1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779393503321

Autore

Murray Natalia

Titolo

The unsung hero of the Russian avant-garde [[electronic resource] ] : the life and times of Nikolay Punin / / by Natalia Murray

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden ; ; Boston, : Brill, 2012

ISBN

9786613723475

90-04-22559-5

1-280-88216-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (439 p.)

Collana

Russian history and culture, , 1877-7791 ; ; v. 9

Disciplina

709.2

B

Soggetti

Art critics - Russia

Art critics - Soviet Union

Art, Russian - Russia - 20th century - History

Art, Russian - Soviet Union - History

Avant-garde (Aesthetics) - Russia - History

Avant-garde (Aesthetics) - Soviet Union - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Chapter One Origins of the Hero -- Chapter Two Education -- Chapter Three Winds of Change: The First World War and Emergence of the New Creativity in Russia -- Chapter Four The Dawn of New Hopes: The October Revolution and the Search for New Art -- Chapter Five No Future for the Futurists? Attempts to Educate the Masses -- Chapter Six Gathering Clouds, But High Heart -- Chapter Seven The Slow Strangulation of Free Culture -- Chapter Eight The Victory of Socialist Realism -- Chapter Nine Time of Terror -- Chapter Ten The Great Patriotic War -- Chapter Eleven The Broken Post-War Dreams -- Chapter Twelve Bitter End -- Bibliography of Published Writings of N. Punin -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

This book is the first biography of Nikolay Punin (1888-1953). One of the most prominent art-critics of the avant-garde, in 1919 Punin was the Commissar of the Hermitage and Russian Museums, he was



lecturing at the Academy of Arts and at the State University in Petrograd (and subsequently Leningrad). He was the right hand of Lunacharsky and the head of the Petrograd branch of the Visual Arts Department of Narkompross. From 1913 till 1938, Punin worked at the Russian Museum and organized several major exhibitions of Russian art. Yet his name is not widely known in the West, primarily because his file languished in the KGB archives since he died in 1953, partly because his grave in the Gulag where he died is marked only by a number, and partly because his own reputation became submerged under that of his lover, poet and writer Anna Akhmatova. Through the life and inheritance of Nikolay Punin, this book will examine the very phenomenon of the Russian avant-garde and its fate after the October Revolution, as well as the artistic trends and cultural policies which dominated Soviet art in the 1930-1950s. For an interview with the author on The Voice of Russia (July 19th, 2012): click here .