Exam 1 - Visual Culture & Politics

Arthur Boyd Houghton, Women of Montmartre, from “The Graphic”, vol. 3, 1871, Pre-Raphaelite, Wood-Engraving

Konstantin Chebotarev, Red Army, 1917, Painting, Futurism

Rodchenko & Maiakovskii, “Buy Cheap Bread,”, 1923, Ink on Paper/Poster, Constructivism

Diego Rivera, Panels from the Corrido of the Proletarian Revolution, third floor, Murals of the Ministry of Public Education, Mexico City, Painting, Mexican Muralism and Social Realism - A SINGLE FRONT

Diego Rivera, Panels from the Corrido of the Proletarian Revolution, third floor, Murals of the Ministry of Public Education, Mexico City, Painting, Mexican Muralism and Social Realism. THE COOPERATIVE, THE PROTEST

Grigori Shegal, Leader, Teacher, and Friend (Stalin at the Presidium of the II Congress of Shock Collective Farmers in February 1935), 1936-1937, Painting, Socialist Realism

Kliment Redko, Insurrection, Painting, Futurism & Suprematism 1925

Boris Kustodiyev, The Bolshevik, 1920, Art Nouveau with aspects of Social Realism

Kathe Kollwitz, Help Russia, 1921, Charcoal Drawing, German Expressionism

El Lissitzky, The Constructor, 1924, Photography/Photomontage, Constructivism

Red Revolution (Oct. 25th, 1917)

Petrograd is considered to be the origin of the revolution, because the workers in factories there had been advocating for higher wages by striking. They formed a mob, and the strike became a general one as they were joined by sympathizers and other workers.

Art Forms/Movements: 

• Constructivism

• Suprematism

• Dada

• Surrealism

• Rayonism

• Avant-Garde in general

Russian Civil War (1917-1922)

Important Figures: Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin

It was sparked by the overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution as different factions vied for leadership. The Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution. However, they were not universally accepted, and the country descended into chaos largely between two groups: the Red Army (Bolshevik state led by Vladimir Lenin), and the White Army (right-leaning officers of the Russian Empire, militant socialists, etc).

The Bolsheviks took control.

Art Forms/Movements: 

• Constructivism

• Suprematism

• Dada

• Surrealism

• Rayonism

• Avant-Garde in general

Early Soviet Union (1922-1928)

Important Figures:

• Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)

  • Known as a great orator

    • Many images of him are cropped or edited (Stalinism)

  • Leader of the Bolsheviks

  • Expanded on Marx’s theoretical ideas and applied them to actually running a communist nation

    • More centralized, top-down power

    • Attempts to distinguish Communism from Socialism

• Lenin Trotsky (1879-1940)

  • Served as the people’s Kamizar, built the Red Army

  • All images are him wearing uniform to define his military status

  • Viewed as a man of the people

  • Lenin’s ideal successor

  • Key member because he helped unite disparate factions

  • Trotskyism

    • De-centralized economic planning

    • Worker’s control of production

    • Election of representation for multiple soviet socialist parties

    • Cultural autonomy of artistic movements, no gov control over it

    • Socialist internationalism

Art Forms/Movements: 

• Constructivism

• Suprematism

• Dada

• Surrealism

• Rayonism

• Avant-Garde in general

New Economic Policy:

• Implemented by Vladimir Lenin

• Type of market socialism

• Goal: encourage economic growth in Russia, which was suffering greatly due to WWI and the Russian Civil War

• Allowed private individuals to own businesses, while the state continued to own the majority of larger aspects of industry

• Citizen’s duty to state to buy

• Russia's path to modernization

• Needed to support industrialization, cost of war - through citizen’s capital

Pre - NEP Posters: more diverse in style, no overarching government policy

NEP- Posters: designed to encourage consumerism and purchasing of goods

Stalin Era (1927-1953)

Art Forms/Movements: Socialist Realism

Characterized by: 

• Period of fear, famine, collective farming

• Increase in state power

• Erasure and editing of Soviet Union’s past, erasure of public figures from the party

• Socialist Realism - Utopian, positive and idealistic (not reflective of the harsh reality of citizens in this era)

International Communism (1918-1950)

Art Forms/Movements: 

• Expression (Germany)

  • Kathe Kollwitz

• Dadaism

  • George Grosz

• Mexico (Muralists/Painters)

  • David Siquerios

  • Diego Rivera

Cubo-Futurism (1912-1922)

Characterized by: 

• Recognizable forms of realistic objects

• Geometric objectless planes

• Subject of the proletariat

• very interested in movement and dynamic

In Russia: 

• Russians wanted to emphasize their differences from italian futurists

• Drew from russian traditional techniques: 

  • Lubok

  • Folk costume

  • Ancient pagan sculptures

  • Icon painting

  • Pure colors, abstract forms

• They often used techniques like application and collage

• Primary painters

Artists:

• Kazimir Malevich

• El Lissitzky

• Olga Rozanova

Examples: 

• Olga Rozanova, The Factory and the Bridge, 1913

• Liubov Popova, Objects from a Dyer’s Shop, 1914

• Kazimir Malevich, the Knife Grinder, 1912

Constructivism (1915-)

• Founded by Tatlin & Rodcenko in 1915

• Abstraction and forms that reflect the industrial world

• Art as a utilitarian tool for a new industrial society

• Need for a new aesthetic language

• Borrowed elements from other avant-gardes like Cubism and Futurism

• Photography, fashion, graphic/textile, cinema, theatre

• Artwork that sought to have a PRACTICAL role in society

• Images composed using REAL materials

Artists: 

• Vladimir Tatlin

• El Lissitzky

• Alexander Rodchenko

Examples: 

• El Lissitzky, Self-Portrait (The Constructor), 1924

• Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, 1919-20

• El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

Dada (1916 - mid 1920s)

Emerged amid WWI (1914-1918). Artists were disillusioned and wanted to reliant against social structures that led to violence, corruption, and unquestioning conformity. They declared an assault on all conventional definitions of art, prioritizing the ideas a work conveyed and experimenting. 

Used techniques like collage and photomontage; others explored experimental theatre

Lubok

A traditional Russian folk print, typically a woodblock engraving, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, or popular tales.

Expressionism (1905 - )

This style emerged in Germany as a response to anxiety about humanity’s increasingly discordant relationship with the world, and lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. (1905-1920) Anxieties of the modern world.

Reaction against Impressionism and academic art in part. 

Focused on the distortion of form, and use of strong colors, exaggerated brushstrokes to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings.

They often represented alienated individuals within cities (prostitutes, etc.)

Artists: 

• Wassily Kandinsky

• Kathe Kollwitz

Muralism

Painting applied to and made integral with the surface of a wall or ceiling. 

Artists: 

• Diego Rivera

• Siquieros

Photomontage

Technique of combining photograph fragments with the aim of creating a new image, to the point where it is almost impossible to notice dividing lines of multiple images. (first developed in 1915)

Type of collage made from photographs. Often used as a tool for political dissent and gained importance in the 20th c with movements like Dadaism and Surrealism.

Artists: 

• El Lissitzky (Constructivist)

• Alexander Rodchenko (Constructivist)

• John Heartfield

Montage

Assembly of images or elements to create a unified work. Emphasizes the arrangement of images to tell a story or message.

Photomontage is a form of montage.

Public Works

Any work of art which is designed for a space accessible to the general public.

Socialist Realism (1927-1953)

Formally realistic, artificial style of painting in Russia after Joseph Stalin’s ascent to power in 1924. Artist were forced to present positive, propagandist images of Stalin.

They could consist of: 

• Portraiture (Stalin)

• Historical/Patriotic

• Industrial

Goal: 

• Establish cult of the leader

• Instill patriotism

• Influence citizens, show artificial joyful russia. Focus on positivity

• Modernization

• Idealism

• The future is bright and progressive

• Emotion/happy expression

Artists: 

• Tetyana Yablonska, Bread, 1949

• Grigori

Suprematism (1913-1920s)

Radical abstract art movement developed by Kazimir Malevich in the mid-1910s, prior to the Russian Revolution. Reduced painting to geometric abstraction; non-objective.

Characteristics: 

• Basic geometric forms

• Flat fields of colors like black, white, red, yellow, blue, green

• White grounds that suggest open, unmeasured space

• Irregular paint surfaces

• Title that preserves traces of earlier subjects while the image remains non-objective

Examples: 

• Kazimir Malevich, Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 at Marsovo Pole, Petrograd, 1915-1916

Surrealism (1914-1945)

Meant to reunite conscious and unconscious realms of experience so that the worlds of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday, rational one.

Grew out of the Dada movement, but was more focused on positive expression and a move away from the “rationalism” that had culminated in WWI.

Rayonism (1914-)

Avant-Garde movement founded by Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova. Developed new ways to express energy and movement. 

Originally a subset of Russian Futurism, it drew on scientific discoveries and was very modern while still adapting elements of traditional folk culture. Highly nationalistic.

• Examined how light was displayed in imagery

• Dynamism of futurism + pictorial vocabulary of Cubism

• Subject of the proletariat

• Multiple perspectives in 1 image

Example: 

• Natalia Goncharova, The Weaver (Loom + Woman), 1913

Non-Figurative

Abstract art. Art that exists with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.

Lithography

The process of printing from a plane surface (typically metal plate).

Five-Pointed Star

Symbol of the Red Army

Hammer & Sickle

Symbol for labor and the proletariat/international proletarian unity

Proletariat

Socioeconomic class of wage laborers.

Russian/Religious Icons

• These were traditionally seen in the home, often hung from corners.

• They were believed to be the intercessors or go-between God and normal people

This practice is reflective of: 

Stalin & Lenin Portraiture

Malevich’s Black Square (hung where an icon would be)

Hand

• “Five fingers has the hand! With these five grab the enemy!”

  • The hand of the worker is what will overcome fascism

• Also reminiscent of the five-pointed star of communism, splayed fingers reference this

• Symbolize the unifying collective power of workers

Fists

Proletariat rising up, strength, resistance.

Red/Red Flag

The Paris Commune was the first to adopt the red flag as their symbol, later leading to this being used in communist countries.

Authoritarianism

The enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to the authority at the expense of personal freedom.

Avant-Garde

Art that pushed the boundaries of conventional art and aesthetics.

Bolshevik

A member of the majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party, or the Communist Party, after seizing power in the October Revolution of 1917.

Bourgeoise

The capitalist class who own most of society’s wealth and means of production, materialistic values.

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

Collective Portrait

A group portrait that depicts multiple identifiable individuals together with the intent of representing them as a cohesive unit

Comintern

The Third International, Marxist political organization that advocated world communism from 1919-1943.

Communism

A political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according tot heir abilities and needs.

Consumerism

Preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods/consumption of goods as a basis for a sound economy.

Cult of Personality

A leader intentionally attempts to create an idealized and heroic image of themselves, often developed through dissemination of propaganda, manipulation of the arts, spectacles, instilling of patriotism, etc.

Data Visualization

The use of graphical elements like charts, plots, infographics, etc.

Dictatorship

Government where one person makes all rules and decisions without exception.

Fascism

Authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government that is often intolerant and oppressive.

Five-Year Plan

A government plan for economic development, beginning in the late 1920s. Aimed to achieve rapid industrialization.

Immortalization Commission

The idea of conquering death. 

Lenin’s body was preserved by Stalin and displayed. Joseph Stalin’s embalmed body was eventually placed next to him. It was removed later as de-Stalinization.

Leninism

Marxism as interpreted by Vladimir Lenin, supporting direct rule by workers.

Light Industry

Industries that are less capital-intensive, and more consumer-oriented. They produce smaller goods.

Marxism

The political and economic theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, later developed by their followers to form the basis for the theory and practice of communism.

Mass Production

The production of large quantities of a standardized article by an automated mechanical process.

Monumentalism

Aesthetic style that emphasizes grandeur, colossal scale, durability, and potent symbolic significance.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

• Implemented by Vladimir Lenin

• Type of market socialism

• Goal: encourage economic growth in Russia, which was suffering greatly due to WWI and the Russian Civil War

• Allowed private individuals to own businesses, while the state continued to own the majority of larger aspects of industry

• Citizen’s duty to state to buy

• Russia's path to modernization

• Needed to support industrialization, cost of war - through citizen’s capital

October Revolution

Petrograd is considered to be the origin of the revolution, because the workers in factories there had been advocating for higher wages by striking. They formed a mob, and the strike became a general one as they were joined by sympathizers and other workers.

Paris Commune

French Revolutionary government that seized power in Paris for two months. Consisted of working-class and soldiers of the National Guard. They promoted progressive and anti=religious beliefs that have since flowered into communism, social democracy, socialism, etc. 

Important because it is a precursor to the revolutions of communism in the 20th century, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE RED FLAG AS A SYMBOL OF RADICALISM.

Proletariat

Workers or working class people, regarded collectively in relation to Marxism.

Propaganda

The use of biased information to promote a particular ideology or cause.

Socialism

Political and economic theory that advocates the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Stalinism

Form of Marxism-Leninism associated with Joseph Stalin, who ruled the USSR from 1929-1953. 

Marked by a concentration of power, aggressive social engineering, political repression including purges, state trials, and elimination of dissent. 

Wanted to turn the country into a self-sufficient industrial superpower, led to forced collectivization of agriculture that caused famine and suffering.

Third International

• International group founded in 1919 ata  congress convened by Lenin and the Russian Communist Party. 

• Intended to be a global push for communism, they wanted revolution of the proletariat to occur in multiple states

• These hopes were not realized, so they transformed into a united workers front and towards the end of the 1920s, advocate for alliances against fascism

Totalitarianism

System of government that is centralized, dictatorial, and requires complete subservience to the state.

Trotskyism

Branch of Marxism and Leninism developed by Leon Trotsky. Lenin’s desired “heir”.

Advocated for decentralized economic planning, worker’s control of production, elected representation of multiple Socialist parties, etc. 

Big supporter of Socialist internationalism. They disliked Stalin's ideas of socialism in one country.

U.S.S.R.

A state from 1922-1991, led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Define “communism” and describe some of the similarities and differences between communism and other political systems/theories. Using a specific historic example from the course content, explain how the visual work relates to the ideologies, aesthetics, and/or symbols of communism as well as the specific historical context in which it was created.

• communism

  • political and economic ideology created by Karl Marx

  • rise of the proletariet, revolution

  • collective ownership

  • each person works and is paid according to their own abilities and needs

  • Need to have a REVOLUTION over capitalism to be true communist system

  • different in practice due to:

    • cultural variances

    • number of leaders in party

  • form of Socialism

    • socialism advocates for similar communal ownership

• VS Capitalism

  • competition between private owners of property

  • individualistic

Arthur Boyd Houghton, Women of Montmartre, 1871, Wood-Engraving

• Paris Commune is the precursor to the Red Revolution, many believe

• Paris Commune

  • 1871

  • French Revolutionary government of working class and National Guard soldiers seized power in Paris for 2 months

  • first instance of a merging collective of various revolutionary ideologies, including those like feminism, social democracy, socialism

• ARTWORK

  • black and white, wood engraving print

  • women marching under flag that says, “The Commune or Death”

    • references the plain red flag, which was adopted as their official symbol

    • eventually adopted by communist party in russia, international and vital symbol

Define the term “avant-garde” and discuss how revolutionary aesthetics relates to revolutionary politics. Using a specific historic example from the course content, describe how the work connects to the context of the Red Revolution and/or the Russian Civil War. What symbols, forms, and level of abstraction does the work use and how do these choices impact the work’s political messaging?

• avant-garde

  • artwork that pushes conventional boundaries & traditions

  • message behind work

• revolutionary aesthetics and artwork can encourage societal upheaval and represent the desire to move away from previous aesthetic tradition

  • reflects the change in taste, and forward-looking nature of revolutionary ideals

  • difference between revolutionaries and their oppressors

Konstantin Chebotarev, The Red Army, Futurism, 1917

• depicts a group of highly abstracted soldiers marching in an urban landscape, while a red flag waves above them

• flag = they are from the Red Army, and title

• dynamic composition

• reflects Futurists’ interests in modern technology and the rise of urbanism

• Historical context

  • created during the period of russian civil war, when two factions were warring for leadership over Russia: the White Army, and the Red Army (Bolsheviks)

  • Chebotarev’s fear of Bolsheviks, and vision of future russia if they take over

    • homogenization - reflected through repetitive forms of people & buildings

    • modernization

Define the term “propaganda” and explain how it is utilized in the context of the Early Soviet Union (1922–1928). Using a specific historic example from the course content, describe how the work relates to the New Economic Policy (NEP) and what role this form of visual production has in the early years of the U.S.S.R.

• propaganda

  • the use of biased information to promote ideology or cause

  • soviet union used posters which explored photomontage, data visualization, illustration and iconography in their propaganda

  • desired for citizens to support gov and control flow of info

• New Economic Policy, NEP

  • established by Vladimir Lenin

  • form of market socialism

  • to encourage economic growth in russia

  • russia suffering because WWI and Russian Civil War

  • This system allowed private individuals to own businesses while the state continued to own the majority of larger aspects of industry

  • Lenin encouraged consumerism

    • citizens duty to state

    • russias path to modernization

    • he needed to support industrialization of the nation, cost of war

Rodchenko & Malakovskii, "Buy Cheap Bread”, 1923, Ink on Paper/Poster, Constructivism

• highly graphic

• use of line and pattern to navigate viewer’s eye through poster

• central diamond with red stroke, frame four different types of bread

• larger type saying 15% discounted

• diagonal lines on each side guide your attention to this center piece

• breads: more realistic, water-color perhaps to entice consumers to actually go purchase

• Use of blue, red, white - maybe made printing cheaper because there’s lots of negative space

• “No need to fear the Nepman and high prices! All types of fresh bread available with discounts of 15 percent at all Mosselprom outlets..”

Define “Third International” and discuss the spread of communism in the interwar period. Using a specific historic example from the course content, describe the artist’s relationship to communist parties or groups. What forms, elements, or styles of the work are drawn from regional visual traditions? Conversely, are there aspects derived from an international lexicon of communist symbols?

• Third International

  • advocated for global communism in the hope that proletariat revolution would occur in more nations (didnt happen)

  • began to provide aid to workers internationally

  • spread marxist ideas

• During the 1920s, several communist groups formed:

  • Mexican Communist Party

  • Germany

• Mexican Communist Party

  • heavily involved with artists of the region bc of the sway they had over culture, and used influence to propagate their message

  • Diego Rivera

    • known for his murals

    • kicked out of party for being too focused on painting

    • had leadership position

Diego Rivera, Panels from the Corrido of the Proletarian Revolution, third floor, Murals from the Ministry of Public Education, Mexico City, Painting, Mexican Muralism/Social Realism

A Single Front

The Cooperative

The Protest

• commissioned by the government, snuck in communist messages. tolerated because of his popularity even as the mexican government moved against the party

• separate scenes are inspired by corridos, Mexican narrative ballads

• depict local workers known as campesinos + Russian proletariat

  • these two indicate the spread of communism and relationship of russia to other communist parties

  • russia thought it was their duty to assist in guiding and teaching these newly formed parties how to operate

    • even invited them to celebrate May Day in Moscow - international workers day, anniversary of the Red Revolution

    • Reflected in The Cooperative

      • soviet instructs people

    • A Single Front

      • Soviet looks on while campesino and soldier shake hands, the union of the two halves of the proletariat: soldier and laborer

      • desire by rivera to promote union

      • background factory, themes of industrialization within the series

    • The Protest

      • factory

      • international symbols

        • red hammer and sickle red flag

        • raised hands of the workers

          • also seen in works like Gustav Klutsis

        • This is also representing the idea of a factory run by workers and owned by workers

 Define the term “totalitarianism” and discuss changes to art policy and practice enacted in the Stalin era. Using a specific historic example from the course content, describe the work’s style, scale, and mode of production. How does the concept or theme expressed in the work support a vision of the Soviet Union’s new direction under Stalin?

• totalitarianism

  • system of government that is highly centralized, dictatorial, complete subservience to the state

  • run by one leader

  • stalin

• Stalin’s Russia

  • aggressive social enginering

  • political repression: purges, state trials, erasure to eliminate dissent

  • Art

    • Used art as a tool to hide the horrors that the country was experiencing

    • propagate ideas of a utopian russia, modernized, full of joy

    • Socialist Realism style or exile from nation, condemnation to gulags, etc.

  • Socialist Realism

    • works of a much larger scale, reminiscent of traditional history paintings

    • could consist of portraiture, genre paintings, history/patriotic

    • very idealized, used expression to show artifical sense of joy

    • focus on modernization

    • heroic depiction of labor

    • sunlight - happiness and peace in nation

    • Stalin used them to affirm right to rule Russia, establish cult of leader, establish himself as Lenin’s true “heir”

      • fake photographs with lenin

Grigori Shegal, Leader, Teacher, and Friend, 1936-1937, Painting, Socialist Realism

• vertical in orientation

• large scale

• Stalin conversing with collective farm works

  • man of the people

  • accepts feedback on his rule

• workers dressed in regional fashions, showing how the territories of the soviet union are united under him and like him

• large marble statue of lenin looking on

  • guided by lenin

  • has lenin blessing

Kathe Kollwitz, Help Russia, 1921, Charcoal Drawing, German Expressionism

El Lissitzky, The Constructor, 1924, Photography/Photomontage