The Circle of Artists (1926-1953): Artistic Agency in the Totalitarian Salon

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My doctoral project will focus on the Circle of Artists (Krug Khudozhnikov), a Leningrad artistic group officially active between 1926 and 1932. As the only large group of young artists within the Leningrad art scene it was a microcosm of Soviet artistic life. Thus, the broad aim of my project will be to deepen our understanding of Soviet culture and its mechanisms by examining the artistic, historical, and socio-economic contexts within which these artists worked. Further, Circle members were part of the whole generation of artists that was expunged from official accounts of art history in the Soviet Union. Decades later, Russian scholars still struggle to place them appropriately within art history, while Western scholarship omits them altogether. One of the main reasons for this is that the artists of this generation were part neither of avant-garde nor Socialist Realism. Thus, they do not fit the currently prevalent narrative of Russian 20th century art, which is generally presented as a binary relationship between avant-garde and Socialist Realism. In fact, their existence completely upends the established binary and requires a re-evaluation of Soviet art. By analyzing the art historical impact of these artists and recontextualizing them within global art history, my project will present a more nuanced and inclusive picture of Russian 20th century art.