From Thaw to Meltdown: Soviet Paintings of the 1950s-1980s June 18, 2012

This exhibition examines the themes of industrial work in Soviet painting of the 1950s-'80s. Profound and lasting transformations in society took place after Stalin's death in 1953. The decades following WWII saw a gradual relaxation of the tight ideological restrictions previously imposed by the Communist Party on the minds of Soviet citizens. The recognizably Stalinist painting aesthetic--highly idealized and formulaic--gave way to a more diverse thematic environment. In Soviet museums and galleries, politically loaded depictions of idealized socialist heroes were exhibited side-by-side with candid portraits of laborers taken from ordinary life. The approximately fifty-five works on the Main and Mezzanine levels-drawn from the collection of Raymond and Susan Johnson-exemplify the dramatic range of artistic styles and the evolution of artistic development as the Soviet Union advanced slowly towards oblivion.