letteratura e teatro, comunicazione. Unʼopera curata da Umberto Eco, che propone nuove modalità di esplorazione della storia e del sapere e che offre potenti strumenti capaci di intrecciare e collegare, grazie a percorsi dinamici, i personaggi, le idee e gli eventi che hanno formato la nostra cultura. Lʼidea di partenza di Umberto Eco è quella di realizzare unʼopera a carattere enciclopedico che aiuti ad avere il senso delle distanze storiche, a stabilire rapporti di contemporaneità tra eventi di natura diversa e che consenta di ricostruire fenomeni di lunga durata, dinamiche sociali e culturali, comportamenti della vita quotidiana. Il progetto della Storia della Civiltà Europea, nato nel 1993, antesignano di unʼeditoria multimediale di qualità, raggiunge solo il suo compimento editoriale e la sua maturità tecnologica, organizzando i propri contenuti in ogni formato disponibile per ogni tipo di pubblico.

Nel Novecento gli intrecci fra arte, politica, società hanno prodotto ribaltamenti, cancellazioni e rinascite di modelli artistici oscillanti fra la ricerca di un ordine nuovo e la fascinazione per l’irrazionale, fra l’assunzione dell’arte come strumento politico e il rigetto di ogni ideologia, fra la tensione a un’arte individuale e aristocratica o al contrario anonima e collettiva. Nella collisione di fine Ottocento fra tradizione e novità dirompenti cola a picco l’idea di continuità nella storia: il secolo si apre all’insegna della rottura e delle sperimentazioni più ardite in termini di linguaggio e di contenuti. Le avanguardie, tra cui si contano cubismo, espressionismo, futurismo, neoplasticismo e costruttivismo, alleate in un percorso di astrazione, tagliano traguardi che paiono senza ritorno: la cancellazione del soggetto, la forma come forma assoluta, la nuova preminenza del linguaggio, la negazione del racconto, l’esilio dei sentimenti, tutte conquiste che sanciscono il primato culturale dell’Europa. Finché nell’arco di alcuni decenni si verifica un capovolgimento di prospettiva col ritorno al figurativo e con lo spostamento del cuore culturale dall’Europa verso New York e Los Angeles, rimesso più tardi in discussione dall’emergere della nuova polarità dell’Asia. In questo ebook si possono trovare tutte le maggiori espressioni artistiche del Novecento, in cui l’ideale dell’arte subisce un progressivo spostamento verso il futuro, arrivando, nelle sue forme più estreme, a produrre un’arte internazionalista, senza radici e senza memoria, dotata di una lingua aniconica universale, che cancella i confini delle identità nazionali e si proietta nella realtà globalizzata.

By and large visual semiotics still misses a comprehensive method for the analysis of sculpture. The paper demonstrates that sculptures have a peculiar plastic sign-the mass. Intrinsic to three-dimensional objects, the mass determines the forces of gravity and inertia possessing a potential to suggest connotations of the artwork. Taking as examples the large monuments built in Soviet Latvia in 1960-1990, the paper distinguishes among three categories of monuments-static, dynamic and ambiguous-which owe their particular characteristics to diverse exposure of the mass enabled by various constructive techniques. As iconic signs these monuments represent actual identities and events while the exposed mass, as a plastic sign, conveys additional connotations like stability, change, motion, standstill, slowness, speed enabling a more nuanced interpretation of the represented persons and events. As a physical property of objects mass can be evaluated by handling them directly but the public is supposed to look at sculpture not to touch and handle it. The current psychology of perception holds however that the perceiver goes beyond the information given in the visual input, the process of perception depends also on the perceiver's knowledge and purposes in the contact with reality. Ubiquity of outdoor sculpture suggests that our accumulated experience of 3D artistic objects can be embedded into the elaboration of the visual input thus the viewers can perceive the mass and enrich the interpretation of sculpture considering the meanings of this plastic sign. Semiotics of three-dimensional artwork More than a century ago sculptor and pioneer of the formal analysis of visual art Adolf Hildebrand ([1893]1914: 68-69) wrote that sculpture originated from drawing as it was turned into relief. Sculptors start carving the stone keeping in mind only one view from one particular Punctum, 5(2): 91-118, 2019

Since the 1930s, while rethinking Stalin's formula of “culture national by its form and proletarian by its content,” historians have described the birth of art in the Soviet republics as an emergence and formation of so-called “national schools”: pictorial, musical, architectural, etc. The figures of “national” and “non-national” artists, belonging or not to the Soviet title nations, were given different semantic functions, and these artists played different social roles. The purpose of “national artists” was to spontaneously express “national art,” and their voices were considered to be authentic. The role of “non-national artists” remained ambivalent and uncertain, although their contribution to the creation of “national cultures” was not only significant, but sometimes predetermining. This text considers different perceptions of “national” and “non-national” artists, as well as the terms of distinction between them. The art history of Central Asia and Uzbekistan in particular is at the core of this analysis. According to the main hypothesis of this article, differences between “national” and “non-national” artists were rooted in binary orientalist presumptions. In reality, however, the situation was not strictly binary due to several factors. First, there were artists who could appear in the descriptions of critics both as “national” and “non-national”. Second, the concept of “national" coexisted with that of “popular” (narodnost’), which often was more inclusive. Third, the art of “national” and “non-national” artists appeared in different optics, if we compare the descriptions of Moscow and Central Asian critics. These and other discursive features deprived the situation of its apparent dichotomy.

In connection with the controversy around the Tretyakov Gallery exhibition "NotForever. 1968—1985" it's analyzed the range of texts on the problems of the methodology of art history analysis. Among the issues raised in these publications is the possibility or impossibility of a unified art history of the Soviet period with equal attention to "official" and "unofficial" art, the problem of the correspondence of Soviet art history and Soviet art criticism to objective criteria for the analysis of works of art. Considered the phenomenon of the new actualization of Soviet critical rhetoric in the texts of 2000—2010s. It's proposed the concept of "sovereign" art history in context of the preservation and development of the Russian national cultural tradition.

The paper discusses the role of the information exchange networks in the development of photography within the Soviet Union since the mid-1960s and in the 1970s.
In the USSR after World War II, photography had a limited set of functions, professionally restricted to ideologically engaged photojournalism promoting ‘iconic signs’ (Kruk 2008) and formally related to the overall Socialist Realism doctrine (Teikmanis 2009). Other uses of photography are being generally overlooked. Some aspects of photography during the Cold War period have been discussed (e.g. Meinhof and Galasinski 2000, Petrovsky 2009), and experience of other former Communist Bloc countries has been analysed (e.g. for Czech photography see Dufek 2001, Patek 2009). Significant publications (e.g. Rosenfeld and Dodge 2002, Neumaier 2004) have mentioned Soviet photographers who were engaged in the international information exchange and arguably were influenced by it. Yet the role of international communication networks that arose in the mid-1960s still is not clearly defined.
Apart from the engaged photojournalism, during the 1960s and the 1970s photography in USSR was blooming as a medium for self-expression based both on documentary work and formal aesthetic experiments. A growing number of photographers exhibited their work both locally and internationally, and photography became another kind of ‘silent resistance’ (Sviblova 2008). Officially, these creative activities fell under the label ‘amateur photography’ (Barkhatova 2004, Stigneev 2004) on the sole basis of not belonging to the field of photojournalism, with no consideration of any other qualities.
The status of leading creative photographers was ambiguous. They were not affiliated to the professional photography, neither related to the professional art and its establishment, thus being far from ‘shifting into the dominant “fine art” context’ (Visser 1998, 233) that they wished for. The amateur label itself was denigrating as it implied certain inferiority, Soviet kind of ‘middle-brow art’ (Bourdieu 1965).
Nevertheless, the amateur label provided an advantage not accessible to professional artists – a channel of relatively free communication with the outside world, considered politically rather harmless by the Soviet censorship authorities. The paper discusses a movement of Soviet photographers who entered a worldwide communication network consisting of international photography exhibitions organized in major cities and towns in virtually all countries.
Furthermore, many of the photographers who were active in the discussed form of international communication since the mid-1960s, later were to be recognized as important artists and founders of national schools, especially in the more Western-oriented Baltic states (Svede 2004), known as ‘inner abroad’ (Gerchuk in Reid 2000) within the USSR. The findings discussed in the proposed paper will add new aspects to the knowledge in the field of history of photography in the Soviet Union after World War II.
The paper is based on a database collected for the author’s work in progress, a Ph.D. thesis.

The article presents a biographical reconstruction of the life of the painter I. I. Brodsky (1884-1939) through the lens of his painting “Vladimir Lenin in Smolny” (1930). Brodsky (and his work are shown against the background of the terror of the 1930s, an ideological rupture in his artistic vision and his attainment of personal success. The diaries of P. N. Filonov help us to see Brodsky from an unusual angle. The impulse to write articles was an exhibition of “old art” (“Ars Nobilis”), wich was held in the exhibition halls of Volkswagen in Berlin from 18 to 27 October 2002. Two portraits of Lenin by Brodksy were displayed there: “Vladimir Lenin in Smolny” and “Lenin reading Pravda” (1930) from the private collection of Otto von Mitzlaff.

Начиная с 1930-х годов, переосмысливая сталинскую формулу «национальная культура по форме и пролетарская по содержанию», историки описывают рождение искусства в советских республиках как процесс возникновения и становления так называемых «национальных школ»: живописных, музыкальных, архитектурных и т.д. При этом фигуры «национальных» и «ненациональных» художников, т.е. художников, принадлежащих или не принадлежащих к титульным нациями, наделялись различными смысловыми функциями, а сами эти художники играли различные социальные роли. Предназначением «национального художника» виделось непосредственное выражение «национального искусства», его голос считался подлинным и синтетическим. Роль «ненациональных художников» оставалась амбивалентной и неопределенной, хотя их вклад в создание ряда «национальных культур» был не просто значительным, но порой и предопределяющим. В тексте рассматриваются различные типы восприятий «национальных» и «ненациональных» художников, а также термины, в которых осуществлялось различение одних и других. Материалом для анализа служит история искусства республик Средней Азии и в особенности Узбекистана. Согласно главной гипотезе статьи, различия между «национальными» и «ненациональными» художниками были укоренены в бинарных презумпциях ориентализма. Однако в реальности ситуация не была строго бинарной из-за нескольких факторов. Во-первых, существовали группы художников, которые могли фигурировать в описаниях критиков и как «национальные», и как «ненациональные». Во-вторых, концепт «национального искусства» сосуществовал параллельно с концептом «народного искусства», который нередко был более инклюзивен. В-третьих, искусство «национальных» и «ненациональных» художников представало в различных оптиках, если сравнить описания московских и среднеазиатских критиков. Эти и другие дискурсивные особенности лишали ситуацию ее видимой дихотомичности.

Статья посвящена истории организации и деятельности так называемых Свободных художественных мастерских в Тамбове в 1919 году. Используя уникальные архивные материалы, автор раскрывает концептуальные основы идей «свободного художественного образования» и анализирует попытки их соединения с не менее популярными тогда теориями о «производственном искусстве», призванном стать альтернативой «чистому искусству» и удовлетворять в первую очередь насущные потребности трудящихся. Особое внимание уделено ранее не изученной деятельности скульптора Б. В. Лаврова в качестве организатора и реформатора Тамбовских СГХМ, а также активного сторонника и теоретика «производственного искусства». / The article is about the history of the organization and activities of the so-called free art workshops in Tambov in 1919. Using unique archival materials, the author reveals the conceptual basis of the ideas of "free art education" and analyzes the attempts to connect to the least popular theories of the time "production art", designed to be an alternative to the "pure art" and meet the first urgent needs of the workers. Particular attention is paid not previously studied the activities of the sculptor Boris Lavrov as an organizer and reformer SGHM Tambov, as well as an active supporter and theorist of "production art".

Котломанов А.О. Паблик-арт: страницы истории. Феномен контр-монумента и кризис мемориальной традиции в современной монументальной скульптуре // Вестн. С.-Петерб. гос. ун-та. Сер. 15. Искусствоведение. 2015. Вып. 1. С. 53—70.
Kotlomanov A.O. Public art: the pages of history. The phenomenon of counter-monument and the crisis of memorial tradition in contemporary monumental sculpture. Vestnik SPbSU. Series 15. Arts, 2015, issue 1, pp. 53–70. (In Russian)
The article explores the problems of the origin and evolution of the genre of counter-monument in sculpture of the second half of the XX — early XXI century. Considered a range of issues related to the reasons for the emergence of such a direction, its relationship with the ideas of public art and the general crisis of monumental sculpture. Also traces the history of the most outstanding monuments of memorial sculpture in Western Europe after the Second World War. A comparative analysis of stylistic characteristics is done in Soviet war memorials and alternative forms of memorialization in the practice of modern foreign sculpture. Particular analyzed examples are the counter-monuments in modern Germany. The final part of the article is related to the analysis of Holocaust memorials, established in Vienna and Berlin in the 2000s and still causing debates about the adequacy of their embodiment the ideas of memory and repentance.

Котломанов А.О. Паблик-арт: страницы истории. Современное русское искусство в общественном пространстве. Часть 2. Новые формы // Вестн. С.-Петерб. гос. ун-та. Сер. 15. Искусствоведение. 2016. Вып. 1. С. 68—80.
Kotlomanov A.O. Public art: the pages of history. Contemporary Russian art in the public space. Part 2: New forms of art. Vestnik SPbSU. Series 15. Arts, 2016, issue 1, pp. 68–80 (In Russian).
The article continues the series of publications on the topic of public art. It looks at some trends of Russian art life of the last two decades; the key subject is contemporary art. The article presents the most vivid examples of social activity of contemporary Russian artists associated with collective projects and art festivals. Also it makes a comparative analysis of the Western public art and its analogies in Russia. It analyzes the reaction of the domestic public to contemporary art, the interactions of the artists and society. The author focuses on public art projects in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Perm, highlighting the most typical, in his view, names and events. The final conclusions of the article are connected with analysis of the possibility of development in Russia distinctive forms and methods of public art.

Abstract: The current paper is interested in how female identity is
artificially constructed through Soviet propaganda, particularly through a
new visual language and symbolism, exemplified through the most famous
Soviet sculpture, ‘Worker and Collective Farm Woman (Labourer)”
(Robochii i kolkhoznitsa) by Vera Mukhina (1889-1953), presented in Paris
at the International Exhibition in 1937, as opposed to German and French
architectural achievements. The sculpture summarizes an entire Soviet
‘canon’ (Zhdanov’s Socialist Realism), the concept used both in its religious
and aesthetic understanding, connecting a new artificial identity to a typical
Stalinist imagery and a new visual mythology. The paper studies the female
identity as a construct emerging from the connection of all these elements
and how its attributes and dimensions are radically changed to adjust the
Soviet political discourse.

RESUMO: Após o recente centenário da Revolução Russa, é necessário examinar tal acontecimento histórico a fim de refletirmos a atualidade da luta das mulheres, em uma perspectiva social e cultural. Soldadas invisíveis dos processos revolucionários do período, a história também não foi gentil com a memoração de seus nomes e feitos no que se refere às produções no campo das artes, em um momento em que desafiaram o panorama misógino da modernidade. O triunfo da vanguarda russa é impensável sem a participação das mulheres artistas. Entretanto, quando iremos apreciar as obras, ler ou ouvir falar do resgate da arte folclórica de Natalia Davidova, das composições suprematistas de Nina Genke-Meller, das iluminuras de Alexandra Exter, dos livros de artista, trajes e cenários para ballet de Natalia Goncharova, das arquiteturas pintáveis de Liubov Popova, do neoprimitivismo de Olga Rozanova, das gravuras de Kseniya Boguslavskaya, da poesia visual de Varvara Stepanova, dos ornamentos de Nadezhda Udaltsova, dentre outras? Pretendo abordar aqui uma base de estudos críticos em relação às práticas artísticas do período que compete à vanguarda russa pré e imediatamente pós Revolução de 1917, sob a perspectiva das artistas mulheres. Dessa forma, proponho uma compreensão de modos de interpretação e linguagens diferenciadas, uma anamnese de sujeitos pertinentes, a fim de documentar e ilustrar uma história da arte dentro de diferentes regimes de visibilidade e condições de produção cultural.  / ABSTRACT: After the recent centenary of the Russian Revolution, it is necessary to examine this historical event in order to reflect the current relevance of the struggle of women in a social and cultural perspective. Invisible soldiers of the revolutionary processes of the period, history was also not gentle with the memory of their names and deeds
in the field of arts, at a time when they challenged the misogynist panorama of modernity. The triumph of the Russian vanguard is unthinkable without the participation of female artists. However, when we will appreciate the works, read or hear about the rescue of the folk art of Natalia Davidova, Nina Genke-Meller's suprematist compositions, Alexandra Exter's illuminations, Natalia Goncharova's artist's books, costumes and ballet scenarios, the painting of Liubov Popova, the neoprimitivism of Olga Rozanova, the engravings of Kseniya
Boguslavskaya, the visual poetry of Varvara Stepanova, the ornaments of Nadezhda Udaltsova, among others? I intend to approach here a basis of critical studies in relation to the artistic practices of the period that competes to the Russian vanguard before and immediately after the Revolution of 1917, from the perspective of the female artists. Thus, I propose an understanding of modes of interpretation and differentiated languages, an anamnesis of relevant subjects, in order to document and illustrate a history of art within different regimes of visibility and
conditions of cultural production.

Статтю присвячено питанню ревалоризації монументально-декоративного мистецтва радянського періоду на території України, а саме — мозаїк 1960‒1990-х років.
У питаннях, пов’язаних із проблемами збереження, реставрації цього типу монументальної спадщини я пророную використовувати розгорнуту матрицю критеріїв оцінки, що бере за основу теорію охорони пам’яток Алоїза Рігля (1858−1905) та сучасну додаткову категорію — їх конфліктну цінність (в оригіналі discord value або conflict value).