Soviet art

Boris Groys. The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic Dictatorship, and Beyond. Translated by Charles Rougle. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992. 126 pp., $13.49 (paper). The Total Art of Stalinism is not only a historical book on art, but it is also a political provocation of the well-known histories of 20th century Soviet art and literature. Originally published in German, this book was the first major work of Groys to have been translated into English. This book gives insight to scholars and artists alike about the history of art during and after the Stalin regime. The thesis of this book is that the avant-garde developed into socialist realism, demonstrating this with history of Soviet art, the role played…

“Stairs” captures a normal scene of a woman and her child walking up a set of stairs, but the ordinary subject is made eerily abstract by the camera’s perspective. The woman and child are juxtaposed with the rigid black and white stairs in a way that seems to reflect the the polarization of humans in the shadow of industrialization during the Soviet Union’s more utopian days. "Asphalting a Street in Moscow," made in 1929, provides some insight as to why Rodchenko's work was disparaged, since the…

Looking over the list of art galleries, one uniquely caught my eye; The Elmhurst Art Museum located in Elmhurst IL. Wandering through the museum's website, I stumbled upon an article that stated that David Wallace Haskins, a Chicago-based artist of the Skycube would be making an appearance on Sunday, November 29th. I thought that was interesting, so I decided to check it out. When I arrived, I was greeted by a thin older woman who smiled at me warmly. Right away, she asked me if I was a…

Raymond Cho Professor Krakus TA: Guillermo October 2, 14 Final Question 2 Art can be more dangerous than codified crime to society in that it is viral, it is resilient, serves as both hidden and not so hidden propaganda, and can in some ways inception ideas to the masses. In many cases, art can serve to create chaos in an otherwise controlled society. The old adage goes “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true in this sense. Established organizations fear disorder. Art, as it can…

the emotions captured, because turquoise (a shade of blue), is known to represent sadness and depression. This idea can be found in the article Art Emanates from Pain and Sadness: Picasso's Blue Period, where it explained how, “The monochromatic use of blue was fairly standard in symbolist painting, often related to representations of hopelessness”, which showed how the photographer planned to have his image associated with such depressing emotions. The altered image on the cover of the magazine…

“The domain of art is not one in which the Party is called upon to command. It can and must protect and help it, but it can only lead it indirectly. It can and must give the additional credit of its confidence to various art groups, which are striving sincerely to approach the revolution and so help an artistic formulation of the revolution.” (Trotsky). This conception of art by Leon TROTSKY reflects the mainstream position of the communist party toward the cultural and artistic life in Russia…

A political allegory is when a book or a work of art, tells one story but actually is using that story as a metaphor to hide a political meaning underneath. A political allegory could be found in fiction, drama, paintings, films and music. The dictionary states that an allegory is a story, poem, or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one, it is derived from the Latin and Greek word ‘Allegoria’ “meaning ‘veiled language’ or ‘figurative.’…

information in the art work. The success of allegorical work mainly depends on the viewers or audience’s ability to recognize the identities corresponding symbolic meaning of each of the elements within the artwork. For example, in titien’s allegory of governed by prudence. in this painting three human heads represent the three ages past, present and future. They also represent the age of human ,young, middle and old age. In this painting three animal heads were symbolized three stages of…

and American pictorialists around 1900, “had tried to get photography accepted as fine art on an equal footing with painting”…

persuasive. The Soviets used art to promote ideas of a new society and a new man. This propaganda was used to win over the intellectuals as well as the average man. Similar to Augustus, Stalin stressed himself as the leader. When Stalin came to power, he sent the region into full communism and demanded more industrialization. Stalin controlled propaganda, and set up posters everywhere from factories, farms, public spaces, and schools. Most of Stalin’s propaganda used red and black colors and…