This course will explore major developments in Russian art from medieval icons to Malevich’s radical Black Square. The secularisation of art under tsar Peter will be a starting point from which to examine the birth of fine arts training in Russia, and the pedagogical system established at the Imperial Academy of Arts (founded in 1757) and its subsequent criticism in the 19th century will be an important topic of discussion. Russia’s relationship with European artistic traditions and its efforts to forge a distinct national school of art separate from the West will be addressed throughout the course, as will the contribution of Russia’s rulers to the arts and the significant role of patrons and their collections of both Russian and Europe art. We will analyse Russian artists’ approaches to various genres such as history painting, genre scenes, landscape, and portraiture, and specific movements and artistic groups and communities, including the Abramtsevo colony, the Peredvizhniki or Wanderers, the Ballets Russes, and Malevich’s Suprematism. Artworks will be evaluated within Russia’s shifting social and historical contexts, especially alongside the turbulent political climate of the late 19th century and the period just before the Revolution of 1917. The course will move chronologically, but students will be encouraged to draw connections across different periods, and while the course focuses primarily on painting, we will also cover religious art, architecture, theatre design, decorative arts, and book and journal illustration. The format will consist of an introductory lecture with plentiful visual images and time for questions, smaller group work where students will discuss particular ideas, movements, or issues raised in the lecture in greater depth, a brief presentation of findings to the whole group, and a final discussion.
