Red Triangles in Circles by Lyubov' Sergeevna Popova(1889-1924) / State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
After the Communist revolution in 1917, the new government took control of the art establishment in Russia, nationalising all art collections and laying down the principles that were to govern the creation of works of art.
A movement was initiated to put all arts to service of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
With Constructivism, the Russian avant-garde initially strived to get rid of the conventions of "bourgeois art” but these ideas eventually clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism.
Poster advertising the film 'Chelovek s Kino-Apparatom', 1929, Stenberg, V. (1899-1982) & Stenberg, G. (1900-1933) / Private Collection / Archives Charmet
Constructivism
The constructivists believed art should directly reflect the modern industrial world.
As well as abstract, geometric art, constructivists such as Popova (1889-1924) and Rodchenko (1891-1956) were also early pioneers of the techniques of photomontage.
They explored more collective ways of working and looked at how they could contribute to everyday life through design, architecture, industrial production, theatre and film.
Some members of the Communist party, however, did not appreciate the ‘decadent’ modern styles as it was thought that the non-representative forms of art were not understood by the proletariat and thus could not be used by the state for propaganda.
Socialist Realism
This was a form of modern realism imposed in Russia by Stalin following his rise to power after the death of Lenin in 1924. The doctrine was formally proclaimed by Maxim Gorky at the Soviet Writers Congress of 1934, although not precisely defined.
In practice, it meant using realist styles to create rigorously optimistic pictures of Soviet life, in other words propaganda art.
Artists who strayed from the official line were severely punished and it was to become the officially approved type of art in the Soviet Union for nearly sixty years.
Statue of Soviet Heroes (bronze), Russian School / Novosibirsk, Russia
Stalin at the hydro-electric complex at Ryon in the Caucasus Mountains, 1935, reproduction of the original in 'Soviet Painting', 1939 (colour litho), Toidze, Irakli Moiseievich (1902-p.1941) / Private Collection / Archives Charmet