Russian nonconformists

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As Soviet Nonconformist Art , the artists are referred to the 1953 to 1986 (from Stalin's death, to the awakening of perestroika and glasnost ) as a countermovement to Socialist Realism in literature , visual arts and music in the Soviet Union worked.

In the Russian language, their works are also referred to as unofficial art , second avant-garde , other art , alternative art or subway art . The underground artists of the Soviet Union were often closely linked to also illegal movements such as the Moscow Conceptualists , the Leningrad Association for Experimental Art and the Mitki Group in Leningrad, as well as the " hippies " and the " rockers ".

history

Nonconformism generally refers to the inconsistency of individual attitudes with generally accepted views; in a specific case, the Russian nonconformists resisted socialist realism , which the Central Committee of the CPSU under Stalin in 1934 as a guideline for the production of literature , visual arts and music certain in the Soviet Union. According to Stalin's will, the artists should portray the heroes of the building of Soviet society and its technical pioneers in the best light.

As an alternative to this state-compliant Soviet art, Russian non-conformism was created in 1954. After Stalin's death, the way was clear for a tentative, temporary liberalization of Soviet society. in the short thaw period . However, this only lasted for a short time and the artists were again ideologically censored and politically persecuted until perestroika and glasnost in 1986. The Russian nonconformists renounced social recognition and instead accepted a great deal of privation. They were excluded from the official art associations and lost any opportunity to legally earn a living. In many cases they lived underground or locked up in prisons, penal camps and in psychiatry for decades.

It was not until the 1990s that state institutions such as the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art or the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) discovered the Russian nonconformists.

Developments and reception

Unofficial Soviet art is naturally difficult to grasp. The Russian nonconformists did not form fixed structures, acted decentrally and for a numerically very small, like-minded audience. What connected the protagonists with one another was their non-conformist attitude towards the Soviet system and its artistic preferences, socialist realism.

Virtually without Western influence and often also isolated within the Soviet Union, according to Dmitri Krasnopewzew, every nonconformist was "an island, an independent country that lives according to its own laws, under its own flag" .

While Anatoli Swerew cultivated a calligraphic and decorative style that was reminiscent of Picasso , Oskar Rabin practiced painting based on nature with expressionist elements. Michail Schwarzman painted between abstraction and figuration, Dmitri Krasnopewzsew relied on asceticism, concentration and strict forms of Pittura metafisica in his monumental still lifes .

The first avant-garde had an important influence on the Russian nonconformists between 1910 and the seizure of power by Stalin, which is why the nonconformists are also referred to as the second avant-garde.

Groups and Initiatives

1957: Lianosowo Group

In 1957, the Lianosowo group of the same name was formed in the Lianosowo district on the northeastern edge of Moscow. In this dacha suburb, all around the Kropiwnitski family, non-conformist artists, poets and scientists met to work and discuss together. They did not pursue any binding ideological or artistic program, they were only concerned with the realization of individual artistic forms of expression.

1962–1976: Dwischenije Group

One of the few groups with reference to Western art was the group Dwischenije in Moscow from 1962 to 1976 , whose name Dwischenije (Russian for movement ) was also the program. The group around Lew Nussberg and Francisco Infante explored kinetic art , in which mechanical movement is an integral aesthetic part of the art object. They found their Russian role models in the early Soviet constructivism of Vladimir Tatlin , Naum Gabo and Alexander Rodchenko .

Although the process of these kinetic installations could not be fully controlled, the Dwischenije group also received public contracts. They created kinetic installations for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in Leningrad and for the Electronics 70 and Electronics 72 exhibitions in Moscow.

1974: Bulldozer exhibition

The “ Bulldozer Exhibition ” on September 15, 1974 in Moscow, at which the Russian nonconformists presented their pictures in the open in the middle of the 2,200 hectare Bitzewski Park on the outskirts of Moscow, is legendary . The one-day exhibition was organized by the collector Alexander Gleser and the painter Oskar Rabin with two dozen other artists (among them Valentin Vorobjow, Youri Jarki (Jarkikh), Vitali Komar , Alexander Melamid , Lidija Masterkowa, Vladimir Nemuchin, Evgeni Ruchin, Alexander Rabin, Vasily Sitnikow, Igor Cholin, Boris Steinberg and Nadeschda Elskaja). The exhibition got its name from the brutal police operation in which the security forces literally bulldozed the non-conformist exhibition in front of the cameras of international journalists.

1974: Izmailovo Park

After the scandal caused by the bulldozer exhibition in the foreign press, the Soviet authorities were forced to approve another one-day open-air exhibition two weeks later in Izmailovo Park . On September 29, 1974, more than 40 artists showed their works to over 1,500 visitors. This Izmailovo Park exhibition, in turn, paved the way for further one-day open-air exhibitions by Russian nonconformists.

1980s: Studio 50 A

The Studio 50 A was founded by Sergei Borisov at the Frunze Street 13 in Moscow, today Snamenkastraße. For the Russian nonconformists of the 1980s, it was a meeting place, studio and sleeping place at the same time.

Art genres

Russian Nonconformist Painter

Literature, music and film

In parallel with the development of Russian nonconformists in the visual arts, a similar phenomenon occurred in Soviet literature and music, in theater and film.

literature

  • Arina Kowner: Passion Picture. Russian art since 1970. Scheidegger & Spiess, 2009. ISBN 978-3-85881-199-8
  • Matthias Frehner and Therese Bhattacharya-Stettler: Avant-garde in the underground. Russian nonconformists from the Bar-Gera collection. Benteli, 2005. ISBN 978-3-716513-84-2
  • H.-P. Riese (Ed.): Nonconformists. The second Russian avant-garde 1955 - 1988. Wienand, 2000. ISBN 978-3-879094-96-7
  • Norma Roberts (Ed.): The Quest for Self-Expression: Painting in Moscow and Leningrad, 1965-1990. Columbus: Columbus Museum of Art, 1990.
  • I. Semjonow-Tjan-Schanski: Le pinceau, la faucille et le marteau: les peintres et le pouvoir en Union soviétique de 1953 à 1989. Paris: Institut d'études slaves, 1993.
  • Alla Rosenfeld, Norton T. Dodge (Eds.): Nonconformist Art: The Soviet Experience 1956-1986. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
  • А-Я magazine. Журнал неофициального русского искусства. 1979-1986. Репринтное издание. Под ред. Игоря Шелковского и Александры Обуховой. Москва: АртХроника, 2004.
  • "Другое искусство": Москва 1956-1976. Т.1. Москва: Московская коллекция. СП: Интербук, 1991.
  • Аймермахер К. От единства к многообразию. Разыскания в области "другого" искусства 1950—1970-х годов. М .: РГГУ, 2004.
  • "Другое искусство": Москва 1956-1988. Москва: ГАЛАРТ, 2005.
  • Yuri Gertschuk: Кровоизлияние в МОСХ, или Хрущев в Манеже 1 декабря 1962 года. Москва: Новое литературное обозрение, 2008.
  • Heike Welzel: “Michail Šemjakin: Painting and Graphics. From unofficial Soviet art to Russian art in exile ”. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2006. ISBN 978-3-7861-2531-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Arina Kowner: Passion picture. Russian art since 1970 . Arina Kowner. January 2010. Accessed on March 14, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de