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This book argues that Socialist Realist paintings, typically seen by western art historians as examples of retrograde art and by scholars of Soviet history simply as propaganda, were a part of an extensive program of skillful artistic practice coupled with masterful propaganda. Socialist Realist painting generally has been seen as mass art - in other words, not considered to be of the caliber of high art such as traditional oil painting. Yet, painting was indeed a form of mass art and, at the same time, qualifies as being considered high art. Socialist Realist painting was neither one thing exclusively nor the other, but will be explored as having developed as a continual and constant interplay among three complimentary threads: representations of the future and the present; legitimate art and adroit propaganda; and, a configuration of both mass art and high art. Did Socialist Realist paintings present the storied future or the contemporary milieu? How, and in what way, did these paintings depict a here-and-now reality and, at the same time, propagate the mythic elements of future Soviet achievements? What enabled Socialist Realist paintings to be fine art and concurrently function as tools of propaganda? How did Socialist Realism operate as both high art and mass art? These are the main questions answered in this monograph through relevant images of collectivization, one of the two major branches of Stalin's five-year plans
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SOCIALIST REALISf PAINTING DURING THE STALINIST ERA (1934-1941) The High Art of Mass Art K. Andrea Rusnock With a Foreword by John E. Bowlt The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston•Queenston•Lampeter Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rusnock, K. Andrea. Socialist realist painting during the Stalinist era (1934-1941) : the high art of mass art / K. Andrea Rusnock ; with a foreword by John E. Bowlt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-3692-3 ISBN-10: 0-7734-3692-8 I. Painting, Soviet. 2. Socialist realism in art--Soviet Union. I. Title. ND688.5.S64R87 2010 759.7`09043--dc22 2010035319 hors serie. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Front cover image: Arkady Plastov, Collective Farm Celebration, 1937 Russian Museum. (Source: Postcard, Private Collection) Cover art C„' Estate of Arkady PlastoviRAO, MoscowNAGA, New York Author photo courtesy of photographer Susan Moore Copyright © 2010 K. Andrea Rusnock All rights reserved. For information contact The Edwin Mellen Press Box 450 Lewiston, New York USA 14092-0450 The Edwin Mellen Press Box 67 Queenston, Ontario CANADA LOS 1L0 The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT Printed in the United States of America This book is dedicated to my beloved grandmothers, Anna Rusnock and Edith Hartpence Table of Contents List of Illustrations Foreword by John E. BowIt Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 The Inception of Socialist Realism: Style, Subject, and Context Problems with Formalism and Naturalism Dissension in the Ranks Out With The Old and In With The New Collectivization and The Five-Year Plan Lysenko and Soviet Agriculture The Art of Collectivization 11 18 24 25 27 35 18 Chapter 2 43 Soviet Art History and the Interpretation of Russian Nineteenth Cennoy Realist Painting 45 Nineteenth Century Realism Versus Socialist Realism Venetsianov and Paintings of Peasants 50 The Peredvizhniki 52 Stasov and the Peredvizhniki 55 The Peredvizhniki and The Peasants 56 The Realist Landscape 61 The End of Nineteenth Century Realism 62 The Revival of Art and Artists of the Nineteenth Century 64 Chapter 3 Realism's Respite: The Affect of Modern Art on Images of Peasants Serebriakova and the Mir iskus