Exhibition Re-evaluates Soviet Art, Linking Avant-Garde and Socialist Realism
From 24 September 2003 to 04 January 2004, Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt/M. hosted the exhibition titled Dream Factory Communism: The Visual Culture of the Stalin Era. Curated by Boris Groys and initiated by Max Hollein, the showcase brought together the late Russian avant-garde (1928-33) and Socialist Realism (1922-53). Hollein was inspired to create the exhibition after his visit to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Groys posited that Socialist Realism carried forward the avant-garde's goal of transformation. Notable works included Aleksander Gerasimov's Lenin on the Tribune (1930) and Vasili Efanov's An Unforgettable Meeting (1936-7), while art from 1953-91 was notably absent. A catalogue was released in 2003.
Key facts
- Exhibition Dream Factory Communism ran from 24 September 2003 to 04 January 2004 at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt/M.
- Curated by Boris Groys and initiated by Max Hollein of Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
- Proposed a novel periodisation linking the late Russian avant-garde (1928-33) with Socialist Realism (1922-53).
- Featured iconic Socialist Realist works by artists including Aleksander Gerasimov, Vasili Efanov, and Issak Brodski.
- Included Sots Art from the 1970s-80s by Erik Bulatov, Komar & Melamid, and Ilya Kabakov.
- Excluded art from the period 1953-91, focusing on early documentary works like Brodski's At the Coffin of the Leader (1925).
- Groys's thesis argues Socialist Realism is the organic continuation and culmination of the avant-garde.
- Accompanied by a catalogue edited by Boris Groys and Max Hollein, published in 2003.
Entities
Artists
- Reuben Fowkes
- Max Hollein
- Boris Groys
- Kazimir Malevich
- Aleksander Gerasimov
- Vasili Efanov
- Aleksander Laktionov
- Issak Brodski
- Aleksander Deineka
- Vasili Yakovlev
- Michail Khmelko
- Arcadi Plastov
- Boris Mikhailov
- Erik Bulatov
- Komar & Melamid
- Ilya Kabakov
- Emil-Anton-Wisel
- Ilja Grinman
- Matthew Cullerne Bown
- Alla Efimova
- Lev Manovich
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Vladimir Tatlin
- Joseph Stalin
- Leon Trotsky
- Lenin
- Georgii Zhukov
- Kliment Voroshilov
- Kandinsky
Institutions
- Kunsthalle Schirn
- Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
- Tretyakov Gallery
- Yale University Press
- University of Chicago Press
- Leningrad Academy of Arts
- All-Russian Academy of Arts
- Comintern
- Citibank
- ARTMargins Online
Locations
- Frankfurt/M.
- Germany
- Moscow
- Russia
- Budapest
- Hungary
- New Haven
- United States
- London
- United Kingdom
- Chicago
- Leningrad
- Sevastapol
- Ukraine
- Kiev
- Red Square
- Smolny
- Uritskii Palace
- Garden Ring
- Kremlin
Sources
- ARTMargins —
- ARTMargins —