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Becoming Tools for Artistic Consciousness of the People

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Becoming Tools for Artistic Consciousness of the People 34 commentary peer-reviewed article 35 that existed in the time of the Russian of the transformations in the urban space contents Revolution and those political events that of an early Soviet city. By using the dys- 33 Introduction, Irina Seits & Ekaterina influenced its destiny and to reflect on topian image of Mickey Mouse as the de- Kalinina the reforms in media, literature, urban sired inhabitant of modernity introduced peer-reviewed articles space and aesthetics that Russia was go- by Benjamin in “Experience and Poverty” 35 Becoming tools for artistic ing through in the post-revolutionary Seits provides an allegorical and com- consciousness of the people. decades. parative interpretation of the substantial The higher art school and changes in the living space of Moscow independent arts studios Overview of that were witnessed by Benjamin. in Petrograd (1918–1921), the contributions Mikhail Evsevyev Mikhail Evsevyev opens this issue with TORA LANE CONTRIBUTES in this issue with 45 Revolutionary synchrony: an analysis of the reorganization of the her reading of Viktor Pelevin’s Chapaev i A Day of the World, Robert Bird Higher Artistic School that was initiated Pustota (transl. as Buddha’s Little Finger or 53 Mickey Mouse – the perfect immediately after the Bolshevik Revolu- Clay Machine Gun), by situating her analy- tenant of an early Soviet city, tion in order to make art education ac- ses within the contemporary debates on Irina Seits cessible to the masses and to promote art realism and simulacra. She claims that Becoming 63 The inverted myth. Viktor as an important tool for the social trans- Pelevin, in his story about the period of Pelevin’s Buddhas little finger, formations in the Soviet state. As a result the civil war, “allegedly undermines the Tora Lane of the reform, the Higher Artistic School hegemony of the totalizing Soviet Nar- of the Imperial Academy of Arts of St. rative” through his use of post-Soviet exhibition tools for artistic Helene Petersburg was transformed into the Free language and post-modernist style of 70 Russian art 1917–1932, Carlbäck Art Studios (Svomas) that in its short ex- narration (Lane, this issue). Yet Tora Lane istence became the platform for the pro- questions if Pelevin is really able “to open duction of iconic works of Avant-garde art up for a non-totalizing narrative about consciousness such as Tatlin’s model of the monument Russian political history. On the con- to the Third International. The Svomas trary”, she continues, “the Soviet myth of managed to educate a whole generation Chapaev lends itself to the totality of the of Avant-garde artists thus achieving its private myth” (Ibid). of the people goal of providing education to the wider public, which “seems unique and unex- THE CONTROVERSIAL LEGACY of the Rus- The higher art school and independent arts studios in Petrograd (1918–1921) pected in light of the grandiose socio- sian Revolution sparks interests in various economic shifts of those turbulent times corners of the world, which can be seen by Mikhail Evsevyev and considering the violent conditions of in the number of commemorative events the Civil war” (Evsevyev, this issue). such as international conferences, art abstract n October 26, 1917 — the first day of Russia’s social- Robert Bird investigates the journal- exhibitions, and film and book releases. In the present article, the main principles of the reforms in Revo- ist Revolution — the Second All-Russian Congress of istic documentary project A Day of the The most prominent exhibition that has lutionary Russia in the sphere of art are analyzed through the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies issued a decree on World, authored by the writer Maxim attracted attention and raised debates example of the reorganization of the Higher Artistic School of the the formation of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Govern- Gorky and the journalist Mikhail Kol’tsov. in the mass media throughout Europe — Imperial Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg into the Free Art Studios ment — the Council of Peoples’ Commissars (“Sovnarkom”). Its The ambitious project aimed to collect all “Revolution. Russian Art 1917—1932” at (Svomas). The studios were to become a tool for the transformation leadership was assumed by Vladimir Lenin. of the news published across the globe on the Royal Academy of Art in London — is of the surrounding reality and for the development of the artistic In order to set things in the new way and create a function- a single day — September 27, 1935 — in one reviewed by Helene Carlbäck. ≈ consciousness of the people. The intended result of those transfor- ing system, which would allow the richness of Russian cultural illustrated volume. Bird tells the story of Irina Seits mations was the complete spiritual and material harmonization of inheritance to be equally shared and spread among the people, this project as well as of its international PhD candidate in aesthetics at society, while the perfection of artistic interpretation was to be re- a new department had to be put in place, a department that fully and cross-media networks, inevitably Södertörn University. placed with the perfection of social living. The modest and delicate reflected the Republican form of enlightenment. That Depart- revealing the tensions within the socialist Ekaterina Kalinina approach of the new government to the sphere of artistic education, ment was known as the Commissariat of Peoples’ Enlighten- aesthetics “between documentary and Postdoctoral researcher at the Department including the close attention and appreciation to the Avant-garde ment, which oversaw the elementary (“the unitary labor”) and fiction, between publicity and intimacy, of Art and Cultural Studies at Copenhagen trends in art along with the propagation of the accessibility of art and higher-education schools, research projects, the protection of and between revolutionary time and the University, Denmark, and project manager at artistic education to the underprivileged classes seems unique and historical and cultural heritage, the establishment of museums, aberrant temporalities of individual expe- the Swedish organization Nordkonst. Russian Art unexpected in light of the grandiose socio-economic shifts of those art and architecture, theatre and cinema, music and literature. rience” (Bird, this issue). turbulent times and considering the violent conditions of the Civil Considering the outbreak of the Civil war and the overall politi- Irina Seits provides a closer reading of 1917–1932 war. The research presented here is based on the archival materials cal situation, the Peoples’ Enlightenment was justly dubbed Walter Benjamin’s essays Experience and The painting can be positioned and is one of the very first publications on the problems associated “The Third Front”, for it began the long struggle to awaken the Poverty and Moscow, by juxtaposing the in the context of the public aim of with the reform of artistic education in the first post-revolutionary yearning for knowledge and education among the population. records of his visit to Russia in 1926—1927 liberating women from an outdated femi- years. The first commander of the “Narkompross” (the Russian abbre- with her own reflections over the nature “ninity. Page 70 KEY WORDS: Art education, Avant-garde, Petrograd. viation for the Commissariat of People’s Enlightenment) was the Baltic Worlds 2017, vol. X:3 Special section: Russian Revolution in Art & Aesthetics 36 peer-reviewed article peer-reviewed article 37 writer, teacher, and professional revolutionary The Fine Arts Academy was disbanded by Anatoly Vasilievich Lunacharsky. a special decree of the Sovnarkom (Council The number of tasks that lay before Lu- of Peoples’ Commissars) on April 12, 1918.3 nacharsky and his Commissariat was so great The Higher Art School was preserved, but that even their simple listing exceeds the size reformed, in accordance with the new require- and format of this article, thus we take a look at ments of the Republic. In reforming the Higher a mere drop and its reflections to perceive the Art School, the Fine Arts Department of the main principles of those reforms that were car- Narkompross (Commissariat of the Peoples’ ried out in Russia after the October Revolution Enlightenment) sought to create a liberal of 1917. school that would become a true cradle for the country’s artistic life.4 Mission: create a need for art The Petrograd State Liberal Art Studios — among the people as the reformed Higher Art School was now One of the main themes of the cultural social- called — became a federation of autonomous ist policies in the immediate aftermath of the studios that shared the same organizational Revolution was the enlightenment and educa- and financial structure.5 The creation of such tion of the people. Without awakening the a federation was not, in fact, an innovation. demand for art in the people, art could not Independent art studios, led by individual become an organic part of individuals’ lives professors, had been the basis of the Higher Art and thus become the means for the world’s School when it was formally separated from transformation. The Revolutionary epoch gave the Fine Arts Academy during the 1894 reform. birth to numerous art concepts, including art as Those independent studios, on a certain level, the instrument of life-building (zhiznestrojenie); inherited some fundamental principles of Re- as the means of transformation of the mate- naissance-era schools, with the visual method rial environment, of the biosphere, and of the of training artists. Yet the Higher Art School artistic perception of life; and as the means of (from 1894 onwards) was basically separated accomplishing the total spiritual and material into two different courses or levels. harmonization of society. Such harmonization The first level (known as the “Classes”) could be completed on the level of the social taught the basics of the profession. The second being, and the perfection of living itself would level (the “Studios”) was aimed at forming the thus eliminate the necessity of art as the per- artistic method of the students.
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