Soviet Post-Utopian Art In1970s

This dissertation is devoted to the analysis of post-utopian art phenomenon in Russia.Post-utopian art refers to the art of a number of Moscow conceptual artists who in 1970 s reflected on the utopias of the past using various artistic methods.This includes,first of all,the aesthetical and political dictatorship of Stalinism and the avant-garde project.This reflection makes the previous utopian projects more evident and reveals their internal structure and mechanism of functioning.The research relies on Boris Groyses idea that Soviet post-utopianism is not something external to the culture of the Stalinist era,it stems from the immanent logic of the development of Stalinist project and is important for understanding of its nature.At the same time,Stalin’s project is seen as a logical development of the avant-garde ideas and as an actual realization of the avant-garde project.Both of them are connected by the same aspire for building a new world and a new man,shaping the reality and the minds,and erase the border between art and life in which Stalinist art-socialistic realism-succeeded.Political and aesthetical in this case merge together,artistic impulse turnes into a search for power,and the whole world becomes a total work of art.Together,they appear to be a single and the greatest myth and the greatest utopia of the 20 th century Russia.Thus,along with the figure of Stalin and Stalinist socialist realism,the Russian avant-garde is also a subject for reflection and analysis of post-utopian art.This reflection is carried out in different ways: through an appeal to Soviet everyday mythology,to Soviet everyday life;through references to the visual components of the avant-garde and Stalinist myths-Malevich’s supremas,paintings and postersof socialist realism;through the preparation of ideological and verbal clichés and,of course,through a direct appeal to the figure of Stalin,which the Soviet post-utopian art once again remifologizes.The emergence of post-utopian conceptual art is examined in close connection with the previous history of the development of art and culture,in which the author seeks to find key features that determine the specifics of the early conceptual art scene and post-utopian phenomenon in Russia.The study provides a conceptual overview of the main trends in the development of Russian art during this period(late 1950s–1970s)while focusing more on the social and ideological component of this development.In order to highlight the key characteristics of Russian post-utopian art,the author focuses on art of several prominent Russian conceptual artists: Erik Bulatov,Oleg Vasilyev,Ilya Kabakov,Victor Pivovarov,artistic tandem of Vitaly Komar and AlexandMelamid.Together these artists represent the spectrum of different artistic methods,used to reflect on Soviet reality.Erik Bulatov and Oleg Vasilyev reveal the characteristics of soviet life and ideology through investigating the structure of the painting.Ilya Kabakov and Victor Pivovarovrepresent Moscow "literary" conceptualism with its hybrid forms of art,such as “albums” and “wall newspaper paintings”.In them artists examine everyday symbolism of the new Soviet life and its hidden mythology.Komar and Melamid created Sots art,in which the appeal to the Stalinist myth directly,using post-modernist irony and game deconstruction.