Postgraduate Course: Russian Modernism: Theory and Practice 1908-1932 (HIAR11061)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | History of Art |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course will focus on the formation of an independent and innovative avant-garde in Russia in the early Twentieth Century, concentrating particularly on the factors that conditioned the development of constructed sculpture and the emergence of abstraction in painting within such movements as Neoprimitivism, Rayism, Cubo-Futurism, Alogism, Suprematism and Constructivism. These formal innovations will be examined within the context of Russia's distinctive artistic cultural heritage, and the impact of Western ideas, as well as the profound technical and social changes (including the revolutions of 1905 and 1917) that transformed Russia at this time, and the philosophical and theoretical debates that accompanied these upheavals and which provided vital underpinnings for the aesthetic developments. The study of contemporary texts in translation will be an essential component of the course, supplementing the study of the visual material. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
* An understanding of the theory and practice of the principal artists and movements as they developed in Russia 1908-1932 and some knowledge of the social, political and cultural contexts within which they occurred.
* Some insight into the complexities of the relationship between social and political developments and artistic production
* Equipped with this essential visual and intellectual knowledge, students should be able to identify, date and analyze paintings, sculptures and drawings produced during the period.
* A familiarity with the concepts, methods and debates inherent in current art-historical research
* An ability to approach methodological issues and intellectual content of the course constructively and critically. |
Assessment Information
| 3-4000 word essay |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
PRELIMINARY READING LIST
Artists' Statements
J. Bowlt ed., Russian Art of the Avant-Garde: Theory and Criticism 1902-1934. New York: The Viking Press, 1976; and London: Thames and Hudson, 1988.
Images
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde 1915-1932, exhibition catalogue (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1992).
C. Gray, The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863-1922 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1962). This is not as useful for images of Russian art after 1917 than it is for works from the pre-revolutionary period. Also, please beware of incorrect facts and outdated (and misleading) interpretations. Look at the new edition which is revised by M. Burleigh Motley.
A. Rudenstine, ed., Russian Avant-Garde Art: The George Costakis Collection (London: Thames and Hudson, 1983).
General surveys
A. Bird, A History of Russian Painting. Oxford: Phaidon, 1986.
C. Lodder, Russian Painting of the Avant-Garde 1906-1924. Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1993.
D. Sarabianov, Russian Art: From Neoclassicism to the Avant-Garde. London, Thames and Hudson, 1990.
Specific Artists and Movements in a broadly chronological arrangement
J. Sharp, Russian Modernism between East and West: Natal'ia Goncharova and the Moscow Avant-Garde. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
A. Parton, Mikhail Larionov and the Russian Avant-Garde. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
C. Douglas, Malevich, London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
C. Douglas, Swans of Other Worlds: Kazimir Malevich and the Origins of Suprematism 1908-1915. Ann Arbor, Mi.: UMI, 1979.
P. Weiss, Kandinsky and Old Russia. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995.
A. Kamensky, Chagall: The Russian Years 1907-22. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.
J. Milner, Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avant-Garde, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983.
L. Zhadova, ed., Tatlin. London: Thames and Hudson, 1988.
B. Taylor, Art and Literature under the Bolsheviks: Volume 1: The Crisis of Renewal 1917-1924; Volume 2: Authority and Revolution. London and Boulder, Colorado: Pluto Press, 1991 and 1992.
C. Lodder, Russian Constructivism. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983. |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Tamara Trodd
Tel: (0131 6)51 3120
Email: Tamara.Trodd@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lucy Hawkins
Tel: (0131 6)51 5734
Email: Lucy.Hawkins@ed.ac.uk |
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