NADFAS Russian Art of the the Early Twentieth Century – Theodora Clarke

Much was lost after the Russian Revolution but I hadn’t realised that we had lost so much stunning art. Not that the paintings were destroyed but the  Russian artists fled and those that remained or emerged were forced to paint along the party line. And whilst that did result in a very stylised form of design art such as  this Soviet Constructavism ,

It also resulted in nauseating sycophant art such as this Social Realism. Whatever Stalin was he wasn’t an idiot he understood that art was a very persuasive way of spreading a message with ease and force, especially to a largely illiterate society.

What is easy to forget is that prior to the revolution Eastern Russia was very European, all thorough their art you can see echoes of Paris, Rome, Stockholm. As you travel into the heart of Russia you see more art that is simply Russian inspired, two schools of art both pulling in different directions and looking to different sources for their inspiration; all lost due to cultural hegemony.

Clarke briefly discussed the artistic movements and artists that many of us may have heard of; the “Jack of Knaves” Diagliev, Malevich, Kandinsky, the Ballet Russe, generally we know these artists because they left Russia fearing the Soviet approach to art, but then we moved on to discuss who had been forgotten or suppressed.

Artists like Repin and Serov clearly looked to Europe.

 

 Ultimately, an incredibly talented and exciting artistic nation was suffocated and as a country was the poorer for it.