Art from the Underground: Currents of Soviet Nonconformist Art

What is Soviet underground art and from where did it arise? Is it a continuation of the avant-garde, a Western knock-off, a kind of political protest or passivist dissent, or something else? This course introduces students not only to the world of Soviet Nonconformist visual art, but also to the historical and political context that shaped the period and the artistic movements therein. The course begins by laying a foundation concerning what preceded the underground movements, from the Russian and Soviet avant-garde to Stalinist Socialist realism, before examining the development of Soviet Nonconformist art from the mid 1950s to current day Russian art activism. By opening up the discourse to the Baltics, Georgia, Ukraine, and Central Asia, this course moves beyond the Russian-centric approach to Soviet Nonconformist art toward a more comprehensive understanding of what was occurring across the Soviet Union.