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Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism

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Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism Between Spring Summer Soviet Conceptual Art in the Late Communism Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/betweenspringsumOOOOunse Between Spring and Summer Between Spring and Summer * Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism Edited by David A. Ross Curators: David A. Ross Elisabeth Sussman Margarita Tupitsyn Libra Joseph Bakshtein Thomas RSlTY TRENT g PETERBOROUGH, ONTAR P K9J7B8 Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England First MIT Press edition © 1990 The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts Dates of Exhibition: June 15 - September 9, 1990 Tacoma Art Museum Tacoma, Washington November 1, 1990-January 6, 1991 The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Massachusetts February 16—March 31, 1991 Des Moines Art Center Des Moines, Iowa ISBN: 0-262-68065-3 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-082363 Distributed by The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Between spring and summer: Soviet conceptual art in the era of late communism / edited by David A. Ross; curators, David A. Ross . (etal.).—1st MIT Press ed. p. cm. Catalogue of an exhibition held June 15—September 9, 1990 at the Tacoma Art Museum; Nov. L 1990 — January 6, 1991 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Feb. 16—March 31, 1991 at the Des Moines Art Center Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-262-68065-3 1. Conceptual art—Soviet Union—Exhibitions. 2. Art, Soviet—Exhibitions. 3. Art, Modem—20th century—Soviet Union—Exhibitions. I. Ross, David A., 1949- . II. Tacoma Art Museum. III. Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Mass.) IV. Des Moines Art Center. N6988.5. C62B48 1990 90-44305 709'.47'07473—dc20 CIP Contents Preface and Acknowledgments vii Provisional Reading: Notes for an Exhibition David A. Ross 1 No. 6/1 Sretensky Boulevard Richard Lourie 31 U-Turn of the U-Topian Margarita Tupitsyn 35 On Emptiness Ilya Kabakov 53 The Third Zone: Soviet Postmodern Elisabeth Sussman 61 On Conceptual Art in Russia Joseph Bakshtein 73 East'West Exchange: Ecstasy of (Mis)Communication Victor Tupitsyn 83 Scenes from the Future: Komar & Melamid Peter Wollen 107 Concepts and Reality Alexander Rappaport 121 Metamorphoses of Speech Vision Mikhail Ryklin 135 Artists in the Exhibition 146 The Image of Reagan in Soviet Literature Dmitri Prigov 184 Artists’ Chronologies 191 Select Bibliography 201 Checklist of the Exhibition 203 Notes on Contributors 207 Preface “The history of art is the history of the purpose of art directly related to the bases of the social forms. “ John Graham System and Dialectic of Art The history of the art of the Soviet Union, like the art history of any nation, is a reflection of not only its soul but of its mood and direction. This exhibition, Between Spring and Summer: Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism, is an attempt to assess the temper and purpose of recent Soviet art at a time during which such assessments are vitally important. It is necessarily a complex exhibition, and is the result of an extraordinary team effort between the Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) and The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The exhibition’s origins, which I set out in detail in my contribution to this catalogue, are properly located in the desire of people in the Seattle-Tacoma region who decided to organize a cultural festival surrounding the athletic competitions known as the Goodwill Games.® The notion that exhibitions, concerts and other educational and cultural exchanges might foster genuine goodwill between Soviets and Americans is part of the invisible substructure that has helped our two nations move closer together than at any point since we fought as allies during the Second World War. Of the four museum exhibitions in the Goodwill Arts Festival,® this is the only to focus on contemporary Soviet artistic activity, and as such we feel honored by our selection and a bit awestruck by the responsibility it entails. On behalf of The Institute of Contemporary Art we would first like to express our gratitude to the Trustees and Staff of the Tacoma Art Museum and to the Organizing Committee of the Goodwill Festival for the invitation to produce this exhibition. As usual The Institute’s Trustees have been supportive at every stage of the project. At the Tacoma Art Museum, I am particularly grateful to its Director Wendell Ott who stood by us during this complex and somewhat risky project. The project would have been completely impossible without the help of Exhibition Coordinator Karin Hirschfeld, who not only coordinated all the research and travel, but played a critical role in the organization and execution of the exhibition and its tour. To the TAM Trustees, and especially Bill and Bobby Street, we are grateful for the way in which they steadfastly approached the considerable fund-raising challenge presented by the exhibition. Jarlath Hume and his staff at the Goodwill Games and Arts Festival went out of their way to be helpful from the project’s outset, and for this we are thankful. Jarlath is the model of a great community organizer and a visionary organizational leader. My colleagues at The ICA have performed magnificently throughout this project. ICA Deputy Director Elisabeth Sussman has once again helped create an exhibition of real significance through her relentless concern for clarity and her astounding ability to find great work and help others find it as well. We were helped in the formative stages of the project by ICA Curator David Joselit, who returned to graduate school before the completion of the exhibition. The exhibition shows traces of his intelligence and humor. Matthew Siegal, The Institute’s Exhibition Manager has once again wrestled with the complex logistics of an international exhibition with grace and extraordinary skill. Assistant Curator Leslie Nolen has carefully edited the catalogue manuscript and working with Special Curatorial Coordinator Leigh Raben has supervised the translation of all of the Russian material for this book and for the exhibition itself. Her experienced eye and unflappable spirit have been of great value. Once again we are fortunate to have Sylvia Steiner skillfully oversee the design and production of this catalogue. We thank ICA Curator Matthew fleitelbaum for his insight and advice in the editorial process. We are grateful for and proud of the contribution of the writers who have provided essays for this catalogue. Besides those authored by the curatorial team I would like to thank Ilya Kabakov, Richard Lourie, Dmitri Prigov, Alexander Rappaport, Mikhail Ryklin, and Victor Tupitsyn. We are also grateful to Clark Troy and Kim I homas for their translations of the Russian essays into English. Margarita and Victor lupitsyn have played a central role in the conception and execution of this exhibition. If not for their pioneering work, and especially Margarita’s previous exhibitions and her long-standing commitment to the careful exploration of this particular field, we would surely have lost our way. Victor’s patience and intelligent fine-tuning of the Russian essays into English proved invaluable. Our Soviet curatorial associate Joseph Bakshtein has been a great guiding force for us. His brilliant exhibitions in Moscow set the pattern for our understanding of this complex scene. We would have literally been lost if it had not been for our extraordinary translator and guide Layla Hagen. Layla not only anticipated our every need, she was (and remains) a thoughtful and considerate intermediary for us, making our visits not only productive but rather pleasant as well. The value of her counsel and government liaison work is impossible to fully calculate. Finally we acknowledge our debt of gratitude to all the Soviet artists we met, and especially to those who will participate in this exhibition and publication. We all learned in ways we never expected to learn and delighted in the spirit and energy of these great people. I would especially like to acknowledge and thank the artist Misha Roshal, who though not in this exhibition, left an indelible mark on me, and in turn on this exhibition as well. We are extremely grateful to the collectors who agreed to part with their work for the extended period of this exhibition; they are listed on page xiii. The ICA would also like to formally acknowledge those people who assisted this project with their advice and support: Tatiana Abalova Layla Hagen Anne Livet Richard Andrews Rustam Khamdamov Pavel Lungin Evgeni Barabanov Barbara Herbich Jean Hubert Martin Tod Bludeau Pavel Khoroshilov Irina Mikheyeva Elena Olikheyo Philip Brown David Juda Peter Pakesch Nadia Burova Alyona Kirtsova Irina Porudominskaya Douglas Davis Naum Kleman Svetlana Dshafarova Uri Klemenko Dima Popov Ronald Feldman Vikka Kabakov Ned Rifkin Jamey Gambrell Milena Kalinovshka Gary Smith Marshall Goldman Phyllis Kind Susan Stirn Nikolai Gubenko Allyona Kirtsova Julia Turrell David A. Ross Director The Institute of Contemporary Art This exhibition represents a tremendous step for the Tacoma Art Museum and I would like to thank the Board of Trustees for their support, confidence and patience. Of equal importance was the effort of Between Spring and Summers Steering Committee headed by Bill Street; they were instrumental in achieving our ambitious fund raising goal. I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of our exhibition and development staff: Molly Gazecki, Jim McDonald, Laura Thayer, Penny Loucas, Bill Rietveldt, Heather Cooper and especially to Karin Hirschfeld. Our gratitude and appreciation go to David Ross, Director of The ICA for undertaking the project with us and for his expert direction of the curatorial effort. Ultimately many individuals lent their time and expertise to this project. The following are just a few: Dan Baty Stuart Grover Robert D.
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