Making Modernism Soviet: The Russian Avant-Garde in the Early Soviet Era, 1918-1928

171 Pages·2013·1.501 MB·English

by  Pamela Kachurin

making modernism soviet

Northwestern University Press
www .nupress.northwestern .edu
This book has been published with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Copyright © 2013 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2013 by Northwestern
University Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Kachurin, Pamela Jill.
Making modernism Soviet: the Russian avant- garde in the early Soviet era, 1918–
1928 / Pamela Kachurin.
p. cm.
Substantially revised version of the author’s thesis (1998).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8101-2928-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Art, Soviet. 2. Modernism (Art)—Soviet Union. 3. Avant- garde (Aesthetics)—
Soviet Union. 4. Art—Political aspects—Soviet Union. 5. Artists and museums—
Soviet Union—History—20th century. I. Title.
N6988.5.M64K33 2013
709.470904—dc23
2013002282
o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For my father, Leon Edward Kachurin (1926– 2007)

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Introduction xvii
Chapter One
The Great Experiment: The Moscow Museum of Painterly Culture,
1918– 1928 3
Chapter Two
The Center of Artistic Life: The People’s School of Art in Vitebsk,
1919– 1923 37
Chapter Three
The Last Citadel: The Petrograd Museum of Artistic Culture and
GINKhUK, 1919– 1926 71
Epilogue 99
Notes 107
Bibliography 129
Index 139

Illustrations
Figure 1. Narkompros Structure After 1921 Reorganization 14
Figure 2. Art Institutions Within Narkompros After
1922 Reorganization 17
Figure 3. Konstantin Medunetsky, Spatial Construction. 1920. Tin,
brass, iron, and aluminum. 45 cm. Yale University Art
Gallery. Gift of Collection Société Anonyme. 20
Figure 4. Pyotr Vil’yams, Portrait of V. E. Meierkhol’d. 1925. Oil
on canvas. 210 × 138 cm. State Tretyakov Gallery. 23
Figure 5. Nikolai Suetin, Drawing for Wagon with UNOVIS Symbol
for the Train Trip to Moscow. 1920. Paper, gouache,
watercolor, and tusche. 20.3 × 18.2 cm. State Russian
Museum. Copyright © 2012 Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York/VG Bild- Kunst, Bonn. 46
Figure 6. Unknown photographer, teachers and students of
UNOVIS in Vitebsk, before their departure for Moscow
to participate in the All- Russia Conference of Art
Teachers and Students. June 1920. 47
Figure 7. Sergei Ivanov, Long Live the Third Communist
International! 1920. Colored lithograph. 66 × 88 cm.
Slavic and Baltic Division, New York Public Library,
Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. 48
Figure 8. Unknown photographer, El Lissitzky, Workbenches Await
You. 1920. Propaganda board, Vitebsk. 53
Figure 9. Unknown photographer, UNOVIS studio,
Vitebsk, 1921. 55