1st Edition
New Narratives of Russian and East European Art Between Traditions and Revolutions
This book brings together thirteen scholars to introduce the newest and most cutting-edge research in the field of Russian and East European art history. Reconsidering canonical figures, re-examining prevalent debates, and revisiting aesthetic developments, the book challenges accepted histories and entrenched dichotomies in art and architecture from the nineteenth century to the present. In doing so, it resituates the artistic production of this region within broader socio-cultural currents and analyzes its interconnections with international discourse, competing political and aesthetic ideologies, and continuous discussions over identity.
Introduction [Maria Taroutina and Galina Mardilovich]; PART I: Mobile Margins: Artists, Artworks, and Instituions; Chapter One. Blood, Skin, and Paint: Karl Briullov in 1832: Allison Leigh; Chapter Two: Iaroslavna’s Lament and its Echoes in Late Nineteenth-Century Russian Art: Alison Hilton; Chapter Three: An Exercise in Close Looking: Ilia Repin’s They Did Not Expect Him: Galina Mardilovich; Chapter Four: "Is disagreement among artists a good thing?": The End of Salon-Type Exhibitions in Russia and Western Europe: Andrey Shabanov; Chapter Five: Blurring Boundaries: Mikhail Vrubel’s Decorative Turn and the Rise of Russian Modernism: Maria Taroutina; Chapter Six: Idiosyncrasy as an Alternative Modernist Narrative: Steven Mansbach PART II: Visualizing Ideology: New systems, Cold War Aesthetics, and Post-Socialist Memory; Chapter Seven: Art in the Age of Binary Inversion: Russian Constructivist Graphic Design and the Interwar Grid: Kristin Romberg; Chapter Eight: The Creative Mistakes of Socialist Realism: Maria Mileeva; Chapter Nine: A Socialist Neo-Avant-Garde? The Case of Postwar Yugoslavia: Nikolas Drosos; Chapter Ten: The Troubled Public Sphere: Understanding the Art Scene in Socialist Hungary: Katalin Cseh-Varga ; Chapter Eleven: The Nonidentity Problem in Contemporary Belarusian Art: Tatsiana Zhurauliova; Chapter Twelve: Marking Memories, Mediating Histories in the Work of Deimantas Narkevicius: Ksenia Nouril; Chapter Thirteen: History and the Senses: Recent Installations by Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina: Jane A. Sharp
Biography
Galina Mardilovich is Curator of Russian and European Art at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, USA.
Maria Taroutina is Assistant Professor of Art History at Yale–NUS College, Singapore.
"The chronological and geographical coverage of the present volume from the 1830s to the 2010s and from Russia to Italy and the Baltics to the Balkans is truly remarkable. And while the publication does not pretend to be a general history or epochal outline, it brings to light many previously un-discussed or heavily ideologized issues. Also, taking the key events of politics and art throughout two centuries as historiographical points of rethinking unites the whole
collection and contextualizes various new narratives in the historical and cultural perspective."--H-Net Reviews
