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The Representation of American Visual Art in the USSR
during the Cold War (1950s to the late 1960s)
by
Kirill Chunikhin
a Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in History and Theory of Arts
Approved Dissertation Committee
_______________________________
Prof. Dr. Isabel Wünsche
Jacobs University, Bremen
Prof. Dr. Corinna Unger
European University Institute, Florence
Prof. Dr. Roman Grigoryev
The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Date of Defense: June 30, 2016
ii
Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................v
Acknowledgements................................................................................................. vii
Statutory Declaration (on Authorship of a Dissertation)...........................................ix
List of Figures ............................................................................................................x
List of Attachments.................................................................................................xiv
Introduction ................................................................................................................1
PART I. THE SOVIET APPROACH: MAKING AMERICAN ART ANTIAMERICAN………………………………………………………………………………..11
Chapter 1. Introduction to the Totalitarian Art Discourse: Politics and Aesthetics in
the Soviet Union.......................................................................................................11
Arts under Administrative Control...................................................................11
Arts Under Ideology.........................................................................................14
Soviet Art versus ….........................................................................................17
Chapter 2. Criticizing the Unseen: Denouncing American Modernism ..................21
The Aesthetic War and American Art..............................................................23
Insane Artists....................................................................................................34
Laughing at Modernism ...................................................................................37
Chapter 3. Advocating Realism and the First Non-English History of American
Visual Art .................................................................................................................46
Tracing the History of American Art ...............................................................48
Between “Objective” and “Prejudiced” ...........................................................55
Chapter 4. At Home Among Strangers: The Myth of Rockwell Kent.....................57
1953–1957: Assembling the First Kent's Show ...............................................58
iii
1957 Exhibition and/as Politics........................................................................62
Ignored at Home, Welcomed Abroad ..............................................................66
The Gift ............................................................................................................70
More Than a Great Artist .................................................................................73
The Myth of Rockwell Kent ............................................................................77
Chapter 5. More American Art in the Soviet Union ................................................83
Exhibiting American Art from Soviet Collections: Protesting the 1959
American National Exhibition in Moscow.......................................................83
“In the Name of Peace! In the Name of Friendship!”: Gifting Art to the USSR
..........................................................................................................................85
“A Small Pebble Making Waves”....................................................................92
Anton Refregier: Another “Big Friend of the USSR” .....................................96
Conclusion Part I....................................................................................................105
PART II. THE AMERICAN APPROACH: EXHIBITING ANTI-SOVIET ART ............110
Chapter 6. Politics and Exhibitions in the United States........................................111
American Art Abroad: A Difficult Start ........................................................111
Modernism and Communism.........................................................................114
USIA and Visual Art in the Soviet Union......................................................118
Chapter 7. The American National Exhibition in Moscow, 1959 ..........................121
Assembling Art ..............................................................................................124
Freedom, Diversity, and Peoples' Art on Display..........................................127
Reception and Response ................................................................................136
What Was It?..................................................................................................146
Chapter 8. The Exhibition Graphic Arts: USA, 1963–1964...................................150
The Exhibition Design ...................................................................................150
Arranging the Tour.........................................................................................159
iv
Soviet Inspection............................................................................................163
Travelling Around the Soviet Union..............................................................165
Impact.............................................................................................................171
Conclusion Part II...................................................................................................176
Afterword ...............................................................................................................179
Figures....................................................................................................................186
Attachments............................................................................................................220
Bibliography...........................................................................................................222