The foundation of St. Petersburg and the establishment of the school of Russian painting. The class will be introduced to the general composition of Russian society and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries, expecially after the accession of Peter the Great and then Catherine. Russia's new attitude towards the West as a result of their preferences. Peter's founding of St. Petersburg in 1705, his acquisition of works of art in Western Europe (a tradition intensified by Catherine), and the fate of Russia's ancient artistic traditions will be described. Discussion of the establishment of the Russian school of painting in the late 18th century will connect with the opening of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg in 1763 and the very important role of Catherine the Great in the propagation of art and culture in Russia during the second half of the 18th century. Mention will be made of the Academy painters, trained by Western mentors, such as Borovikovsky, Levitsky, and Rokotov. Some attempt will be made to compare their aristocratic portraits with similar portraits by the more familiar British painters such as Gainsborough and Reynolds.

While concentration will be on the work of Alexei Venetsianov and Pavel Fedotov, mention will also be made of the activities of the painters Briullov, Kiprensky, and Ivanov, and the writer Gogol. All were in Rome and were part of the international community there, something that touches on the whole question of Russia's artistic borrowings at this time. The close proximity of artists and writers (e.g. Ivanov and Gogol) and their collaborative explorations of themes and stylistic concepts will be discussed. The several portraits of Russia's most famous poet of the time Alexander Pushkin (e.g. by Kiprensky and Tropinin) will also be shown.

The class will commence with a brief discussion of the term Realism as applied to literature and art in the 19th century. References will be made to Russia's great Realist writers, Tolstoi and Dostoevsky and the notion of didactic art introduced. Much of the lesson will be devoted to the establishment and development of the group of Realist artists called the Wanderers or Itinerants (peredvizhniki)--the revolt of the 14 artists within the Academy of Arts in 1863, the expansion of this dissident group, and its cultivation of a more reportorial, contemporary, and narrative kind of painting. Particular reference will be made to the achievements ofPerov and Repin within the movement and their investigation of expository art. Some references will be made to Western European Realist painting and also to Soviet Socialist Realism of the 1930s.

Reading : Camilla Gray, The Russian Experiment in Art. Chapter 1.

Abramtsevo and Talashkino were two art colonies or retreats active at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries that fostered the style known as Neo-Nationalism. A major impetus to this formulation was the reevaluation of ancient Russian art (icons, embroideries, wood-carving) and the application of motifs from Russian folklore to high art. But influences also came from John Ruskin, William Morris, and the Arts and Crafts movement, and note will be taken of this. Particular attention will be given to the guiding force of Abramtsevo (the patron Savva Mamontov) and of Talashkino (Princess Tenisheva). The argument will be made that, without this rediscovery of the indigenous legacy, Russia's decorative revival of the fin de siecle and extensions such as the stage designs for the Ballets Russes would not have been possible.

Reading : Gray, pp. 9-29. If further reading is required, look at Apollo. London, 1973, December (whole issue devoted to Russian art with particular emphasis on Abramtsevo and Talashkino. Available in USC Art Library).

Russian Symbolism is an extremely complex phenomenon and only its principal causes and effects can be noted here. Reference will be made to the French Symbolists, and one of Baudelaire's poems (Correspondances) will be analyzed in conjunctiOon with one or two paintings by Serusier, Denis, Gauguin, etc. Symbolism will be treated here as a clear example of how Russian artists/writers borrowed ideas from a Western movement, but reinterpreted them in an original and innovative manner, changing an esthetic system into an intricate, philosophical one. Concentration will be on the painting ofMikhail Vrubel, Russia's greatest Symbolist artist, and on the stylistic and thematic derivations of his work (Nietzsche, the Pre-Raphaelites, Lermontov, Italian Primitives, etc.).

Reading : Gray, pp. 29-36. If further reading required, look at Philippe Jullian, Dreamers of Decadence, New York: Praeger, 1971 (in USC Art Library); and any album of Vrubel reproductions such as Mikhail German, Mikhail Vrubel. Leningrad: Aurora, 1986 (in English).

Attention will be given to the paintings and applied work of this group of artists, poets, and musicians that included primary designers of modern times such as Leon Bakst and Alexandre Benois. The role of Sergei Diaghilev in the propagation of Russian art abroad via exhibitions and Ballet Russes will be examined, and an attempt will be made to demonstrate why the stage and costume designs by the World of Art artists functioned so successfully with the dancing of Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, and other famous ballet stars. Students will be able to look at some of the exquisite Art Nouveau books designed by the World of Art group in the IMRC holdings.

Reading : Gray, pp. 37-59. If further reading is required, look at Bowlt, The Silver Age. pp. 47-68; and leaf through Charles Spencer, Bakst (London: Academy Editions, 1973. Available in USC Art Library).

The artists of the Blue Rose such as Pavel Kuznetsov were important not only as exponents of the Symbolist esthetic, but also as precursors of certain tendencies within the avant-garde (e.g. abstract painting). Their dependence on particular Russian traditions will be noted (their visual references to the cult of the Madonna) as will their familiarity with French precedents. Their sponsor, Nikolai Riabushinsky, will also be described since he was responsible for introducing many works by modem French artists to the Moscow exhibition public in 1908-10.

Reading : Gray, pp. 60-61. Bowlt, pp. 6-8. If further reading is required, look at John E. Bowlt, "Russian Symbolism and the 'Blue Rose' Movement" in The Slavonic and East European Review. London, 1973, April, pp. 161-81.

We come to the work of Kandinsky at this stage precisely because many of his ideas and personal conception of abstract art evolved from the Symbolist ambience. Many of the students will already be familiar with Kandinsky's abstract paintings, so concentration will be on the derivation of his imagery and philosophy-his interest in theosophy, in music, in the intrinsic values of the artifact and in the possibility of schematizing them. Although attention will be given to Kandinsky's Russian connections, his role at the Bauhaus in the 1920s and early 1930s and then his career in Paris will also be described. A fundamental point of discussion will be the concepts of abstract art, non- figurative art, non-representational art, and non-objective art.

Reading : Bowlt, pp. 17-23. If possible, leaf through Will Grohman. Wassily Kandinsky. New York: Abrams, N.D. (in USC Art Library); and Abstraction: Towards a New Art-Painting 1910-20. Catalog of exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, 1980 (in USC Art Library).

The reaction against Symbolism in Moscow in the mid-1900s brought about a reappraisal of native Russian arts and crafts, especially painted trays, cheap prints, store signboards, icons, etc. Artists such as Goncharova, Larionov, Kazimir Malevich, and Marc Chagall looked carefully at such artifacts and transferred devices from them to their studio paintings. These artists "vulgarized" art, concentrating on bright colors, naive perspectives, and crude subjects and thereby guiding the new art away from Realism, Academic art, and Symbolism towards a more experimental and radical system. They were also aware of the latest developments in French painting and had access to the two great collections of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism belonging to Shchukin and Morozov in Moscow. Their desanctification of art and their undermining of traditional values was a primary ingredient of the avant-garde. Mention will be made ofLarionov's organizational role in these early years of the new art, e.g. his establishment of the Jack of Diamonds group in 1910.

Reading : Gray, Chapter 4. If further reading is required, look at A. Shevchenko, "Neo-Primitivism," in Bowlt, Russian Art of the Avant-Garde. pp. 41-54; and Kean, All the Empty Palaces.

The student will be introduced to the concepts of Cubism and Futurism as they were interpreted and blended in Russia by poets and artists ofca. 1912-ca. 1916. Particular reference will be made to the shock poetry of Vladimir Maiakovsky, to the neologistic poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov, and to the so-called "transrational" painting of Kazimir Malevich and his colleagues. The concept of performance and avant-garde theater will also enter here inasmuch as many of the Russian Cubo-Futurists, like the Western Dadaists, were interested in the idea of body art, procession, spontaneous performance, and intimate theater (David Burliuk's antics will be discussed in detail). Larionov's system of abstract painting known as Rayism will form one focus of attention and analysis will be made of two or three of his most famous canvases, references being made to Boccioni, Balla, and other Italian Futurists.

Reading : Gray, Chapter 5. Bowlt, pp. 69-100. If further reading is required, look at The Avant-Garde in Russia: 1900-1930. Catalog of exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980, pp. 128-32, 160-62.

Since Malevich is now recognized as one of the primary experimental artists of the 20th century, every effort will be made in this lesson to demonstrate the originality of his pictorial philosophy, especially his system of non-objective painting called Suprematism of 1915 onwards. His apprenticeship to the French modems such as Matisse, Picasso, and Leger will be discussed and then the derivation of his signal canvases such as Black Square (1915) and the White on White series of 1917-18. Parallel images will be introduced, e.g. works by Mondrian, and the differences discussed, and some attempt will be made to compare Malevich's compositions of the 1910s-20s with certain paintings by artists of the New York school of just after World War II. Depending on time, a visit to the Russian holdings of the Los Angeles County Museum could be arranged to coincide with this lesson.

Reading : Gray, pp. 160-67. Kazimir Malevich, "From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism," in Bowlt, pp. 116-35. For other information, look at Troels Andersen, Malevich. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1970; Malevich. Catalog of exhibition at the Russian Museum, Leningrad, 1988.

Tatlin is generally recognized as the founder of Constructivisim and his reliefs and engineering experiments of the 1910s-20s have left an indelible mark on the evolution of contemporary European and American design. Students will be introduced to the highlights of his career such as his famous model of the Monument to the III International of 1919-20 and they will be expected to discuss the essential issues associated with his art, e.g. whether function should determine form or vice versa, whether the factory-produced objects such as the auto-mobile can be considered a work of art, etc.

Reading : Gray, pp. 167-83, 226-28. If further reading is required, look at Vladimir Tatlin, "The Work Ahead of Us," in Bowlt, Russian Art of the Avant-Garde, pp. 205-08; John Milner, Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avant-Garde. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983 (USC Art Library).

Both in literature and the visual arts, women played a decisive role in the creation and propagation of original works of art, and the Russian avant-garde would not have released its innovative force without their presence. The work of Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, and Varvara Stepanova in particular will be discussed as well as the general position of the woman artist and intellectual in Russia just before and after the Revolution.

Reading : If available, leaf through Women-Artists of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910-30. Catalogue of exhibition at the Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne, 1979.

The relationship of Lenin and the Communist Party to culture in general and the visual arts in particular will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to the activities ofAnatolii Lunacharsky and his Ministry of Enlightenment with regard to art exhibitions, museums, nationalization of art treasures, art schools, etc. Lenin's Plan of Monumental Propaganda will also be detailed-and considered as one of the first examples of direct and appreciable government intrusion into the arts in the Soviet Union. Topical themes such as the meaning of proletarian culture, class consciousness and its artistic refraction, and the abolition or preservation of artistic legacy will also be discussed.

Reading : Gray, Chapter 7. Anatolii Lunacharsky, "Art and Revolution," in Bowlt, pp. 190-96. If further reading is required, look at David Eliot, New Worlds: Russian Art and Society, 1900-1937, especially pp. 84-118 (USC Art Library).

Constructivism will be presented as one of the most original and influential contributions of modem Russian art to the international arena, especially as it was expressed in architecture and design. The work of Alexander Vesnin, Alexander Rodchenko, and Popova, in particular, will be examined in this context. As examples of their clothes, porcelain, poster, and architectural design are shown, the question will be asked: "How could such artists manage to move so rapidly and easily from studio painting to applied, functional design?" Mention will also be made of the influence of Constructivism on art theory, appreciation, and criticism in the 1920s and also of the tendency of Constructivists such as Alexei Gan to dismiss all the art of the past as unworthy of proletarian attention, and proclaim "Death to Art!" Parallels with the activities of the Bauhaus in Germany and then the new Bauhaus in Chicago will be noted, as will the curious stylistic coincidences between the Soviet Constructivist esthetic and the American highrise buildings of the 1960s-70s.

Reading : Gray, Chapter 8. Alexei Gan, "Constructivism," in Bowlt, pp. 214-25. If further reading is required, look at Lodder, Russian Constructivism.

Lissitzky will be presented as one of the primary exponents of the Constructivist design in Russia/Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. Particular attention will be paid to his interior designs, book designs, and occasional architectural projects. His influence on United States commercial advertising of the 1930s onwards will also be noted. Since some of Lissitzky's books and magazines are on the USC campus and in adjacent institutions, the class will be able to look at his designs firsthand.

Reading : Gray, p. 253. El Lissitzky, "Suprematism in World Reconstruction," in Bowlt, pp. 151-61. If further reading is required, look at El Lissitzky. Catalog of exhibition at the Busch- Reisinger Museum, 1988; and S. Lissitzky-Kuppers, El Lissitzky. London: Thames and Hudson, 1968 (USC Art Library).

Although the name of Pavel Filonov is still not as familiar as the names of Kandinsky, Lissitzky, and Malevich, his work certainly deserves to be better known. His system of painting called Analytical Art will be treated as a version of Expressionism, at times reminiscent in theme and mood of the work ofKirchner and Grosz, and the student, therefore, will be exposed to the general concepts and orientations of the international Expressionist movement. Filonov was also an artist who believed that art was craft or, as he said, "madeness" and that anyone could leam the trade. Mention will be made of his group of devoted followers known as the Collective of Masters of Analytical Art and some of their art will be shown from USC collections.

Reading : Pavel Filonov, "Declaration of Universal Flowering," in Nicoletta Misler and John E. Bowlt, Pavel Filonov: A Hero and His Fate. Austin, Texas: Silvergirl, pp. 167-171.

The reasons for this renewed interest in figurative painting and sculpture will be discussed-the demand by the masses for a simple, narrative kind of art, the political pressure upon artists to communicate ideology clearly and directly, the international gravitation towards a new Realism, and the general questioning of the ultimate values of abstract art and Constructivism. The activities of the Moscow group OST (Society of Studio Artists) will be examined in particular, since their members such as Alexander Deineka and David Shterenberg strove to formulate a new and radical style of painting while retaining recognizable subject matter relevant to the everyday reality of industry, transportation, sports, etc.

Reading : Bird, History of Russian Painting, pp. 244-56. "OST: Platform," in Bowlt, pp. 279-81.

This lesson will survey the main movements in Soviet painting and sculpture from World War Two until the 1970s. While the evolution of Socialist Realism will be described, the focus of attention here will be on the birth and evolution of what came to be called non-conformist or dissident art after Stalin's death in 1953. How did the first radical artists of the 1950s-60s such as Ernst Neizvestny confront the state cultural apparatus, how did they receive commissions, where did they find their information about contemporary Western art, what caused so many of them to emigrate to Western Europe and the United States? Have any of them (Komar and Melamid) achieved universal recognition in the West? These are some of the questions that will be raised during the slide presentation.

Reading : Bird, History of Russian Painting, pp. 270-281. If possible, leaf through Paul Sjeklocha and Igor Mead, Unofficial Art in the Soviet Union. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

The Sotheby's auction of contemporary Soviet art in July, 1988, in Moscow focused international attention on the presence of a new and dynamic generation of painters in Moscow and Leningrad. It is clear that these young artists, such as Yurii Albert and Vadim Zakharov, are enjoying the fruits of glasnost and perestroika. are ay courant with the latest Western trends, and manifest a brash vigor lacking in those artists who still support the principles of Socialist Realism. Their work, for the most part Neo-Expressionist and conceptual, withstands international comparison and competition and is already commanding high prices on the Western market, and promises the beginning of a cultural renaissance in the Soviet Union after decades of stagnation.

Reading : None.