Online discussion of Shared Images: A History of American Art in the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Online discussion of Shared Images: A History of American Art in the Soviet Union during the Cold War

May 6, 2025 | event, news

Online discussion of Shared Images: A History of American Art in the Soviet Union during the Cold War

We are happy to announce the upcoming online discussion of the book Shared Images: A History of American Art in the Soviet Union during the Cold War by Kirill Chunikhin, Associate Professor at the Department of History and Head of the Laboratory for Visual History at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg.

Exploring American art as an essentially global phenomenon, Chunikhin’s monograph employs the concept of a “shared history” to analyze interconnections and mutual dependence of Soviet and American art histories from the late 1940s to the 1960s. Shared Images, thus, revises narratives on Soviet and American isolationism, allegedly a distinctive feature of Cold War cultures.

The discussion will take place online via ZOOM on May 27, 2025 at 17.00 (CEST). After a short presentation by the author, the discussion will focus on the methodological framework for exploring visual art and culture of the Cold War period.

Speakers:

Kirill Chunikhin, Associate Professor at the Department of History and Head of the Laboratory for Visual History at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg

Anastasia Kurlyandtseva, independent curator and researcher, Paris

Olga Olkheft, PhD in History, Bielefeld School of History and Sociology (BGHS), Bielefeld University

Isabel Wünsche, Professor of Art and Art History at Constructor University Bremen

The discussion will be moderated by Irina Riznychok and Georg Sokolov, research associates at Constructor University Bremen.

To join us as a guest/discussant, please register via the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTBvgwdY9xsA-dhke1AdLafGflexqtmpMSVcExIcpz_8hhIw/viewform?usp=header

We kindly ask you to register in advance to receive an invitation with a ZOOM link.

We are very much looking forward to your participation.

New Name

New Name

Dec 19, 2024 | news

Dear friends and members of the Russian(?) Art & Culture Group,

Inspired by the lively discussions during the Tenth Graduate Workshop, we are pleased to announce the new name of the group: “Russian Art & Culture Reconsidered” (RACR).

As an active group and network, we wish to keep the main focus on Imperial Russian and Soviet art and culture. In doing so, we hope to contribute to a critical re-evaluation of this research field, highlighting that this is an ongoing process. More specifically, the new name reflects the processes of re-reading Russo-centric narratives, re-evaluating the various cultures in the territory of the former Soviet Union, and critically investigating the blind spots and marginalized areas of Imperial Russian and Soviet art and culture – phenomena, artists, and institutions that have previously been neglected.

The RACR group will proceed with organizing workshops and publishing its outcomes, as well as expanding its network by inviting new participants. Furthermore, we would like to test new formats of collaborative work (e.g. online seminars and reading groups) to identify relevant topics and encourage conversation, exchange, and further investigation. More details on our forthcoming projects will be presented in the new year. We are very much looking forward to your participation and support.

 

Warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Your RACR team

Forthcoming Tenth Graduate Workshop in Bremen

Forthcoming Tenth Graduate Workshop in Bremen

Sep 3, 2024 | event, graduate workshop, news, Russian Art

We would like to draw your attention to the forthcoming tenth anniversary workshop of the Russian(?) Art & Culture Group, which will be held at Constructor University in Bremen on September 27 and 28, 2024.

The ongoing Russian war against Ukraine has caused a deep crisis of scholarship. Taking this as a point of departure, the goal of the tenth workshop of the Russian(?) Art & Culture Group is to find appropriate terms, approaches, and strategies that offer new insights into Imperial Russian and Soviet art and culture in order to contribute to the ongoing debates regarding the future of scholarship in this field of research.

We are already looking forward to interesting presentations, the keynote talk by Konstantin Akinsha on The History of Art in the Shadow of War: On the Necessity of Revising the Narrative of Russian/Soviet Modernism and the roundtable discussion focussing on the question What Is “Russian” Art and Culture? with Louise Hardiman, Maria Silina, and Konstantin Akinsha. See program and booklet for more details.

Should you be insterested in participating, please register by September 22, 2024, at workshop@russian-art.net.

Reading Recommendations

Reading Recommendations

Jan 19, 2024 | publications, Russian Art

Happy New Year!

We would like to start the new year with some reading recommendations. Members of the Russian Art and Culture Group have been involved in many publications over the past year and we would like to draw your attention to four of them.

Enjoy reading and a successful 2024 for all our friends and members!

First, we would like to congratulate Roann Barris to her monographic publication Reclaiming and Redefining American Exhibitions of Russian Art. Many will remember when Roann presented her exciting material at our seventh workshop in September 2019. We are therefore all the more delighted that her findings are now accessible to everyone.

On 170 pages, illustrated with 16 reproductions, Roann examines the history of American exhibitions of Russian art in the twentieth century, presenting the complex interactions between museums and governments, and the different approaches of curators in the context of the Cold War.

Congratulations, Roann, on this wonderful book!

Louise Hardiman edited the rich volume on Courtly Gifts and Cultural Diplomacy: Art, Material Culture, and Russian-British Relations as the 24th volume of the series Russian History and Culture at Brill! It is available as hard cover print and as e-book.

In thirteen chapters divided into four thematic parts, this richly illustrated volume presents the diverse practices of giving and receiving gifts between the British and Russian Empires on almost 400 pages. Compelling case studies highlight the nuanced nature of British-Russian artistic diplomacy from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

The editor Louise Hardiman presented this wonderful publication together with Ekaterina Heath, Allison Leigh, and Cynthia Coleman Sparke in the NYU 19v. Seminar Series in September 2023. So, if you would like an introduction by the authors, just watch the recording online.

The next publication that we would like to recommend is already impressive in its scope. Picturing Russian Empire is an edited volume with 55 articles by renowned international art historians and cultural scientists; members of the Russian Art and Culture Group among them. It is published as paperback and e-book at Oxford University Press.

Valerie Kivelson, Sergei Kozlov, and Joan Neuberger compiled a collection covering more than a millennium of Russian and Soviet history, from medieval Rus until today. On around 550 pages, the 55 articles are divided upon six parts, each dedicated to a certain era (see Table of Contents). With the last four contributions, the editors react to the current political situation and Russia’s unlawful war in Ukraine.

The multifaceted approach of this publication provides an impressive overview of many different aspects of current historical research. Enjoy exploring it!

The special issue on “Framing Environments in Russia: Critical Reflections on Ecology, Culture and Power” of the Venice University journal Lagoonscapes: The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities offers a different perspective on sociopolitical structures in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

Roberta Sala and Nadia Caprioglio co-edited an interesting volume with ten perspectives on the perception of the environment in Russian and Soviet culture and society on 170 pages.

Best of all, this edition is an open-access work just waiting for you to download it.

Methods Workshop, September 28

Methods Workshop, September 28

Sep 8, 2023 | event, news, Russian Art

We would like to invite you to the forthcoming Methods Workshop within the the framework of the research collaboration between the Research Centre for East European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa – FSO) at Bremen University and the Russian Art & Culture Group (RACG) at Constructor University. 

Date: Thursday, September 28, 2023, from 10:30 to 16:30.

Location: Meeting Room 49 in Research IV, Constructor University or online via TEAMS.

Organizers: Natalia Fedorenko, Irina Riznychok, and Georgi Sokolov.

 

The Workshop Program will be the following:

1. Multiple modernisms — morning session, 10:30 to 12:00. Presenter: Irina Riznychok, Respondent: Kristian Handberg
Text for Discussion: Terry Smith, “Art History’s Work-in Pro(re)gress – Reflections on the Multiple Modernities Project,” in New Histories of Art in the Global Postwar Era,” ed. Flavia Frigeri and Kristian Handberg, London: Routledge, 2021, pp. 12-23.

2. Actor-network theory — early afternoon session, 13:00-14:30. Presenter: Georgi Sokolov, Respondent: Elena Korowin
Text for Discussion: Gundela Hachmann, “Network Analysis in Literature and the Arts. Rethinking Agency and Creativity,” Journal of Literary Theory, volume 17, issue 2 (September 2023): 221-240.

3. Gender  — late afternoon session, 15:00-16:30. Presenter: Natalia Fedorenko, Respondent: Klavdia Smola
Text for Discussion: Kladvia Smola, “Speaking Outlaw: Performing Masculinity in Soviet Underground Culture” (2023).

Please ask the organisers for the pdf files of the texts and the links for the TEAMS sessions via e-mail: Natalia Fedorenko, Irina Riznychok, and Georgi Sokolov.

We are looking forward to seeing some of you at the workshop!