theartrace

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Introduction

The war between the United States of America and the Soviet Union during the second half of the 20th century was “cold,” meaning there was no direct military contact between the two nations, but rather a political hostility characterized by threats, propaganda, and competition, among other things. There were many ways in which these two powerful nations battled throughout the Cold War, one of the more notable being the competition of technology as in the Arms Race or Space Race. By showing superiority in science or weaponry, each nationalist power felt that they could assert their dominance and gain more influence in the world to spread their ideologies. But what many people don’t know, is that there was, in fact, a third race, which both competitors, the USA and USSR, participated in: the “Art” Race. The best art would succeed in spreading each country's ideologies while also being highly regarded in the art world. 

On this website, I will be exploring and contrasting the two very distinct styles of art that the Soviet Union and the United States produced in the early Cold War. The webpages for Soviet Socialist Realism and American Abstract Expressionism answer how each country’s artwork expressed the ideologies of each nation during the time period, as well as how each country used art as a political tool to spread their influence over its citizens and the world. Finally, I will make a claim on which nation “won” the “Art” Race in terms of how the styles were received in the art world.

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Abstract Expressionism in America

After the Impressionist movement, artists were driven again and again to challenge what people qualified as art. So, the Modernist movement exploded in the early 20th century, led by some of the most well respected Western European artists. Although this new art provided new forms of expression, many Americans were displeased with early Modernism because it was associated with Communism1. Pablo Picasso, a founder of Cubism, was openly and passionately Communist. The Dadaist movement's rejection of the social caste seemed to be in favor of Communism. The rising popularity of this Modern art, seen particularly in the homes and collections of influential European intellectuals, frightened Americans2. American artists wanting to distinguish themselves from the European counterparts, responded with Abstract Expressionism.

The poster-child of Abstract expressionism was Jackson Pollock.

The painting above, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)3, was painted by Pollock in 1950 and is today one of his most famous works, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) was painted on a huge canvas, 207 inches wide. Splatters of thinned black, white, brown, and turquoise paint cover the earthy beige background. Pollock’s technique was very unconventional and controversial for the time period. Instead of painting on a stretched, propped up canvas, he would lay the unprimed fabric flat on the floor and hover over it, splattering paint with any found objects he used as painting utensils, from sticks to knives4. Contrary to criticism of the care the artist put into each painting, Pollock did state that “I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident5.”

When Pollock’s work became famous, the American people’s stress over the influence of Communist painters was quelled because at last a painter with democratic values had broke into the art world with a style of painting even avant-garde European artists respected6. Pollock’s energy, shown not only in his personality, but the way he chose to paint, as well as the way he challenged the status quo made him the ideal face of America in the art world. One get the sense that Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) is representative of nature from its landscape orientation, earth tones, and use of positive and negative space, but it is not obvious. Pollock makes a statement by choosing not to paint a photo realistic, or even impressionistic, depiction of an tree with turning leaves. This symbolic representation makes his painting the epitome of Abstract Expressionism. The artist chooses to express himself through his own personal interpretation of what it is he wishes to depict. When the United States government got wind of this new art style that was so popular and so perfectly conveyed the ideals of Capitalism and democracy-- individualism and freedom of speech-- they started to get some ideas.

  Robert Motherwell’s Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White7, painted in 1947, was part of the 1958 exhibition “The New American Painting,” backed by The Museum of Modern Art in New York, which toured for one year in Europe, along with the works of 17 other Abstract Expressionists, including Jackson Pollock’s. It features thick layering of yellow, white, and black oil paint lines painted over and over again on the canvas. Motherwell’s technique is far from conventional, just as Pollock’s was, because instead of carefully painting a perfect image, he claimed, “I begin painting with a series of mistakes. The painting comes out of the correction of mistakes by feeling8.” The end result, as one sees in Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White, is very different from the usual interpretation of his subject, a person, but instead the image of how he personally “feels” the piece should look. Motherwell’s defiance of typical painting technique and his self expression, give his work the traits of individualism and freedom, traits valued by Americans.

In “The New American Painting” tour’s press release, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Director of Museum Collections, talks about what ties the artists together, stating: “None speaks for the others any more than he paints for the others. Their individualism is uncompromising and as a matter of principle they do nothing deliberately in their work to make 'communication’ easy9,” and thus, perfectly outlining the ideals seen in the Abstract Expressionist paintings, which the US government loved. What the artists didn’t know, but the museum did, was that this tour was in fact funded by the CIA, who covertly donated money through a well known millionaire and patron of the arts10. Although it was rumored since the beginning, it wasn’t until 1974 that this, as well a few other American art tours, were outed as CIA funded projects to use modernist art as propaganda to promote democracy and capitalism11.

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Soviet Socialist Realism

The popularity of Socialist Realism began in East Germany around 1930. German leader Walter Ulbricht named it the official style of Soviet painting and this title was eventually accepted by Stalin in 193412. As it was told in Stalin’s 5-Year Plan, any art that seemed to defy Communist values would be prohibited in the nation13. Unfortunately, there were many modernist painters in Russia during the time that this rule was implemented. Some of the more lucky ones emigrated to other European countries such as Wassily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall, while others like Gerhard Richter conformed to the new style in order to stay in the country. Richter later left Russia to pursue different art styles. Those who defied the law and remained were sentenced to the Gulag, Russian prison camp, or even to death14. Although the government became more lenient in 1953 after Stalin’s death, allowing artists to display Post-impressionist art in the Soviet Union, seven years later, things went back to the way they were and modernist artists were deported to the United States.

  Bread15, painted by Tatiana Yablonskaya, an artist who, in her lifetime, was awarded more that three prizes from Stalin for her contribution to Soviet art, was crafted in 1949. It depicts various Soviet female proletariates happily bagging corn. While there is a great deal of drudgery involved in harvesting crops, each farmer seems ecstatic to be contributing to society. In the background, Yablonskaya places very technologically advanced machinery-- machinery that most farms in Russia did not even have access to in the late forties16! While the painting depicts a very falsely idealized image of what life was like on the farm in the Soviet Union during the early Cold War, Yablonskaya’s technique, the only style permitted in the country at the time, is extremely realistic, almost photorealistic. The viewer is transported into the painting because of it realism, and could easily believe the scene to be drawn from reality.

This was the goal of Joseph Stalin when he prohibited all abstract art styles and only allowed depictions of a perfect Russian Communist society. Bread very blatantly depicts the values of the USSR. The subjects are in the working class rather than the bourgeois, which expresses the Communist belief in social and economic equality. All the women are dressed very similarly, which also shows equality and is interesting in contrast to the American ideals of individuality. The falsely depicted machinery connects to Russia’s constant need to show off their technical superiority in the Arms Race and Space Race. While this painting is deceiving, perhaps it was meant to instill hope in the Soviet people for the future when the country would potentially be fully Communist. By only seeing these paintings that depicted a bright future ahead, Russian citizens could push themselves to work harder in order to achieve this utopia.

Boris Eremeevich Vladimirski’s Roses for Stalin17, is another classic Socialist Realist oil painting. The technique is so similar to Yablonskaya’s that one could easily assume both works were painted by the same artist. This is interesting in contrast with the two abstract expressionist paintings, which were very different in style and technique, once again showing the opposite values in each country: individuality the United States and conformity in the Soviet Union. In Roses for Stalin, children gather around Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, all dressed in pure white, presenting him with roses. The splashes of red in the roses and scarves around the children’s necks shows their support of Communism. While Vladimirski depicts a caring Stalin, innocent in his white suit, Stalin, in fact, was a very brutal leader who sentenced artists who refused to create the art he wanted to death. Art like Vladimirski’s gave the people of Russia a false idea of who their leader actually was. Stalin believed he had to restrict any art that even suggested otherwise in order to maintain the respect of his people. Soviet Socialist Realism used a realistic style of painting to spread false and idealistic representations of the Soviet Union during the early Cold War in order to keep the support of Communist followers.

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Conclusion

Art from the United States and the Soviet Union was obviously very different, just as each country’s ideologies were during the Cold War. Each country believed their art to be the best because of the pride they took in what was being expressed in the artwork being created. But, in terms of the international art world, which art style was the most influential?

Looking back at the time before Abstract Expressionism and Socialist Realism were popularized, there was a trend of creating art that defied the status quo and that questioned what art really was. It started with Impressionism, which then progressed even further to Dadaism, allowing any object to be considered art. Soviet Socialist Realism actually took a step back in the progression of art because Stalin wouldn’t allow any art in the country more modern than Impressionism. For this reason, Soviet art was not influential at all in the art world. There is also proof that Communist art didn’t have to be as strict as the Soviets made it. Picasso, for one, founder of Cubism, a modern art, was a very vocal Communist, who always talked about how Communism affected his paintings. Also, Unlike the Americans who wished to spread ideals of individualism by presenting American art all over the world, Soviet art was meant to inspire the county’s own people. Soviet Socialist Realist artists are fairly unknown, their artwork was not displayed outside of the country, and the styles were very out of touch with the art trends during the time period. Abstract Expressionism was an extension of the discussion happening in the art world because it let the artist’s work be whatever he wanted it to be instead of having to adhere to a specific set of rules. Because of the Expressionist’s connection to the Modernist movement happening in the art world during the time, American art proved much more influential.

The real shame about the Soviet Socialist Realist movement is seen in those few Modern artists who escaped the oppression (Richter, Kandinsky, Chagall) became renowned for their creativity after they fled to France or the United States. To think about all of the talented people who were sent to prison, or died for the way they painted is devastating. Not only did Soviet Socialist Realism not influence the art world in any way, it actually could have prevented it from advancing. Abstract Expressionism, on the other hand, led to the Pop Art movement, which is a great the influence of many contemporary artists of the 21st century, today.

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Sources

1Frances Stonor Sauners, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, second ed. (New York City, NY: The New Press, 2013), 252.

2Ibid.

3Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/57.92. 4The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed., "Jackson Pollock Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)," Metropolitan Museum of Art, last modified 2000-2014, accessed December 7, 2014, http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/488978. 5Ibid. 6Sauners,The Cultural Cold War, 252. 7Robert Motherwell, Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White, 1947, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY, accessed December 7, 2014, http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4126&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1. 8Museum of Modern Art, ed., "Robert Motherwell Personage, with Yellow Ochre and White," The Collection Museum of Modern Art, last modified 2010, accessed December 7, 2014, http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4126&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1. 9The International Council at the Museum of Modern Art, "The New American Painting, Leaves for a Year-Long European Tour," news release, March 11, 1958, 1, PDF. 10Frances Stonor Saunders, "Modern art was CIA 'weapon,'" The Independent (London, UK), October 27, 1995, accessed November 19, 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html. 11Ibid.

12John J. Curley, A Conspiracy of Images: Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, and the Art of the Cold War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013), 85.

13Gleb Prokhorov, Art Under Socialist Realism: Soviet Painting 1930-1950 (n.p.: Craftsman House, 1995).

14Ibid.

15Tatiana Yablonskaya, Bread, 1949, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia, accessed November 24, 2014, http://themoscownews.com/walks/20110303/188465196.html. 16Curley, A Conspiracy of Images, 85. 17Boris Vladmiriski, Roses for Stalin, 1949, Russia, accessed December 7, 2014, http://arttattler.com/commentaryneutralspace.html.

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Soviet Realism

Abstract Expressionism