Edited Volumes by Ludmila Piters-Hofmann
What Is to Be Done? Art Practice, Theory, and Promotion in Late Imperial and Soviet Art , 2024
Addressing a century of change from late nineteenth-century realism to late 1970s Sots Art, this ... more Addressing a century of change from late nineteenth-century realism to late 1970s Sots Art, this volume presents new research on how art making, criticism, and promotion responded dynamically to the fast-moving social, cultural, and political contexts of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Case studies of artists reveal how figures such as Viktor Vasnetsov and Kazimir Malevich [Kazymyr Malevych] incorporated contemporary debates into their artworks and expanded their visual expressiveness. Analyses of writings by Wassily Kandinsky and Nikolai Punin illustrate the central role played by critics, theorists, and artists’ societies in catalyzing new approaches. Lastly, essays focusing on the Society of Art Exhibitions (1874–83), the diverse displays at exhibitions in the Soviet era, and national themes in Ballets Russes productions rethink binaries between collaboration and enmity, between nationalism and internationalism, and between east and west in art presentation and promotion. This analytical triad is complemented by an epilogue by Russian émigré artist Pavel Otdelnov, who shares how his personal history and identity shape his art, especially since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
This is the seventy-seventh biannual Newsletter of the IMRC and follows the last issue which appe... more This is the seventy-seventh biannual Newsletter of the IMRC and follows the last issue which appeared in August, 2018. The information presented here relates primarily to events connected with the IMRC during the spring and summer of 2018. For the benefit of new readers, data on the present structure of the IMRC are given on the last page of this issue.
Experiment: A Journal of Russian Culture, 2019
Russian History, 2019
Special issue on Russian art.
Papers / Articles / Essays by Ludmila Piters-Hofmann
What Is to Be Done? Art Practice, Theory, and Promotion in Late Imperial and Soviet Russia , 2024
The long nineteenth century was particularly defined by the quest for identity, both political an... more The long nineteenth century was particularly defined by the quest for identity, both political and personal. In the Russian Empire, as in other multi-ethnic states, religion and language were key to self-perception and identity. This essay explores how these essential ideas were interwoven in the use of Church Slavonic typefaces in folklore-based artworks to evoke a sense of ancient and genuine heritage. The choice to apply script associated with the Orthodox Church to folklore subjects created a new combination of the two traditions that artists and viewers alike understood to represent an authentically Russian cultural identity. By analyzing the relationship between written and pictoral content in illustrations and paintings, the utilization of text and writing in different contexts is explored. With an emphasis on the work of Viktor Vasnetsov, the essay highlights the artist’s role in shaping national identity through the visual arts with his paintings such as Knight at the Crossroads and his illustrations for Alexander Pushkin’s The Song of Oleg the Wise. Ultimately, it argues that Vasnetsov’s art, with its integration of elements derived from Orthodox and folkloric tradition, contributed to a unique cultural expression that resonated with the contemporary search for identity. A detailed examination of source materials, including folk tales, legends, and Church Slavonic texts, reveals the depth of Vasnetsov’s artistic choices and their impact on the representation of Russian cultural heritage.
What Is to Be Done? Art Practice, Theory, and Promotion in Late Imperial and Soviet Art, 2024
What Is to Be Done? [Chto delat'? ]-The question, originating from the eponymous novel (1863) by ... more What Is to Be Done? [Chto delat'? ]-The question, originating from the eponymous novel (1863) by Nikolai Chernyshevsky (1828-89), echoes in late Imperial and Soviet Russia. 1 The novel encouraged various authors to react to its revolutionary ideas, from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Vladimir Nabokov, from Leo Tolstoy to Vladimir Lenin. 2 Chernyshevsky's ideas also included his interpretation of art as a means to educate the common people and expand human knowledge. 3 Art and those creating it were in the middle of the debates on its purpose and socio-political use. It is no wonder that artists engaged with their environment and were eager to add to society by broadening the horizon of the many instead of the few. From the Peredvizhniki [Wanderers], an artists' association that exhibited their members' artworks not only in the metropolises but also outside of these, 4 to the Soviet museum employees who integrated their political ideas in the presentation of artworks, art was a tool to express self-perception and one's own interpretation of
Böhlau Verlag eBooks, Dec 12, 2022
Russian History-histoire Russe, Dec 23, 2019
The character of Snegurochka [Snow Maiden] has her origin in Russian folktales and is now part of... more The character of Snegurochka [Snow Maiden] has her origin in Russian folktales and is now part of an annual national tradition. The article considers her popularity as a result of different processes of inventing and reinventing national identity and the reflection on cultural heritage initiated through the Russian intelligentsia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since her breakthrough as the main character of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegurochka (1882), based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play in verse of the same name (1873), the amalgamation of different artistic interpretations facilitated her transformation into a representation of national identity, perceived as a product of national community and therefore of the people.
Russian History-histoire Russe, Dec 23, 2019
Experiment: A Journal of Russian Culture, 2019
On March 10, 1913, the “Second All-Russian Kustar Exhibition” opened in St. Petersburg under the ... more On March 10, 1913, the “Second All-Russian Kustar Exhibition” opened in St. Petersburg under the patronage of the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. The largest display of folk art and kustar goods in Imperial Russia, it was a huge success with the public and significantly shaped the layman’s view of Russian folk art. Although this exhibition has garnered considerable attention within the scholarly discourse, it has mainly been discussed from the critics’ point of view. This article provides complementary insights by reconstructing the organizational e·forts that contributed to the public success of the exhibition and by analyzing the reaction of the organizing committee to criticism in the contemporary press.
Experiment: A Journal of Russian Culture, 2017
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926) started his work on the c... more At the beginning of the twentieth century, Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926) started his work on the cycle Poema semi skazok [The Poem of Seven Fairy Tales] (1900-26). This self-imposed task included seven monumental paintings depicting popular Russian folktales. Yet, among the representations of famous Russian fairy tale characters, there
is a canvas that centers on the Spiashchaia tsarevna [Sleeping Tsarevna] (1900-26), a character originally from Western Europe. This article will focus on the depths of the impact of Western traditions on this seemingly Russian painting by first elaborating on the development of Sleeping Beauty as a character in fairy tales and the spread of her
popularity as far as Russia and second by analyzing the painting itself for Russian and European elements in composition and style.
Russian History
The character of Snegurochka [Snow Maiden] has her origin in Russian folktales and is now part of... more The character of Snegurochka [Snow Maiden] has her origin in Russian folktales and is now part of an annual national tradition. The article considers her popularity as a result of different processes of inventing and reinventing national identity and the reflection on cultural heritage initiated through the Russian intelligentsia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since her breakthrough as the main character of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegurochka (1882), based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play in verse of the same name (1873), the amalgamation of different artistic interpretations facilitated her transformation into a representation of national identity, perceived as a product of national community and therefore of the people.
Russian History, 2019
The character of Snegurochka [Snow Maiden] has her origin in Russian folktales and is now part of... more The character of Snegurochka [Snow Maiden] has her origin in Russian folktales and is now part of an annual national tradition. The article considers her popularity as a result of different processes of inventing and reinventing national identity and the reflection on cultural heritage initiated through the Russian intelligentsia in the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. Since her breakthrough as the main character
of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegurochka (1882), based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play in verse of the same name (1873), the amalgamation of different artistic interpretations facilitated her transformation into a representation of national identity, perceived as a
product of national community and therefore of the people.
Russian History, 2019
Intoduction to the special issue on Russian art.
Russian History
Special issue on Russian art.
Experiment
On March 10, 1913, the “Second All-Russian Kustar Exhibition” opened in St. Petersburg under the ... more On March 10, 1913, the “Second All-Russian Kustar Exhibition” opened in St. Petersburg under the patronage of the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. The largest display of folk art and kustar goods in Imperial Russia, it was a huge success with the public and significantly shaped the layman’s view of Russian folk art. Although this exhibition has garnered considerable attention within the scholarly discourse, it has mainly been discussed from the critics’ point of view. This article provides complementary insights by reconstructing the organizational efforts that contributed to the public success of the exhibition and by analyzing the reaction of the organizing committee to criticism in the contemporary press.
Experiment: A Journal of Russian Culture, 2019
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Edited Volumes by Ludmila Piters-Hofmann
Papers / Articles / Essays by Ludmila Piters-Hofmann
is a canvas that centers on the Spiashchaia tsarevna [Sleeping Tsarevna] (1900-26), a character originally from Western Europe. This article will focus on the depths of the impact of Western traditions on this seemingly Russian painting by first elaborating on the development of Sleeping Beauty as a character in fairy tales and the spread of her
popularity as far as Russia and second by analyzing the painting itself for Russian and European elements in composition and style.
early twentieth centuries. Since her breakthrough as the main character
of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegurochka (1882), based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play in verse of the same name (1873), the amalgamation of different artistic interpretations facilitated her transformation into a representation of national identity, perceived as a
product of national community and therefore of the people.
is a canvas that centers on the Spiashchaia tsarevna [Sleeping Tsarevna] (1900-26), a character originally from Western Europe. This article will focus on the depths of the impact of Western traditions on this seemingly Russian painting by first elaborating on the development of Sleeping Beauty as a character in fairy tales and the spread of her
popularity as far as Russia and second by analyzing the painting itself for Russian and European elements in composition and style.
early twentieth centuries. Since her breakthrough as the main character
of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegurochka (1882), based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s play in verse of the same name (1873), the amalgamation of different artistic interpretations facilitated her transformation into a representation of national identity, perceived as a
product of national community and therefore of the people.
scholarship and put into question a range of terms, definitions, and
points of view that have long been established in the history of art and
visual culture of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The tenth
workshop of the Russian(?) Art & Culture Group takes this as a point
of departure to facilitate a critical discussion with the aim to find
appropriate terms, approaches, and strategies that give new insights
into Imperial Russian and Soviet art and culture and will contribute to
these ongoing debates about the future of art historical scholarship in
this particular geography.
The workshop is guided by a critical reconsideration of the term
“Russian” in relation to the study of Imperial Russian and Soviet art
and culture. It reflects on key issues such as re-readings and reevaluations
of Russo-centric narratives, the re-definition of cultures in
the territory of the former Soviet Union, blind spots and marginalized
areas of knowledge, as well as the entanglements and responsibilities
of scholarship in light of the ongoing war.
The eighth graduate workshop of the Russian Art and Culture Group will consider the deep implications posed by the problem of religious art by examining the various ways in which the icon was adapted in modern Russia to serve different artistic, philosophical, and political agendas.
Reviewed by Ludmila Piters-Hofmann
Published on H-SHERA (October, 2018)
Commissioned by Hanna Chuchvaha (University of Calgary)