Forbidden Art: The Russian Post War Avant-Garde University of Wyoming Art Museum, 2007 Educational Packet developed for grades K-12 Purpose of this packet: To provide K-12 teachers with background information on the exhibit and suggested age appropriate applications for exploring the concepts, meaning and artistic intent of the work exhibited, before, during and after the museum visit. Curricular Unit Topic: Freedom of Artistic Expression The Focus of this educational packet and curricular unit is to observe, question, explore, create and reflect. Observe: Students will observe the work of 56 nonconformist artists who responded and reacted to the Soviet government’s strict official line on WHAT and HOW artists would create and produce work by developing art that rejected the idea that restricted their artistic freedom. Because the exhibition includes the work many artists the students will focus on the body of work created as a reaction and response to the constraints and limitations by the Soviet government on the freedom of artistic expression in the creative process. Vagrich Bakhchanyan, La Gioconda, 1982, collage, fabric, paper, ink, 29- 7/8 x 27-1/2 inches, courtesy of the Yuri Traisman Collection. Question: Students will have an opportunity to read, write, the Shelton Studio with assistance from art staff in the sketch, listen to artists and museum educators, and, museum. The art object can be made in reaction to the then, to question the concepts and art techniques of the exhibit or in response to a current social or political artists with museum educators, and, next, to question problem in the United States or world today. They will their responses to the art works in the exhibition. be given supplies and guidance. Explore: Reflect: Students will be encouraged to research one or more Students will evaluate their final art products with artist in the exhibition and find out more about the other students from their classes and with teachers and artist/s cultural background and history, art experiences museum educators. They will be given feedback on the and education, philosophies, style, and techniques. They art work and the concepts behind the making of the art will be given resources to assist them in their researching. work. After this process, each person will then write an essay about their process of making art and the concepts Create: behind the work. This portion of the museum experience Students will be given time to practice sketching, can be carried out in the student’s home school and drawing, painting, and/or building an art object in classroom. Introduction artists to choose to go into exile. In this museum visit students will view a collection of 77 Socialist realism became the predominant art form works, including paintings, photographs, graphics and across the Communist world for nearly fifty years. sculptures representing the work of 56 non-conformist Socialist Realism had little mainstream impact in the artists working during the post-war era in the Soviet non-Communist world, where it was widely seen as a Union. totalitarian means of imposing state control on artists. The exhibition traces the various influences and ways The political aspect of Socialist Realism was, in some in which dissident artists articulated their response to respects, a continuation of pre-Soviet state policy. Socialist Realism, not to be confused with the art type Censorship and attempts to control the content of art of social realism that realistically depicts subjects of did not begin with the Soviets, but were a long-running social concern. Socialist Realism was a set of government feature of Russian life. dictates that told artists WHAT they could create and produce. In order to understand what these artists were responding to, here is a brief summary of Socialist Realism. Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union Socialist Realism was the officially approved type of art in the Soviet Union for nearly sixty years. Communist doctrine decreed that all material goods and means of production belonged to the community as a whole. This included works of art and the means of producing art, which were also seen as powerful propaganda tools. During the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks established a movement called Proletkult (the Proletarian Cultural and Enlightenment Organizations) which sought to put all arts into the service of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Eduard Gorokhovsky, We Will Live in Communism, 1987, oil on linen, 48 x 59 inches In the early years of the Soviet Union, Russian and Soviet artists embraced a wide variety of art forms under the auspices of Proletkult. Revolutionary politics and Characteristics of Socialist Realism radical non-traditional and the avant-garde were often Socialist Realism held that successful art depicts and praised. glorifies the proletariat’s struggle toward socialist progress. Its purpose was to elevate the common worker, Roots of socialist realism whether factory or agricultural, by presenting his life, work, and recreation as admirable. In other words, its Socialist realism became state policy in 1932 under goal was to educate the people in the goals and meaning Stalin. Artists of all types were held to a strict official of communism. The ultimate aim was to create what line in what they could create and produce. It needed Lenin called, “an entirely new type of human being”: to conform to a proletariat and communist ideas of New Soviet Man. Stalin described the practitioners of art for all. Artistic freedom was not allowed and those Socialist Realism as “engineers of souls”. artists who strayed from the government guidelines of how art should be portrayed for all of the people, and, The “realism” part is important. Soviet art at this time in particular, the working class, were severely punished. aimed to depict the worker as he truly was, carrying his Many were sent to the Gulag labour camps in Siberia tools. In a sense, the movement mirrors the course of and elsewhere. The restrictions were loosened somewhat American and Western art, where the everyday human after Stalin’s death in 1953 but the state still kept a tight being became the subject of the novel, the play, poetry, rein on personal artistic expression. This caused many and art. The proletariat was at the center of communist ideals; hence, his life was a worthy subject for study. This Art History was an important shift away from the aristocratic art Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde is produced under the Russian tsars of previous centuries, arranged in a manner that highlights the five movements th but had much in common with the late-19 century associated with this period in Russian art: TheReform fashion for depicting the social life of the common School is characterized by an expanded interpretation people. of the socialist principle, while drawing inspiration Compared to the eclectic variety of 20th century Western from Russia’s cultural traditions and classical art. The art, Socialist Realism often resulted in a fairly bland Radical School united artists that defied the Social and predictable range of artistic products. Painters Realist communal values. Sots-art was a reflection would depict happy, muscular peasants and workers in on Social Realist control of national identity and factories and collective farms; during the Stalin period, symbols by characterizing the political system and they also produced numerous heroic portraits of the the Soviet mythology. Moscow Conceptualism was dictator to serve his cult of personality. Industrial and a reactionary response to the work of the Sots-Art agricultural landscapes were popular subjects, glorifying group. The Modernist Movement from Leningrad was the achievements of the Soviet economy. inclined towards spirituality and drew inspiration from Suprematism and Dada’s Surrealism. Socialist Realism thus demanded close adherence to party doctrine, and has often been criticized as The inclusive nature of Forbidden Art echoes the detrimental to the creation of true, unfettered art – or meaning of the Second Avant-Garde, which does not as being little more than a means to censor artistic spring from any single phenomenon or characteristic, expression. Not all Marxists accepted the necessity of but rather is definable by its context and universality. Socialist Realism. Its establishment as state doctrine From the Reform, Radical and Leningrad schools to in the 1930s had rather more to do with internal Sots-art and Moscow Conceptualism, Soviet artists Communist Party politics than classic Marxist developed existing avant-garde traditions and created imperatives. startling parallels with western contemporary art in their fight for artistic freedom. glasnost work that fell outside the realm of Social Mikhail Chemiakin, Timur Novikov and Aleksandr Tyshler. Realist ideology and its prescribed canon could The art scene in result in drastic action from unemployment to Leningrad was in imprisonment. However, the sweeping cultural many ways separate reforms that subsequently took place in Russia from the one that have enabled a more detailed appraisal of this evolved in Moscow. “nonconformist” work. Forbidden Art:The Postwar The focus of the Russian Avant-Garde provides a unique framework Leningrad artists’ within which this period of Russian art history can work was deeply be understood. embedded in the history of artistic (Under Mikhail Gorbachev there were two new policies culture unlike the created, the first wasglasnost , which was an openness or international pop- loosening on the reins of censorship and eased the repression of the Brezhnev years. Under glasnost, the media had art scene favored by more latitude to report sensitive stories. The other policy the Sots-Art group was perestroika, or a restructuring and overhaul of the Mikhail Chemiakin, Still Life with Pipe II, emerging at that Soviet political and economic systems.) 1979, Gouache on paper, 12 x 12 inches time in Moscow. They extrapolated Modernist concern with color and The Sots-art movement started in the early 1970s and form. Work produced in Leningrad tended to be deeply was a provocative artistic expression that reflected on spiritual in nature, looking inward and drawing on Social Realist control of national identity and symbols. Suprematism and Dada’s surrealism in its highly stylized The material and content of this art were ironic. and magical work. The Modernist artist sought self- It described the mass production of ideology and expression, existential honesty, authenticity of gesture propaganda by the Soviet bureaucracy through posters, and pure affect. Forbidden Art contains works form political banners, paintings of Socialist Realism and the 1960s generation of Leningrad artists, primarily the popular literature. Irony, aesthetic provocation, the work of Chemiakin who remained legendary because grotesque, imitation, game playing, and carnivalesque of his ability to lead the St. Petersburg Group, which restyling became important instruments in this art. included the like of Liagachev and Makarenko. The Radical School Moscow Conceptualism The artists that represent the Radical School are Artists represented here are Eric Bulatov, Dmitri Oscar Rabin, Anatolii Brussilovsky, Lev Kropivnitsky, Prigov, Ilya Kabakov, Ivan Chuikov, Seymon Viacheslav Kalinin, Dmitri Plavinsky, Oleg Tselkov, Faibisovich, Eduard Gorokhovsky, Victor Pivovarov, Anatolii Zverev, Dmitrii Lion, Vladimir Nemukhin, Ullo Sooster, Andrei Grositsky, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Anatolii Slepyshev, Synthesis Group. Rostislav Lebedev, The Radical School demanded a complete rejection Boris Orlov, Valery of the Socialist Realist canon. Its representatives were Gerlovin, Rimma drawn to other forms and movements, such as objectless Gerlovina, Eduard conceptual art, Expressionism, Surrealism, and work Shreinberg, Mikhail inspired by science fiction and metaphysics. This art Grobman, Leonid was crucially influenced by the world of European and Sokov, Vladimir American art. Western art became the standard of true Ovchinikov, Leonid innovation and was interpreted through the fight for Puyrgin, Vladimir pure art, pure form, pure expression and a self-sufficient Sidur, Vladimir and inherently valuable mastery of art. These artists Yakolev, Vladimir did not necessarily subscribe to one single school of Yankilevsky. thought. They were, however, united in their defiance Eduard Shteinberg, Composition Moscow of Social Realist communal values. They created highly April 1994 (Eurasia), 1994, gouache individualistic work, which took a subjective look at the on paper, 25-1/2 x 25-1/2 inches Conceptualism came about as a reactionary modern world. response to the work of the Sots-art group artists. Artists such as Bulatov The Reform School The Reform School is represented by Dmitri and Prigov aimed to undermine all hierarchies whether Zhilinsky, Tatiana Nazarenko, Natalia Nesterova, imposed by the state or other artists. The focus of their and Mikhail Romadin, Ernest Neizvestny, Mikhail work was deeply embedded in the history of artistic Shvartsman, Vasilii Sitnikov. culture unlike the international pop-art scene favored by the Sots-art group emerging at that time in Moscow. The Reform School was an attempt to modify the canons In a cultural environment, an important issue was of Socialist Realism by expressing artistic sincerity and that Moscow Conceptualism treats text as an object “life’s harsh truths”. Influenced by Modernism and and an object as a text. Its artistic work is not based the Abstract movement, the Reform School, while on language, but rather, the interrelationship between remaining loyal to Socialist Realism, attempted to individual artistic and universal cultural consciousness. expand interpretations of socialist principles. The art accommodated elements borrowed from traditional The Sots-Art Movement Russian art of the 1920s and from world classical art. Some of the artists that were part of this movement The Reform School was eventually adopted by official art are Leonid Lamm, Boris Orlov, Grisha Brushkin, and until the late 1980s remained the liberal faction of Komar and Melamid, Vadim Sidur, Aleksandr the Union of Artists. Kosolapov, Ilya Kabakov, Rostislav Lebedev, Dmitri Prigov, Leonid Sokov, Vladimir Ovchinikov. Statements about Forbidden Art by the press: Lesson overview for grades K-6 This focused grouping of works shows a passionate interest in the psyche of the Russian artist and the conditions of life under the Setting the Stage: The Story of Jessie Communist system. The work is grouped according to artistic style and traces the history of dissident art in the USSR. The In first grade, Jessie Carlson’s art teacher told earliest works are from the officially sanctioned Soviet Realist her to go sit in the hall away from the other art school. . . The Communists created the rules for the highly realistic students. Why? She had told Jessie over and over and bucolic Socialist Realist style; all other forms of expression to draw the objects in the middle of the table. be damned. Socialist Realism ruled until the 1950s, when the Instead, Jessie had sketched on her paper a picture death of Stalin brought about a period of change. Some artists of her dog, Woofer, asleep on her bed. Woofer was began to experiment after seeing exhibitions of Picasso and other a short-legged, prickly-haired, grey-brown beagle contemporary Western artists, and their work became known cross. Mrs. Hooper frowned when she saw the under the Reform School banner. . . These artists drew on the work scruffy pup on Jessie’s tablet on the desk. of European artists, as well as African and Latin art, and made Mrs. Hooper, the art teacher, had told the students the leap to expressionism and abstraction, completely rejecting to try and draw the three items that were placed in Socialist Realism. . . Forbidden Art embraces a vast array of styles, the middle of the table in the middle of the room. yet all the work deals with the character, mysticism and heritage On the table lay a basketball, a soccer ball, and a of the Russian people. There is a national aesthetic, a common softball. Mrs. Hooper had tried earlier that class to background to draw upon, and a common suffering that all of guide Jessie’s hand and to help her to draw those the artists represented here touch on. The work is informed by an three circles of varying sizes but Jessie wasn’t in the intense humanity and an expression of, and concern with, the soul least interested in drawing those balls. of the artist. –Elisa Flynn, The Fairfield County Weekly, Jessie loved her dog and she would draw pictures of Fairfield, Connecticut, July 12, 2001. Woofer in all positions every day. Today she drew Woofer asleep on her bed. She was proud of what The exhibition expertly reveals how art in the Soviet Union she drew because it looked just like him. Jessie evolved in a complex relationship to centralized authoritarian didn’t understand why she couldn’t draw what was power. in her head and what made her feel happy. –L.P.Streitfield,The Advocate & Greenwich Times, July 1, 2001. But, after all, Mrs. Hooper was the teacher, and The liveliest artists in the show, and the ones best known to Jessie should have done what she was told. Americans, are the activists, who first gained recognition in what is known as the Sots Art and post-Sots Art movements of the What do you think? Should Mrs. Hooper have 1970s and 80s (Sots is an abbreviation for the Russian word for punished Jessie for not following her instructions socialism). . . This ambitious show, with its careful attention to and rules? Give reasons why or why not? trends and movements and its exposure of the whole gamut of postwar Soviet art, adds up to a surprisingly rich survey –Grace Glueck, The New York Times, July 20, 2001. . . . While much work shows the influence of major European Elena figures such as Picasso and Matisse who were collected in Russia Figurina, before the Revolution, it also incorporates traditional Russian art, Mourners, especially the insistent frontality and religious imagery of icons. 1986, oil Much of it is done in an unpolished or primitive way that alludes on canvas, to folk art, and these artists might be thought of as counterparts to 50 x 41 the outsider artists in this country, whose work consistently looks inches simple and unsophisticated. But while outsider artists are regarded as ignorant of the nuances of art making and art history, the Russians had more knowledge than they could contain. –William Zimmer, The New York Times, June 10. 2001. Lesson Plan Focus: Extension activities/ Artistic expression and freedom Follow-up Understandings: If students ask questions about the Russian artists, at Guiding questions: that time, the teachers in their home schools or the Why do we make art? museum educators can explain how the artists felt the What is art? government was telling them what and how to paint and What does art look like? why. Students could continue making art objects related Who tells us how we can make art? to the art work they observed at the museum. Why would people tell us how to make art? Why is the art work in the exhibition “Forbidden”? A lesson about Russian geography, history, and Russian folk tales might be a possible addition to the museum Subjects addressed: experience. Teachers might want to bring in Russian Reading, Writing, Social Studies, Art and History music and dances to include in the lessons. There are a Possible interdisciplinary connections: myriad of possibilities and the museum educators will be Math, Science, Computer technology, Music, Dance & Drama available to help with these connections. Overview of Lesson Plan: Lesson overview for grades 7-12 In this lesson in the UW Art Museum galleries, students Students will learn about the work and concepts behind will observe a few specific pieces of Russian art work the work of Postwar Russian Avant-Garde artists in the in the Forbidden Art exhibition. These pieces will be exhibition Forbidden Art. They will learn about and explore selected as most appropriate for K-6. They will sketch Russian history and art, political censorship, Socialism, one piece of art and talk about it in terms of colors, Communism, Socialist Realism, artistic freedom, and shapes and form, objects, subjects, lines and marks. The different nonconformist artist groups: The Reform questions for the students will be: “Who tells them how School, the Radical School, Sots-art movement, Moscow to make an art object and why?” Conceptualism, and the Modernist movement. Students will observe the art that became a response to the dictates In the Shelton Studio, they will make their own sketches of the Soviet authorities and their ideas that all art must and/or drawings, watercolors or paintings, or sculptures be Socialist Realism, a Soviet approved type of art which modeled after something they liked in the exhibit or of sought to put all arts into the service of the dictatorship of their own choice. the proletariat (the working class in society). Suggested time allowance: Students will look to see what new and original ideas One hour in the galleries; One hour in the studio came from these works and their response to the Socialist Objectives: Realism. Also, they will look to see what traditional Students will icons and folk art ideas were represented in these works. • Discuss the story of Jessie and think through Students will study the various media represented in some of the problems that might arise with this this exhibition. Students and teachers will consider kind of a situation. the concepts behind these works and how they fit with • Engage in questions about artistic expression, the Reform School, the Radical School, the Sots-arts freedom and what they are. movement, Moscow Conceptualism and Modernist art. • Explore an art medium related to the work in the In the Shelton Studio students will be given the gallery: painting or drawing opportunity to complete a painting, print, sculpture, or • Write a paragraph about the making of their collage modeled after one of the works in this exhibition object, if appropriate. or in response to a contemporary idea they have been • Evaluate each other’s work in the Shelton Studio. thinking about, such as a political piece depicting their Resources / Materials: response to the Iraq War, or they may respond to more All materials will be provided by the UW Art Museum. local issues, such as drilling in the Red Desert. . . Vocabulary: They might, also, consider what kind of art they would forbidden, art, artist, freedom, expression, teacher, have to create in order for their work to be censored and student, sketch, sculpt, and create why it would be censored. Students and teachers may research and engage in Art questions to consider conversations about the Russian avant-garde artists’ work and artist philosophies and concepts before arriving at Grades K-12 the art museum, using study guides (available on-line) • What are the different media you observe in this to explore these ideas more thoroughly. While here they exhibition? will spend time in the galleries closely observing the • Which media are you drawn to and why? work, discussing it, writing about it, and even sketching • Which works are you drawn to because of colors, it. They will begin conversations about the theories textures, lines, marks, light, shadow, shapes and behind the work which will lay the groundwork for forms? future opportunities to pursue these ideas in their home • Which works are you drawn to because of classrooms and schools. subjects and objects? Essential Questions • How would you describe the lines and marks or Grades K-6 forms that you see? • Do any of the works speak to you? Do you feel • Where do we see art? anything for any work? • Where is Russia? Can you find it on the map? • • Why do we make art? Does any work make you think of something • What is art? you have never thought of before? • • What does art look like? What is it persuading you to think or do? Or • Who tells us how we can make art? isn’t it persuading you of anything? • • Why would people tell us how to make art? What else about the art created that makes you • Why is the art work in the exhibition think or feel something? “Forbidden”? Pre-visit activities • How would you feel if your teacher made you In order to prepare students for their museum visit and create a drawing or painting that showed math extend learning possibilities, we suggest that teachers and tests are good for you? students consider the following activities. • Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You decide. Grades 7-12 Grades 7-12 • Why is some act or thing usually forbidden? • Students will read and research about the • Who would forbid someone from doing Russian Avant-Garde artists in the UW Art something? Museum’s educational packet on-line, art • Why do you think someone would want to do magazines, books at the library and on the that? internet. • Does forbidding someone to do something • Students will choose one or more artists from the separate one person from the other? list of artists in the exhibition to research. • When was the first time you heard the word • They will explore each artist’s medium and forbidden? What association comes to mind with individual artistic techniques and styles. that specific word? • Students will explore the history of censorship in • Does the creative process make us more or less Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. civilized? • Students will look up the definitions of • Why do we make art? communism, Socialist Realism, censorship, • Do our human needs and wants motivate this glasnost, revolution, and the short biographies of process? Lenin, Stalin, and Marx, briefly, enough so that • Is it in response to social and/or political they are familiar with the names and isms. situations? • Is it in response to personal thoughts and desires? • Does any political system or society have the right or should be allowed to censor or direct the way art is shaped, made? • How so and why? Prerequisite skills/knowledge • Students will discuss what they see with museum Museum staff will work with teachers to ensure that educators. all projects are age and skills appropriate. At the very • They will explore the artist’s work in relationship minimum: to the ideas that this specific Russian avant-garde • Students should be able to understand concepts artist might have about their work. and philosophies in relation to this exhibit, • They will research and think more about the such as: communism, censorship, Marxism and concepts behind the art work. Socialist Realism. • Using worksheets, students will respond in • Students should have some familiarity with writing or drawing to the work they see by sketching and drawing objects. recording their observations and their own • Students should be able to identify shapes, thoughts about the work. colors, forms, and textures. • Students will answer questions on a museum • Students should look up the vocabulary words worksheet. below and copy them down and have them with • Students will engage in discussions about their them when viewing the exhibition. observations and their answers and sketches with one another and with the teachers. Vocabulary to know Abstract Expressionism Part 2 – Time frame: 45 minutes Avant-garde The following projects may be considered individually, Bolshevik Revolution or combined, or museum staff will work with teachers censorship to develop specific projects which support ongoing Communism classroom work. Dada Surrealism • Students will sketch out an idea that either economy models a particular Russian avant-garde artist glasnost or an idea they have in response to a social or ideology political problem or condition today they wish Lenin to address. Marxism • Students will explore this idea in an art Modernism form,either, a painting, a water-color, a non-conformist sculpture, a collage, etc. perestroika • Students will create an art product of their political choice with help from the museum art staff. proletariat proletkult – (Proletarian Cultural and Post-visit activities Enlightenment Organizations) We have found that students achieve maximum benefit Realism from a museum visit when time is scheduled for post- Suprematism visit activities. Here are some suggestions: • Socialism Students discuss or write about their museum Stalin experiences, reviewing what they learned, what tsar has special meaning for them, how they will use new information and skills. Museum activities • Students continue to research the works of one or more of their favorite artists in this exhibit Part 1 – Time frame: 45 minutes and the concepts behind their work. (an essay, • Students will closely observe the works in the art work, research paper) exhibition, Forbidden Art. • Students continue to create their own series • They will identify lines, shapes, forms, patterns, of prints, drawings, paintings or sculptures to repetition, color, light, shadow, technique and explore the techniques and concepts behind the style in a work they choose to analyze and kinds of images they selected at the exhibit. model. Suggested use in the curriculum Assessments and documentation of The study of the exhibit Forbidden Art: The Post-War museum tour and studio experiences Russian Avant-Garde and the history, culture, geography In order to ensure that our museum tour program is of the Russian people after WWII will tie to multiple meeting the needs of teachers and students, we ask that curricular areas, including art, history, social studies, participants complete evaluation surveys. Surveys will writing, reading, geography, and philosophy. Less be distributed to teachers and students, but they are also obvious, this exhibit could connect to math and science available on-line as a pdf file to be downloaded, or they when dealing with shapes, forms, chemicals, paints, may be requested via e-mail ([email protected]). and so forth. Museum staff will work with teachers to address specific Wyoming Teaching Standards and 1. Students will self-assess using a quick survey to align museum projects and studies with ongoing that asks them to consider their response to the classroom curricular units. gallery discussions and research, and their studio experience. Some recommended resources 2. Teachers will assess the overall visit by Forbidden Art: The Russian Post War Avant-Garde, completing a quick survey that asks for their Curatorial Assistance, Inc., Los Angeles, California in observation and assessment of students’ association with Distributed Art Publishers, New York, experiences, as well as assessment of the overall New York, 1998. process of the museum visit. The Union of Youth: An Artist’s Society of the Russian 3. Museum staff and artists/teachers will record Avant-Garde by Jeremy Howard, Manchester Press, their observations and assessments. 1992. 4. When studio time permits, we will ask students The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934 by Jared Ash, to briefly discuss their art work completed in the Nina Gurianova, Gerald Janecek, and Margit Rowell, Shelton Studio visit. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2002. 5. Museum staff may take photographs of students Artists in revolution: Portraits of the Russian Avant-Garde and teachers to document the learning taking 1905-1925 by Robert Chadwell Willilams, Indiana place and the work produced during a museum University Press, 1977. visit. These are available upon written request to teachers who would like to use them as art of Russian Painted Shop Signs and Avant-Garde Art by A. teaching and student portfolios. Pavelikhina, Aurora Art Publishers, 1991. Russian Avant-Garde (Art of Century) by Evgueny Kovotun, Parkstone Press, 2007. Mikhaeil Larionov and the Russian Avant-Garde by Anthony Parton, Princeton University Press, 1996. Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde, 1900-1929, Greenwood Press, 1994. A History of Modern Russia by Robert Service, Harvard Press, 2005. Materials to be supplied to each student Materials for selected Shelton Studio projects are provided by the art museum.