Professor Pavel Khazanov
In English. No prerequisites.
cross-listed with Art History 01:082:204:01 and Comparative Literature 01:195:265:01
Can art transform life? How do artists and writers advance concepts of “reality” and who gets to pass judgment on their claims? To what extent can creative elites flex their political power through their creations? To what extent is an appearance of power a fiction that conveniently serves another, far more powerful master? And what happens to art if the state itself starts thinking of itself as an artist, which is what, according to some theorists, the USSR began to do under Stalin?
We will engage with the above questions by examining the interaction of art and politics in Soviet culture. We will reflect on the history of Soviet artists’ direct attempts to intervene in social life– via exhibitions, via politics at the Soviet Artists’ and Writers’ Unions, via newspapers, magazines and ‘agitation and propaganda’ (agitprop) materials, etc. By closely analyzing a wide cross-section of both mainstream and underground Soviet aesthetic artifacts that this historical context produced– including sculptures, paintings, literature, film, and theoretical writings about art, such as manifestos and critical interpretations— we will reflect on some of the biggest issues that concern art, such as the idea of ‘representation’ and ‘reality,’ the possibility of ‘making it new,’ or the notion of artistic autonomy. Visits to the Dodge collection of Nonconformist Art at the Zimmerli Museum will form an integral part of course curriculum. No prerequisites; all readings and discussions in English.
Fulfills SAS Core goals AHo, AHp.