Page 35 - Studio International - December 1974

which entered this mechanism was, immediately
upon its release, transformed into a mass of
social realist works and any deflection from the
dogma was automatically penalized, usually in
the form of arrest of the recalcitrant, this
mechanism worked without interruption. In
the mid-fifties the situation of art changed in
the Soviet Union. Together with the embalmed
body of Stalin, they placed in the Mausoleum
the invisible corpse of social realism: to force
thousands of artists to translate the language of
party directives into figurative forms understood
by the wide popular masses was possible only
in conditions of absolute dictatorship and fierce
terror. With the weakening of the latter, an
opposition to the official art in the Soviet Union
began to take shape. It emerged and gathered
force among two different social-artistic groups
of the creative intelligentsia.
First of all, it existed within official Soviet
he himself did, portrait painters of the party art. Young artists, many of whom joined art
leadership, witnesses `to the unprecedented institutes immediately after leaving the trenches
achievements' of Stalinist socialism, in which and who received recognition in the early fifties,
they saw the main purpose of social realism. formed the left wing of the Union of Artists.
In the last quarter of a century, its membership They did not oppose the official ideology
and its ideology have hardly changed: its openly, they merely aimed to widen the
present chairman, the sculptor N. Tomsky made meaning of social realism. They saw as their
himself a career by fashioning endless source of creativity the tradition of the Soviet
monuments to Stalin. At present, the Academy avant guard of the twenties, which seemed to
of Arts holds a tight rein over the system of art them to be the embodiment of genuine
education: all the largest art institutes and revolutionary contemporary art. N. Andronov,
colleges are under its supervision, where the P. Nikonov, K. Mordovin, B. Birger painted
adherents of social realism explain to future factories, newly erected buildings, Komsomols
artists the bourgeois essence of the work of [2] in the virgin lands and young geologists in
Kandinsky, Malevich, Picasso and all that is new the faraway tundra, and the sculptors E.
in art. Neizvestny and V. Sidur created monuments to
The Ministry of Culture of the USSR is the the fallen in battle not in the spirit of the false,
third giant in the mechanism of regulation of bracing optimism of official social realism,
artistic life in the Soviet Union. It receives but in general, monumentalized forms of
ideological directives from the Department of contemporary art, full of rigorous enthusiasm
Culture of the Central Committee of the for struggle and drama. This proved sufficient
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and, like to bar them from exhibitions, galleries and
any ministry, it is a bureaucratic machine. None purchasing commissions. Since then, some of
the less, all museums of art are under its them have compromised with the official
supervision. It directs their exhibition activity ideology and grafted their talent to the mass
and through the Government Purchasing production of the Union of Artists. The most
Commission it carries out the purchase of creative, however, particularly B. Birger, V.
valuables for museum collections (the museums Veisberg, E. Neizvestny and V. Sidur continued
do not have funds at their disposal for this their search for new means and eventually
painters, graphic designers, sculptors and masters purpose), and so on. Officials of the Ministry reinforced the ranks of unofficial Soviet artists.
of applied arts and design, which comprises the of Culture and members of the Academy are A different kind of opposition emerged
membership of the Union—so an understanding always members of the jury at all exhibitions, among artists who were just embarking on the
of social realism was not always sufficiently advisory members of editorial boards of path of creative art in the mid-fifties. A
rigid. For this reason, the Academy of Arts of publishing enterprises, and are included decisive factor for them was their first encounter
the USSR was created. among other members of the executive of the with the latest trends in Western art. Many
The Academy of Arts of the USSR was Union of Artists, thus exercising political control understood that educating the working
founded in 1947. Its first action was the over all artistic activity in the Soviet Union. classes in whatever way, or propagating political
ideological rout and physical destruction of the The term 'mechanism' used in describing ideas in artistic shapes or reflecting achievements
Museum of New Western Art in Moscow (one of this system is accurate in determining its of socialist reality were far from being the most
the finest collections of impressionists, Cezanne, function. As in any other machine, however, important tasks for an artist. Having thus
early Picasso, Matisse and so on), whose its efficiency depends on the coordination of its rejected the fundamental basis of social realism,
premises in Kropotkinsk Street were duly parts and on a regular supply of energy. The they automatically ruled themselves out from
occupied by the newly founded Academy. source of energy for this mechanism of control the official artistic life of the country and
Alexander Gerasimov, a dictator of Soviet art is the ideology which emanates from the top. composed the nucleus of what is now called
for many years and Stalin's official portrait In Stalin's day when the theory and practice of unofficial Soviet art. It is not the case that
painter became its chairman, while a limited social realism were advanced with indissoluble these artists fell under 'the corrupting influence
number of its highly paid members became, as unity to such an extent that any party directive of bourgeois ideology' (as official theoreticians,
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