Friends, we invite you to join the next conversation within our discussion program! This time, the focus of our attention is on the 1950s-1980s in the history of Ukrainian art and the terminology formed at that time that we inherited.
Soviet art criticism, as a discipline that replaced art history, viewed the artistic process as a politically conditioned, isolated from the world mainstream, and a separate movement. It tried to find a convenient terminology to describe general processes that would distinguish Soviet art from world art, on the one hand, and on the other hand, create a certain hierarchy of styles. In this paradigm, modernist searches in the post-war period were labeled as “decorative” or “folklore”, and the fusion of formal searches of early modernism with ideological themes was labeled as “strict style”.
Discussion questions:
📢 Was there a “return of modernism” in the second half of the 20th century?
📢 What to do with the terms “socialist realism”, “severe style”, “official” and “unofficial art”, “folklorism”, etc.?
Participants:
🔸 Lizaveta German, candidate of art history, curator, co-founder of The Naked Room gallery and the LankoGermanTalk platform
🔹 Illia Levchenko, art historian, assistant professor of the Department of Art History of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, co-editor of the book “Entangled Art Histories in Ukraine” (Routledge, 2024).
🔸 Iryna Borysiuk, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the Department of Literary Studies named after V. Morents of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
🔹 Tetyana Zhmurko, art historian, curator, head of the research department of art of the 20th – early 21st centuries. NAMU
🔸 Moderator – Anna Aliyeva, art historian, curator, researcher of art of the totalitarian era, senior research associate of the research department of art of the 20th – early 21st centuries. NAMU.
📌 Cost: free of charge.
📌 In the event of an air raid, we ask all visitors to immediately go to the shelter. The nearest shelters are located at 4 Khreshchatyk St. (underpass near the Dnipro Hotel) and at the metro station.
📌 If at the time of the air raid, less than 60 minutes of the event have passed, we will continue the event after the end of the alarm or on another day. If the event lasted 60 minutes or more, it is considered to have taken place.
❗️ IMPORTANT: You can get to the museum through the service entrance at the back.