Russian art weekend

The course will explore three major strands:
From Icons to the Influence of the West There was a shift in painting from icons to a more naturalistic style inspired by the west and by the collecting and commissioning habits of rulers like Catherine the Great. Later there were challenges to academic painting (e.g. by the Peredvizhniki), from C19th greats like Repin, Serov, and Shiskin.
Art & Revolution The years prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution saw some of the most avant-garde art practices in Europe. After the assassination of the Russian royal family, artists were encouraged to embrace Communism by moving away from bourgeois traditions of painting in oil towards graphic design and collaborative authorship. Later a shift to Soviet Socialist Realism under Stalin led to the sidelining of art for art's sake.
Russian Art from Glasnost to now Already by the 1970s, the Moscow Conceptualists were trying to subvert socialism. Today Russian patrons and collectors continue to exert an important influence on the art scene with galleries such as Garage and a new V-A-C due to open in Moscow in 2019 etc.