CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Karpova, Yulia |
|---|---|
| Title | Designer Socialism: The Aesthetic Turn In Soviet Russia After Stalin |
| Summary | This study explores the formation of a new aesthetics in Soviet Russia during the 1950s-60s, carried out by art professionals – art critics, philosophers, decorative artists, architects and designers. It introduces the concept of “aesthetic turn,” understood not as a rupture from the Stalin era art canon, but as the gradual broadening of the meaning of aesthetics to encompass the spheres of everyday life, consumption, science and technology. I argue that by reconfiguring the principles of visual and material cultures, art professionals offered their specific vision of socialism, in many ways continuous with the Russian avant-garde and based on honest and creative relationships with objects, cheerful labor using beautiful, ergonomic tools and comfortable environments for recreation and self-expression. Extensively exploiting archival and published sources, I analyze ideas, debates, projects, material objects and exhibitions across the closely interconnected fields of applied art, monumental art and industrial design, thus offering a view of post-war Soviet design in a broad sense. By revealing multiple voices of creative individuals, this study moves beyond existing interpretations of Soviet design as a weapon in the cultural Cold War, an instrument of social control employed by experts on the state’s behalf, or simply as an exercise in the plagiarism of Western models. As my analysis demonstrates, by the late 1960s Soviet art professionals succeeded to create a vibrant intellectual space between conformity and dissent. This dissertation thus contributes to the growing body of scholarship that recognizes the complex cultural and intellectual trajectories running through the conventionally understood periodization of Soviet history. |
| Supervisor | Siefert, Marsha |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/karpova_yulia.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University