Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SocialistArt:
The Bolshevik revolution threw artistic trends in Russia onto a new track.
Art from the early Soviet period (rooms 80-83) glorified workers and the “dictatorship of
the proletariat.”
In room 80, Alexander Samokhvalov's
Militarized Komsomol
(1932-1933) conveys the
Socialist Realist aesthetic: “realistically” showing everyday people who are, in an idealized
way, eagerly participating in the socialist society. In this case, we see scouts learning how
to scout—and, potentially, more than that, should the need arise.
By the door in room 81, Vyacheslav Pakulin's Impressionistic
Nevsky on 9 July 1945
shows St. Petersburg's main drag at the end of the devastating World War II—looking
much like it does today.
The canvases in room 82 depict idyllic nature and peasant scenes, extolling the simple
life held central in the Soviet worldview. Arkady Plastov's
Midday
and Alexei and Sergei
Tkachev's
Children
make you want to sign up for a Russian-countryside summer vacation.
But in rooms 84-85, you can feel change in the air. Rather than idealizing everyday Rus-
sian life, these works—from the later Soviet years—are clearly critical of it. In room 85,
Alexei Sundukov's
Queue
(1986) is a perhaps too-on-the-nose depiction of the trials of a
communist consumer. In the center of this room, Dmitry Kaminker's
The Oarsman
(1987),
sculpted under perestroika, communicates the hopeless feeling of the last years of com-
munism.
