Soviet Art Criticism of American Visual Art
Soviet Art Criticism of American Visual Art

Summary/Abstract: The cultural Cold War has interested a number of Western and few Russian scholars. At the same time, the problem of representation and reception of American visual art in the USSR during the 1950s to 1980s has not been thoroughly explored. The essay aims to partially fill this research gap. The official Soviet reception of American visual art might be reconstructed based upon articles in periodicals, academic journals and monographs. Numerous publications, issued between 1949 and 1991, have been used as data for this study of the rhetoric in Soviet art history and art criticism. Most of the texts analyzed here contain negative criticism of avant-garde art. However, the essay also includes some precedents of positive criticism of the works of American realist painters. Prior to analyzing the Soviet reception of American visual art, it is necessary to make a few general remarks on the character and peculiarities of Soviet art discourse.

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