A new book by Lehigh professor Mary Nicholas uncovers how young, defiant artists challenged Soviet control, redefined art’s role in society, and sparked a postmodern movement with global resonance.
If you wanted to create impactful art challenging the status quo in a repressive country, you’d think you would have to go “underground.”
Indeed, that’s exactly where a new, alternative art form called Moscow Conceptualism arose in the late Soviet era – operating in secrecy, away from viewers, critics, and especially those in power.
But Russian professor Mary Nicholas says that a subset of Moscow artists of the time – who she considers among the most influential -- challenged the idea they should be hidden -- and with great impact.
For Nicholas, Exhibit A is a street procession in 1978, where a small group of conceptual artists called The Nest carried a red banner down a Moscow street.
“They painted a banner that looked like it might be a official banner that should have a Soviet slogan on it -- like ‘Onward to the victory of communism!’ —and instead they borrowed an image from American Abstract Expressionist Franz Klein, painted it on the banner, and walked down the street, symbolizing that art is for all of us so we should engage with it,” says Nicholas.
Read the full article on the College of Arts & Sciences News
Spotlight Recipient
Mary Nicholas
Professor of Russian