Meets with HISTORY 481.001, REEES 405.001, SLAVIC 470.001, SLAVIC 876.001 (home department)

The course focuses on interfaces of Soviet visual arts and related domains, including political propaganda, that characterizes the years of Revolution, the NEP Period, and Stalinism in the USSR, i.e., the years between the revolutions of 1917 and Stalin's death in 1953. Among other things, we will study modern print media, ranging from poster art to publishing projects such as the magazine USSR in Construction, but also such domains that display distinct visual aspects without necessarily being prime foci of visual culture, e.g., the culture of festivities and visual aspects of the public space. We will also discuss profiles of artists who were active in forging the bridge between the avant-garde and political art (Klucis, Lissitski, Rodchenko). Time permitting, some of these domains will be compared— and contrasted— with similar phenomena in interwar Germany, especially as regards the culture of photo-illustrated magazines and book covers, visual aspects of the public space, or the cult of personality. Western contributions to Soviet visual culture will also be discussed.