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Return of Soviet-Era Genre Lost to Perestroika

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Return of Soviet-Era Genre Lost to Perestroika THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2009 13 EXHIBITIONS OPERA BOOKS CULTURE Return of Soviet-era genre lost to perestroika BERLIN Show gathers works of Socialist Realism that faded from view in ‘80s BY JUDY DEMPSEY When Mikhail Gorbachev, the presi- dent of the former Soviet Union and Communist Party leader, introduced perestroika in the late 1980s, his policies had a profound affect on almost every aspect of life. ART REVIEW The censors for music, newspapers, television, and radio melted away. Banned writers, whose secret books were read only in samizdat, often typed out so many times on fading carbon pa-- [ [ neatly bound. It was a fascinating peri- od of the 20th century because the free- dom was so intense, almost frenetic. But what also happened during this time was the disappearance of a genre of art: Socialist Realism. “It happened so quickly,” said Aless- andra Lucia Coruzzi. “In the late 1980s, a part of Soviet history was deleted.” Ms. Coruzzi is one of two curators of the exhibition “Behind the Iron Cur- tain,” a fascinating collection of Social- ist Realism art put on display in Berlin by a group of art collectors from Milan. Gaia Fusai, one of the collectors, said the paintings had been taken down at great speed under Mr. Gorbachev’s term, as if there was an urgency to break with the past. “The paintings were put into base- From “Behind the Iron Curtain,” clockwise frol1lleft, Letyanin Viktor Fedorovich’s “The Report,” 1953; Konstantlnopolski Adolf Mikhailovich’s “Revolutionary,” 1968; Morodov Fedor Aleksandrovich’s “Lydia Korabelnikova,” ments or corners, or thrown aside as if circa 1940-50; Kazantsev Anatoli Viktorovich’s “Portrait of Juri Gagarin,” 1970; Voznyuk Petr Stepanovich’s “Work Lesson,” circa 1968-70; Stanevich Vladimir Alekseevich’s “Under the Sky of Peace,” 1978. that part of the past had no meaning. But that art is part of the former Soviet Un- former Soviet republics. But they are owned many of the paintings. ! \# and colors is where the artistic freedom ion’s history,”said Ms. Fusai, who was in few and far between. “We went through different channels because. of shortages. Some of the mean that the artist, though commis- shines through. Berlin for the opening. “You can’t just So in a strange twist of history, just as to acquire the paintings,” said Ms. Fu- canvases were made from jute, or “sewn sioned by the Communist Party, did not A painting by another Ukrainian, blot it out. So a group of collectors de- the avant-garde art banned by the So- sai. “It had been easy for paintings to together from pieces of military tents.” develop a certain freedom. Yosnyuk Petr Stepanovich, shows a [ viet regime was viewed again, Socialist cross the border from Russia into the The artists obtained cement dust and One painting, “Students -volun- teacher observing young students in a paintings. Itis about saving the art of So- Realism, discarded so quickly in the other former Soviet Republics. We heated industrial oil to bind the canvas. teers in the fowl-run” by Scmenov Ev- woodworking class. The boys wear the cialist Realism,” she said. late ‘80s, may be going though its own could buy the paintings. All the paper “And ifyou look behind the canvasses, geni Yladimirovich, who was born in scarves of the Young Pioneers, or From the mid-1920s to the mid-’80s, renaissance. At least, that is the hope of work is legal and correct. But it was sometimes you can read what the artist Russia and studied art lit Kiev Art Inst- young Communists. But the eye focuses leading artists had been commissioned the Jeschke-Van Vliet Art Gallery, lo- [P was thinking, what he wanted to paint, itute, shows how much liberty was taken more upon the wood carvings and de- by the Communist Party, for propagand- cated where the Berlin Wall once stood Finding them and buying them was how much money he needed, and so on.” by the artist. It is mocking and absurd tails in the painting that was completed ist reasons, to depict the achievements [ one thing. Restoring them was another. The themes of the paintings on exhibit given the way he painted an abundance between 1968 and 1970. “That is what of the Bolshevik Revolution and its lead- than 300 paintings, created between the Hassun Buyuti, who studied at the are consistent, despite the immense of well-fed hens and scantily dressed this exhlhltion is about,”Ms. Fusai said. er, Vladimir Lenin. Artists who did not mid-’20s and the early ‘80s have been Academy of Art In Baghdad and changes that had taken place throughout students. It was done In 1973. “It is more than just propaganda. It is want to paint under such restrictions re- brought under one roof. Florence and Is the other curator of the the SoViet Union during this time. Inevitably there are the paintings of about a time In the Soviet Union. That Is treated to internal exile or emigrated. The quest to bring the collection toge- show, said he could not have imagined Thete are the typical scenes with Len- the big, collectivized farms. But not all why we want to show these paintings to. For 50 years, Socialist Realist paint- [ [ in standing with villagers or leading a show contented tractor drivers. “Wheat $[ ings, many of them showing Lenin and [ restoring at least half the paintings. Communist Party congress, or talking to Harvest,” painted in the late ‘70s by black holes of history.” all of them depicting heroic or optimis- scattered across the former Soviet Un- “It’s not that they just had to be workers. An entire room is devoted to Kodev Petr Ivanov, a Ukrainian born in tic facets of life under Communism, had ion. The issue of property rights further cleaned. You had to know which materi- Lenin in all his guises. But there are 1899, shows a combine harvester, but Behind the Iron Curtain. The Art of Socialist hung in public places. complicated things, since the state als to use,” said Mr. Bayati. He ex- many paintings without Lenin, too. well in the background. In the fore- Realism. Jeschke-Van Vliet Gallery. Krau· Some still hang in museums in- commissioned the artists to paint and plained that artists of the period had to In the works there is never any sense ground, the wheat with all its texture senstrasse 40, Berlin. Through Nov. 30..
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