HISTORY OF ARTISTIC - LITERARY RUSSIAN CULTURE

The course is scheduled among the core educational activities for art-historical disciplines in the degree course in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities. It aims to provide students with the basic elements to analyze the emergence and development of the Avant-Garde in Russia and Soviet Union. The course, which will chronologically cover the first thirty years of the Twentieth century, aims to focus on the different artistic and cultural trends that characterized the period.

To bring students closer to a better understanding of the discipline, video screenings and other scholars' interventions will be planned.
It is possible that the frontal lessons will be integrated with visits to exhibitions.
The materials projected in class will be available on the Moodle e-learning platform of the University together with further insight material.

1. Knowledge
The course will focus on the Avant-Garde and will allow the student to deepen the life and artistic activity of some of the most relevant artists at an international level such as Larionov, Goncharova, Kandinsky, Chagall, Malevich.

2. Communication skills
Students will learn to formulate in a clear and relevant way the topics covered in class.

3. Critical skills
Students will be able to critically evaluate the evolution of cultural and artistic trends in Russia in the first twenty years of the twentieth century.

Basic knowledge of the main stages of the development of Russian art is advisable but not compulsory.

Avant-Garde in Russia and Soviet Union (1900 -1930)
The course will deal with a crucial phase of Russian art, the one between XIX and XX century, which sets the decisive precondition for the expressive revolution of the Avant-Garde. After the years of nineteenth-century critical realism we witness the fundamental transition that we could define “from ethics to aesthetics", when art stops being a megaphone of social denunciation and begins to think of itself again. Starting from impressionism and stil modern we will come to outline the context that allows the advent of the various experiences of abstract art with particular insights on the most important figures such as Larionov, Goncharova, Kandinsky, Chagall, Malevich. The experience of the Organic school of Saint Petersburg with the figures of Elena Guro and Mikhail Matyushin will be treated as well with an in-depth analysis of the Costakis Collection at the MOMus Museum in Thessaloniki. The course will also present a focus on the Avant-Garde Orientalis in Turkestan/Uzbekistan, with particular consideration to its representatives such as Alexander Volkov and others and an in-depth look at the figure of Savitsky and the museums in Nukus and Tashkent.

Lecture notes
Images projected in class will be available on the e-learning Moodle platform
PDF essays on the e-learning Moodle platform (mandatory bibliography)

Reference texts for further readings and in-depth analysis
John E. Bowlt, Nicoletta Misler, Evgenija Petrova (a cura di), L'avanguardia russa, la Siberia e l'Oriente, Milano, Skira, 2013.
John E. Bowlt e Matthew Drutt (a cura di), Amazzoni dell'avanguardia: Alexandra Exter, Natalija Gončarova, Ljubov' Popova, Ol'ga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, e Nadežda Udal'cova, New York, Guggenheim Museum, 2000.
The Great Utopia: the Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932: Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, State Tret'iakov gallery, State Russian Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, New York, Guggenheim Museum, 1992.

The learning outcomes will be assessed by a written exam of two hours.
The exam consists of four open questions. One incomplete answer will result in a fail grade.
The use of books, notes, and electronic media is not allowed during the test.
Regarding the grading scale for the written exam (method by which grades will be assigned), regardless of whether the student is attending or non-attending:
A. Scores in the range of 18-22 will be assigned in the presence of:
- sufficient knowledge and applied comprehension with reference to the program;
- limited ability to gather and/or interpret data, forming independent judgments;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific historical-artistic language.
B. Scores in the range of 23-26 will be assigned in the presence of:
- fair knowledge and applied comprehension with reference to the program;
- fair ability to gather and/or interpret data, forming independent judgments;
- fair communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific historical-artistic language.
C. Scores in the range of 27-30 will be assigned in the presence of:
- good or excellent knowledge and applied comprehension with reference to the program;
- good or excellent ability to gather and/or interpret data, forming independent judgments;
- fully appropriate communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific historical-artistic language.
D. Honors will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and applied comprehension with reference to the program, judgment skills, and communication abilities.

Lessons open to the discussions and commentaries of the slides and texts presented in class.
The materials presented in class will be available on the e-learning Moodle platform together with additional sources. Talks with selected guests. In-depth lessons will also be planned.
It is possible that the lectures will be integrated with exhibition visits.

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Students with disabilities or those with special educational needs are kindly asked to contact the relevant offices by the start of the course.

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This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development