Bolshevik by Boris Kustodiev
One of the interesting things about looking at the Socialist Realist artists of the former Soviet Union, in contrast to the art being promoted in the "free world" during the same period (be it Surrealism or Abstract Expressionism all the way down to Conceptualism) is both the high level of technical skill and the unambiguous meaning imbued into every canvas, which needs no priestly caste of art critics to interpret "what the artist may be trying to say" for the benefit of us, the great unwashed masses.
In fact, such a comparison is rarely (if ever) made by establishment art critics or historians in the west. This is something I will go into later. Even the most revolutionary elements contained within the art of those working outside the socialist world (such as Picasso, Rivera, Kahlo or Siquieros), those artists who were openly sympathetic to the cause, are often either explained away or passed over in conspicuous silence.
Consider the clear and obvious meaning of such revolutionary works as Bolshevik by Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927) (above) or New Planet by Konstantin Yuon (1875-1958), both of which powerfully convey the grandiose excitement that came in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917 for so many people in Russia and the labour movement beyond. Then contrast works like these with much of the work produced in Europe or North America since then ("the west"), from the paint splatters of Pollock, to the endless soup tins of Warhol, to Hirst's dead animals, what we are left with is a western vision which to the average eye often appears so vapid and hollow that I am reminded of that line from Shakespeare's Hamlet:
"It is a tale told by a madman, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
A better description of the profit-obsessed individualism of late capitalism that brought about such sterile art movements as conceptualism would be difficult to find.
New Planet by Konstantin Yuon
This is not to say that there is no value in leaving viewers to draw their own conclusions from a piece of abstract or conceptual art. Of course there is. The Australian artist Brett Whiteley is notable for working with both abstract and representational forms, while utilizing a stylistic approach that blends expressionism with Chinese landscape art.
There is little value (or freedom, for that matter) in routinely dismissing an entire genre of art that influenced millions of people around the world simply for ideological reasons.
The Surrealists posed as madmen and women by taking their inspiration from the chaotic of dreams and children's games. The exception perhaps being artists such as the Mexican muralists, who by virtue of being based in what is now called the global south created a kind of cultural bridge between east and west, by blending the personal, dreamlike imagery of surrealism with the clear yearning for human progress embodied by socialism.
By the 1940s and 50s the free form chaos of Abstract Expressionism was very much in vogue, covertly funded or promoted by the CIA, seemingly as a representation of the apparent artistic freedom to be found for any emigres in the west.
It would be disingenuous to dismiss some of the restrictions that affected artists working in the USSR at this time. These ideological constraints within the socialist countries can only partially be explained by the mass mobilization for WW2, as the attempt to build a new world had a big influence. To dismiss the entirely of the work being produced in Eurasia as propaganda however causes us to miss a great deal of talented and fascinating work.
Sometimes those who had trouble fitting in with the party line of Moscow were simply sent to the outer reaches of the Soviet Union, such as the painter and teacher Sergey Gerasimov (1885-1964), who found himself sent to the ancient trading town of Samarkand in the Uzbek SSR. Here he would produce some of his most famous paintings of the old city, while artists native to Central Asia displayed their own unique colour palette inspired by the landscapes and the quality of light that illuminated them.
