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The Unsung Hero of the Russian Avant-Garde: The Life and Times of Nikolay Punin
by: Natalia Murray
published by: Brill
pp: 354
ISBN: 9789004204751
price: € 136,00
This book by Natalia Murray explores the life and work of Russian avant-garde artist Nikolay Punin. It was published by Brill as part of the series of Russian History and Culture, edited by Jeffrey P. Brooks & Christina Lodder.
Nikolay Punin, as the Commissar of the Hermitage and Russian Museums, was the most important art-critics of the avant-garde.
Punin was lecturer at the Academy of Arts and the State University in Petrograd/Leningrad and he was also the right hand of Lunacharsky and the head of the Petrograd branch of the Visual Arts Department of Narkompross. While working t the Russian Museum from 1913 to 1938, he organized a variety of extraordinary exhibitions of Russian art. Despite the relevance of his work, Nikolay Punin has not acquired great fame in the West. There are several reasons for this: his file was stored in KGB archives since his death in 1953; he died and was buried in a Gulag; and, finally, his lover, the poetess Anna Akhmatova, attracted much more attention from the public than he did.
Natalia Murray uses the life of Nikolay Punin as an instrument to present the phenomenon of Russian avant-garde and the development of this trend after the October Revolution. She also take into consideration other artistic trends that emerged in the Soviet Union between 1930-1950, and cultural policies employed by the Soviet regime.
Table of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: ORIGINS OF THE HERO
1. Punin’s background and origins.
2. The time in Tsarskoye Selo.
PART II: EDUCATION
1. Studies and teachers.
2. Influences and interests.
PART III: WINDS OF CHANGE
FIRST WORLD WAR AND EMERGENCE OF THE NEW CREATIVITY IN RUSSIA
1. The breeding-ground – the last years of Imperial Russia. Foreign influences in Russian Art (French artists’ exhibitions).
2. Growth of interest in Russian art. Foundation of the Russian museum.
3. The First World War and promise of the revolution.
4. Ideas, ideas, ideas. The new faces. Punin and his role among them.
5. Private Life. Marriage and infidelity.
PART IV: THE DAWN OF NEW HOPES.
THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND THE SEARCH FOR THE NEW ART.
1. The October Revolution.
2. The Proletarian Art enigma.
3. The fight against old art.
4. The saga of the statues.
5. Art and the State.
PART V: NO FUTURE FOR THE FUTURISTS?
ATTEMPTS TO EDUCATE THE MASSES.
1. Punin and the State Hermitage Museum.
2. The Art of the Commune.
3. Closure of Art of the Commune and the State’s first limitations of artistic freedom.
PART VI: GATHERING CLOUDS, BUT HIGH HEART
1. Punin’s first arrest and first disillusionments.
2. Anna Akhmatova.
3. Ginkhuk and Tatlin. Punin’s lectures and courses.
PART VII: THE SLOW STRANGULATION OF FREE CULTURE
1. The new rules emerging.
2. Keeping the flame high. Russian Museum exhibitions.
3. Events on the home front. Life in the Fountain House.
PART VIII: THE VICTORY OF SOCIALIST REALISM
1. Punin’s last articles and exhibitions. From avant-garde to Socialist Realism.
PART IX: TIME OF TERROR
1. Hard times. Attack on principles and individuals.
2. The second arrest of Nikolay Punin.
3. Life and work after the arrest. Separation from Akhmatova. The arrival of Martha Golubeva.
PART X: THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
1. Beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Leningrad under siege.
2. Evacuation to Samarkand.
3. Return to the North.
PART XI: THE BROKEN POST-WAR DREAMS
1. The post-war cultural scene.
2. Punin’s dismissal and criticism.
PART XII: BITTER END
1. The final arrest and interrogations.
2. Life and death in the Gulag.
Abbreviations and Notes
Bibliography of published writings of Nikolay Punin
Bibliography
Index
PECOB: Portal on Central Eastern and Balkan Europe - University of Bologna - 117, c.so della Repubblica - Italy
