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The term Soviet art refers to visual art produced in the former Soviet Union.
Early years
During the Russian Revolution a movement was initiated to put all arts to service of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The instrument for this was created just days before the October Revolution, known as Proletkult, an abbreviation for "Proletarskie kulturno-prosvetitelnye organizatsii" (Proletarian Cultural an Enlightenment Organizations). A prominent theorist of this movement was Aleksandr Bogdanov. Initially Narkompros (ministry of education), which was also in charge of the arts, supported Proletkult. However the latter sought too much independence from the ruling Communist Party of Bolsheviks, gained negative attitude of Vladimir Lenin, by 1922 declined considerably, and was eventually disbanded in 1932.
The ideas of Proletkult attracted the intersests of Russian avantgarde, who strived to get rid of the conventions of "bourgeois art". Among notable persons of this movement was Kazimir Malevich. However the ideas of the avantgarde eventually clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism.
In search of new forms of expression, the Proletkult organisation was highly eclectic in its art forms, and thus was prone to harsh criticism for inclusion of such modern directions as impressionism and cubism, since these movements existed before the revolution and hence were associated with "decadent bourgeois art".
Among early experiments of Proletkult was pragmaic aestetic of industrial art, the prominent theoretist being Boris Arvatov.
Socialist Realism era
In the later Societ Union, art can generally be divided into two categories:
- Official art
- Unoffical or dissident art
Officially approved art was required to follow the doctrine of Socialist Realism, which subordinated art to the purposes of the state. In practice, it meant that artists had to produce works glorfiying the leaders and policies of the Soviet Union. Art effectively became a form of propaganda. During the Stalin era, official Soviet art became a vehicle for the cult of personality.
One of the best known official Soviet artists was Aleksandr Gerasimov, who was effectively Stalin's court painter. During his career he produced a large number of heroic paintings glorifying Stalin and other members of the Politburo. Nikita Khrushchev later alleged that Kliment Voroshilov spent more time posing in Gerasimov's studio than he did attending to his duties in the People's Commissariat of Defense. Although Gerasimov's painting shows a mastery of classical representational techniques, the intellectual dishonesty of his treatment of his subjects diminished his status to little better than a political hack.
Artists who could not work within the boundaries of Socialist Realism, and particularly those who wished to work in avant-garde or non-representational genres such as Expressionism, were excluded from the official Soviet art world. As a result, they were not able to gain admission to the Soviet Academy of Art. Like dissident writers who were denied membership in the Soviet Writers' Union, they were not regarded as employed when working on their art, and thus could be accused of social parasitism, a charge that could send a person to the labor camps. Many dissident artists took jobs that required relatively little effort and left them with time and energy to apply to their art. However, an artist who particularly attracted the negative attention of Soviet authorities could still be accused of social parasitism in spite of holding down a full-time job unrelated to art.
Mikhail Gorbachev relaxed but did not entirely remove restrictions on artists who did not work in the genre of Socialist Realism. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union were artists able to choose full-time art careers solely upon the marketability of their art rather than official approval.
Reference
- Lynn Mally Culture of the Future: The Proletkult Movement in Revolutionary Russia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
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