Russian Art and Culture, September 29th, 2016.

Ivan Lindsay is a London-based art dealer and writer specialising in 20th century Russian paintings and sculpture with a particular interest in art created during the Soviet period. Our Editor, Theodora Clarke, talked to Ivan about his recent book, ‘Masterpieces of Soviet Painting and Sculpture,’ which will be launched on 10 October at Waterstones Piccadilly. Published by the Unicorn Press, the book presents beautiful reproductions of a wide range of artworks from the Soviet Union, giving a clear picture of the impressive achievement, diversity, and scope of Soviet-era art.

Theodora Clarke: What originally attracted you to this subject?

IL: I worked with Old Masters and Impressionist art for many years.  Later I started travelling around Russia and became interested in Russian culture.  Many of the later Russian artists are still unknown in the West.  Museum curators and collectors, who have long been interested in the avant-garde artists, are becoming more interested in the Soviet period and we felt there was a need for a book on the subject.

TC: How did you choose which artists to include in your new book?

IL: It was a collaborative project with my co-author Rena Lavery and a number of museum curators at the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. We wanted to introduce Western audiences to works from the Soviet era rather than doing another book on Russian art from the early twentieth or nineteenth centuries.

TC: There has been a recent resurgence of interest in art from the Soviet Union in London. I went to the exhibition at Somerset House of Viktor Popkov, who is featured in your book. Could you explain why he is an important artist?

IL: Popkov is one of the significant artists of the 1960’s.  He studied at the Surikov State Institute of Fine Art in Moscow, won a diploma at the Paris Biennale, and started his career under ‘the Thaw’. Popkov was one of several members of the ‘Severe’ style movement that we included in the book. There is a famous work by him of the Bratsk Hydropower station which was included in that London exhibition.

TC: Art from the Soviet Union was often political, and a frequent criticism of work from this period is that art became a source of propaganda. Do you think that is fair?

IL: Art is always a product of its time. You could say the same thing about Velasquez and Philip IV or Jacques Louis-David and the French Revolution. The Avant Garde artists supported the revolution and then the Soviet artists supported the Soviet State. Not all art produced during the Soviet years was propaganda, but it certainly reflects its time. Also, a large number of works were produced in the Soviet Union that did not fall within the Socialist Realist template and were not displayed at the time; they were not shown to the authorities for fear of censorship or reprisals.

We have included artists who both worked within and pushed against the boundaries of what was acceptable in the Soviet Union, such as Deineka, Pimenov and Samokhvalov.  It’s also important to remember the link between Soviet artists and earlier periods i.e. members of the Wanderers movement such as Levitan clearly inspired later painters like Plastov.

TC: There are a number of important Soviet female artists in this period. Could you tell us more about them?

IL:  The most well known is Vera Mukhina, but she’s not the only one we have included. We have a model of her famous sculpture, Worker Man and Kolkhoz Woman, in the book. It was the centrepiece of the Soviet Pavilion in Paris for the International Exhibition in 1937. It’s was a giant monument with the two figures holding a hammer and sickle.

We also wanted to include several other great women artists such as Ekaterina Belashova, Sara Lebedeva and Elena Yanson-Manizer.

TC: You have included works in a number of different media in the book. Why is there such variation?

IL: As an artist or sculptor in the Soviet Union, it was often difficult to source materials. That’s why with the sculpture you find works in iron, aluminium, bronze or a mix of metals as it was whatever they could get hold of at the time.

TC: Do you have a favourite Soviet artist?

 IL: There are many to choose from. In the later period I admire Vladimir Stozharov, who created atmospheric landscapes whilst on his travels in the far north of Russia in the 1950s and 1960s. His Venetian studies are beautiful also.  I’ve visited his old dacha outside of Moscow and met his  family.

TC: How did you manage the project and collaborate with your colleagues?

IL: We were very lucky to work with some of the top art historians in Russia.  The section on paintings is by Natalia Alexandrovna at the Tretyakov and the sections on sculpture by Luidmilla Martz at the Tretyakov and Elena Vasilevskaya at the Russian Museum.

TC: How was Art Russe involved in the book? 

IL: 80/90 per cent of the artworks are from Russian museums, with the rest from private collections. We wanted to show a variety of works and it’s been wonderful to be able to include works from these private collections which are not usually on view to the public.  Rena Lavery, the Director of Art Russe, was my co-producer of the book and she was very helpful in writing an essay and selecting works for inclusion.

TC: Do you have any plans to translate the book?

IL: The book has been published in two versions already, one in English and the other a Russian-language version.  There aren’t any other plans at the moment.

TC: Is there anything else you would like to add?

IL: I’m very pleased with the book and I’d like to thank all the people who have helped us put it together, particularly my co-author Rena Lavery and the editor, Katia Kapushesky.  So many people have helped create this book and it was a difficult project to pull together.  I hope that the book will introduce a whole group of artists to the West who are little known or understood here.

Masterpieces of Soviet Painting and Sculpture

By Ivan Lindsay and Rena Lavery

Published by Unicorn Publishing Group, 2016

For more information on the book please visit the website.

To celebrate the release of this new publication, The Russian Bookshop at Waterstones and Russian Art and Culture are delighted to invite you to a roundtable discussion with Ivan Lindsay, Margy Kinmonth and John Milner, ahead of the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Please click here for more details.