(De)constructing the Russian Avant-Garde: Curatorial Projects, 1960s-1970s

• In Event: New Research in Russian Visual Culture

Abstract

The term Russian Avant-Garde has become increasingly problematic in light of contemporary political developments and broader decolonization trends. An examination of private galleries and museum curatorial projects from the 1960s to the 1970s underscores that scholars and curators never intended to represent the movement as a homogeneous entity, but rather emphasized its diversity. This paper will explore the tension between the branding efforts necessary for inclusion of the movement in the modernist canon, which required a certain degree of simplification and warranted the use of an overarching umbrella term, and the nuanced approach demonstrated by the selection of artists and exhibition catalogues’ narratives.

Author

• Ekaterina Kudryavtseva, Stetson U