Drawing on the methods of feminist art history and my own knowledge of the field, this PhD gives an overview of “Russian” (Russian Empire, Soviet, post-Soviet) art history with women at its center. Starting in the late 18th century and spanning to the present-day, I critically examine women’s artworks, the social contexts in which those women find themselves, as well as their biographies. Thus, this thesis extends beyond strict media analysis as a central concern of feminist criticism.
This text consist of five chapters. Chapter One begins at the end of the 18th century and covers women artists working throughout the Russian Empire up through the beginning of the 20th century. Thesis looks at specific women artists and how the path to professionalization opened up new doors while women were still largely excluded from elite artistic circles. This overview demonstrates how this occurred both in explicit social exclusion as well as implicitly – specifically in the ways that the portrayals of women in professional art shifted throughout the 19th century. The ambivalent nature of women’s simultaneous inclusion and exclusion from leading art institutions and groups serves as a defining feature of the art world of the Russian Empire.
Chapter Two examines women’s roles in the avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century. As has been recognized in much popular scholarship, women served as key players in the so-called “Russian Avant-Garde”. For instance, while many Western European artists at the time turned to the colonies of their respective empires for stimulation, many Russian avant-garde artists turned to local peasants. Precisely because of their more differentiated relationships, Chapter Two argues that these women artists produced very dissimilar work from their Western European counterparts. This was due both to questions of gender as well as power and colonialism. From there, thesis shows the ways in which women avant-garde artists made use of various media – especially textiles, porcelain, and book design.
Chapter Three revolves around women artists in the Soviet Union. At first it examines how women were portrayed in Socialist Realism, which followed largely three archetypes: the collective farm woman, the sportswoman, and the ballerina. In this chapter focus is on how women navigated the slippery terrain of the social world of Socialist Realism by highlighting the role of its most successful example – Vera Mukhina. Tracing through Mukhina’s path from the avant-garde to Socialist Realism’s most famous female artists, the text reveals continuities between the two genres that have typically been overlooked in the literature. Indeed, Mukhina’s development suggests much more in common between the avant-garde and Socialist Realism than most male artists’ careers would indicate. Finally, this chapter discusses women artists who rejected Socialist Realism and produced so-called “unofficial” art – focusing on the (in)famous Bulldozer Exhibition of 1974.
Chapter Four illuminates how women artists negotiated the enormous socio-political changes during Perestroika through past the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In the 1990’s, three prominent all-women art collectives emerged: the Factory of Found Clothes, the Cyber-Femin Club, and the Fourth Height. Based largely on interviews with the women who participated in the groups, text sketches out a general history of how they formed, produced art, and confronted questions of gender and society. Then, chapter four turns to women artists who worked mostly individually throughout the same period. In this thesis women artists from the 90’s are categorized based on their concepts of gender – women who flipped gender dynamics through their art, women who took radical stances toward gender through their art, and women who did not clearly challenge ideas of gender. In the text they are called the “flip-floppers”, the “radicals”, and the “quietists”, respectively.
In Chapter Five, there is a break with the chronological approach of the previous chapters. Instead, first part compares the trial of Iuliia Tsvetkova in 2019 and the trial of Natalia Goncharova in 1910. Both women were accused of producing pornography and thus subject to prosecution. Through this comparison, one can see the continuities and ruptures of the gender dynamics in broader society then and now, particularly in relationship to art and art production. Second part of the chapter five, compares the so-called “Leningrad Feminists” of the 1970’s and Pussy Riot from the 2010’s. By highlighting how these two collectives used the imagery of the Virgin Mary in their work, the text draws out parallels between the two that have gone unnoticed, even by the artists themselves.
This dissertation is thus fundamentally about connections. Connections, both visible and invisible, define the social constellations in which women artists participate. By drawing out these connections, this thesis reimagines Russian art history and propose new, albeit imperfect, in the words of Amelia Jones, genealogies. Such genealogies open the space for a deep reckoning with the canon.:Table of Contents
Introduction
But What is a Russian Woman Artist Anyway?
Literature Review & Methodology
Chapter Outline
Chapter 1: Woman as Artist in the Russian Empire
Imperialism and Internal Colonization
Bridging Art Histories: Between the Russian Empire and the Western Empires
The “Russian Empire” periods of Marie-Anne Collot, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, and Kristina Robertson
Independent Foreign Women Artists, Operating Beyond Royal Patronage: Maria Gomion and Julie Hagen-Schwarz
Representations of Local and European Women Artists in the Russian Empire: Comparing article “Russkie Khudozhnitsy” [Russian Women Artists] and Somov’s article “Zhenshchiny Khudozhnitsy” [Women Artists]
Paths to Professional Art for Women Artists in the late Russian Empire
Variety of Professional Strategies for Women Artists in the Russian Empire
Challenges Faced by Women in the Imperial Academy of Arts: Marfa Dovgaleva, Avdotia Mikhailovna Bakunina, Sofia Sukhovo-Kobylina, and Katerina Khilkova
Women Artists from the Russian Empire in the Académie Julian: Maria Bashkirtseff, Princess Maria Tenisheva, Maria Iakunchikova, and Elizaveta Zvantseva
Female and Male Paths to Becoming an Artist: The Cases of Elena Polenova and Vasilii Polenov
Women in the Wanderers and the World of Art
Two Women Wanderers: Emily Shanks and Antonina Rzhevskaia
Women in the World of Art and Related Circles: Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Elizaveta Kruglikova, Elena Polenova, Maria Yakunchikova, and Zinaida Serebriakova
Between Artist, Mother, and Model: Self-Representations of Women Artists
Insisting on the Professional Self: Katerina Dolgorukaia, Katerina Chikhacheva, Sofia Sukhovo-Kobylina, Maria Bashkirtseff, Elizaveta Kruglikova, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Marianne Werefkin, and Teresa Ries
The Fe[male] Gaze: Ol’ga Della-Vos-Kardovskaia, Tamara de Lempicka, and Zinaida Serebriakova
Chapter 2: Women Artists Shaping the Avant-Garde
Conceptualizing Avant-Garde in the Russian Empire
Framing the “Feminine”: Noble and Peasant Femininities
Women Artists and Religion: Natalia Goncharova and Marianne Werefkin
Women Artists and Lubok: Sofia Kalinkina, Elizaveta Bem, and Maria Siniakova
The Case of Natalia Goncharova: Between Two Worlds
Looking West: Goncharova and Gauguin
Looking East: Goncharova and Peasant Culture
Craft in the Foreground: Women in Textile, Porcelain, and Book Design
Women in Textile Design, Embroidery, and Factory Production: Natalia Davidova, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Vera Pestel, Ol’ga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Lubov Popova
Women in Costume Design in the Early Soviet Union: Natalia Goncharova, Nina Genke-Meller, Alexandra Exter, Nadezhda Lamanova, Varvara Stepanova, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Vera Mukhina
Women Artists and Futurist Books: Elena Guro, Natalia Goncharova, and Ol’ga Rozanova
Women Artists and Children’s Book Illustration: Vera Ermolaeva, Elena Safronova, Alisa Poret, Tatjana Glebova, Maria Siniakova, Galina and Ol’ga Chichagovy, and others
Women artists and Small Sculptural Forms (porcelain and ceramics): Natalia Danko and Alexandra Shekotikhina-Potozkaia
Chapter 3: Women Artists in Socialist Realism and Unofficial Art
Aligning Art History of the Soviet Union and Gender Studies
Official Images of Women in the Soviet Union
Kolkhoznitsa [Collective Farm Woman]
Sportsmenka [Sportswoman]
Balerina [Ballet Dancer]
Socialist Realist Women Painters
Women Artists in the Moscow School of Socialist Realism: Vera Orlova, Ekaterina Zernova, and Serafima Riangina
Women Artists and the Leningrad School of Painting: Nadezhda Steinmiller, Evgenia Antipova, Vera Nazina, and others
Women Socialist Realist painters from the Soviet Republics: Tetiana Iablonska, Vaiiha Samadova, the Sisters Aslamazian, Elene Akhvlediani, and others
Women Artists as Soviet Sculptors
Women as Sculptors before the Soviet Union: Elena Luksch-Makovskii, Maria Dillon, Teresa Ries, and Anna Golubkina
A Case Study: Vera Mukhina the Soviet Sculptor – Between the Street and the Household
Women Artists in Unofficial Art
Some Aspects of Canonization of Women Artists of the Bulldozer Exhibit: Nadezhda Elskaia and Lydia Masterkova
Artistic Couples in Soviet Unofficial Art and Their Visions of Eden
Chapter 4: Women Artists in the Late Soviet Union and after Its Dissolution
The Emergence of Women-Only Groups in the Post-Soviet Space: the Factory of Found Clothes (FFC), Cyber-Femin Club, the Fourth Height
The Factory of Found Clothes (FFC): Ol’ga Tsaplia-Egorova and Natalia Gluklia-Pershina-Yakimanskaia
The Cyber-Femin-Club: Alla Mitrofanova, Irina Aktuganova, Lena Ivanova, and Ol’ga Levina
Chetvertaia Vysota [The Fourth Height]: Ekaterina Kameneva, Dina Kim, and Galina Smirnskaia
Resisting Erasure: Women Artists from the 1990’s
The Mirror Game or the Flip-Floppers: Anna Alchuk and Tania Antoshina
The Radicals: Alena Martynova and Elena Kovylina
The Quietists: Marina Perchikhina and Liza Morozova
Curating the “Gender Turn” in the post-Soviet art: Natalia Kamenetskaia and others
Chapter 5: Creating Parallel Histories
Unacceptable Bodies: Trials against Natalia Goncharova in 1910 and Iuliia Tsvetkova in 2019
Bogoroditsa stan’ Feministkoi? Comparing the Leningrad Feminists and Pussy Riot
Conclusion
Illustrations
Bibliography
Additional Materials. Interviews.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:92123 |
| Date | 18 June 2024 |
| Creators | Vinnik, Marina |
| Contributors | Universität Leipzig |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/updatedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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