CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Fedorenko, Nataliia |
|---|---|
| Title | Making the Avant-garde Russian: The Formation of the National Art Canon on the Example of Exhibition Catalogs |
| Summary | The Russian avant-garde represents the most well-known period of Russian art globally, however, its national attribution is actively contested in academic literature. Despite that, the formation of the canon of the Russian avant-garde as specifically Russian was largely overlooked in the research field. This thesis aspires to begin exploring this research gap on the example of exhibition catalogs from the 1920s, the second half of the 20th century and, finally, the 2010s. Based on the qualitative textual analysis, inspired by insights from narrative analysis, discourse analysis and art-historical research, this thesis shed light on how different artists, who were active in the beginning of the 20th century in the Russian Empire and later in the Soviet Union, were positioned within the same national canon. The analysis revealed that the October Revolution and the geographical locations of various institutions, exhibitions and art groups were important for the formation of the canon, as well as the emphasis on the influence of folk Russian tradition, Orthodox icons and the Russian literature of the 19th century. The essentializing statements about the inherent radicalism and maximalism of the Russian people also contributed to the discursive reification of the canon. It was also revealed that the canon of the Russian avant-garde has proven to be quite stable, aside from artists, whose artworks were mainly kept in collections outside of Russia, which demonstrated the role of the institutional context in the formation of national canons. |
| Supervisor | Miller Michael Laurence |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/fedorenko_nataliia.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University