Viktor Koretsky
dal 28/9/2011 al 21/1/2012
Segnalato da
28/9/2011
Viktor Koretsky
Smart Museum of Art, Chicago
Vision and Communism. The exhibition presents ninety of Koretsky's posters, photographs, and original maquettes. In contrast to more conventional Soviet propaganda the artist created striking scenes of survival and suffering that were designed to create a connection between Soviet citizens and others struggling for civil rights and independence around the globe.
The Soviet artist and designer Viktor Koretsky (1909–1998) created
aggressive, emotionally charged images that articulated a Communist
vision of the world utterly unlike that of conventional propaganda.
In the last thirty years of the Soviet Union, Koretsky’s art sought
to ensure world Communism’s moral health. In contrast to more
conventional Soviet propaganda - filled with happy workers, glorious
leaders, and uplifting slogans - Koretsky created striking scenes of
survival and suffering that were designed to create an emotional
connection between Soviet citizens and others struggling for civil
rights and independence around the globe.
This vision of a multicultural world of shared sacrifice offered a
dynamic alternative to the sleek consumerism of Madison Avenue and the
West and, according to the exhibition curators, can be thought of
“as a kind of Communist advertising for a future that never quite
arrived.”
Drawing on an extensive private collection of Soviet art and
propaganda, Vision and Communism presents nearly ninety of
Koretsky’s posters, photographs, and original maquettes. Together
with the October 14 symposium Agitation!, a related book that explores
the dissident public culture nurtured in the Soviet bloc, and a
screening of films by Aleksandr Medvedkin and Chris Marker, Vision and
Communism offers a striking new interpretation of visual communication
in the USSR and beyond.
Curators:
Robert Bird, Associate Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and
Literatures, The University of Chicago; Christopher Heuer, Assistant
Professor, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University;
Matthew Jesse Jackson, Associate Professor of Art History and the
Department of Visual Arts, The University of Chicago; Tumelo Mosaka,
Curator of Contemporary Art, Krannert Art Museum, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Stephanie Smith, Deputy Director and
Chief Curator, Smart Museum of Art; with Richard A. Born, Senior
Curator, Smart Museum of Art, as coordinating curator.
Image: Viktor Koretsky, "Africa Fights, Africa Will Win!," 1971.
Poster. Ne boltai! Collection.
Press contact: C.J. Lind
773.702.0176
cjlind@uchicago.ed
Opening: Thursday, September 29, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Smart Museum of Art
The University of Chicago
5550 S. Greenwood Avenue, Chicago
Hours: Tuesday - Friday 10 am - 4 pm
Thursday 10 am - 8 pm
Saturday and Sunday 11 am - 5 pm
Galleries closed Mondays
Admission free