The All-Russian and Soviet Art Thread

[Royal-Galliano]

Dedicated to Russian and Soviet art, architecture, design, film and fashion and everything alike inspired by them.

NOTICE:
You may discuss politics in terms of how it affected the work of art, but this is not a thread for you to debate communism, or other political topics.

[Royal-Galliano]

some art movie posters im in love with...
i will post more... gotta go now

Незабываемый 1919-й / The Unforgettable Year 1919
(1952)director: Mikheil Chiaureli
Soviet propaganda film in two episodes about Stalin's strong and cruel suppression of the 1919 anti-communist uprising in St. Petersburg, Russia. Stalin (played by Gelovani) and Lenin (played by Molchanov) are shown as heroes who destroyed the efforts of anti-communists led by White Russians with support from "bad" British capitalists headed by Sir Winston Churchill and Lloyd George. The film was leader of the Soviet box office in 1952, albeit after the death of Stalin in 1953, its popularity eventually faded.


КОРАБЛЬ НА МЕЛИ / Ship Aground
artists: Georgi & Vladimir Steinberg

source: flickr.com/photos/pantufla, imdb.com, ru.wikipedia.org

[sethii]

This film is a must see. It's a fantasy tour of the State Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, and shifts between different historical periods. Also the whole film is unique and famous for being shot in one single take with no editing!

Russian Ark
Director Aleksandr Sokurov
2002


[imdb]

trailer (american version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--TDEHizVA

I wish I had seen it at the cinema

[sethii]

Stalker (Сталкер)
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
1979
black+white and colour scenes


[wiki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAo-hg_BC-I

very haunting film set in a kind of post-apocolyptic USSR

___

The central part of the film was shot in a few days at a deserted hydro power plant on the Jägala river near Tallinn, Estonia. (The shot before they enter the zone is an old Flora chemical factory in the center of Tallinn (next to the old Rotermann salt store), some shots from the zone are filmed in Maardu, next to the Iru powerplant and the shot with the gates to the Zone is filmed in Lasnamäe, next to Punane street behind the Idakeskus.) When the team got back to Moscow, they found that all of the film had been improperly developed. The film was shot on experimental Kodak stock with which Soviet laboratories were unfamiliar. There was also speculation that the Soviet authorities deliberately mishandled the stock of the film. Tarkovsky was officially frowned upon by the Soviet authorities, not because of his political stances (Tarkovsky rarely talked about politics), but because his films dealt with issues of spirituality and the quest for God. The USSR was an officially atheistic state, and Tarkovsky's films digressed from this official line, making him suspect. However, his films were relatively popular in the USSR, and he was allowed to continue making films.
[wiki]

[miu_miu]

Tatlin's Tower - The Monument to the Third International

Supposed to be erected in Petrograd/St. Petersburg after the revolution in 1917, as headquarters and monument to Comintern. Symbolic of modernity, a rival to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.



Structure was to be created from industrial materials, steel, iron, glass...A main helix spiralled down 400m and the framework was meant to house three/four suspended structures. The base was a cube, designed for lectures, meetings, would rotate on a central axis once a year. The second level would rotate once a month, the third once a day. A radio tower at the top would be used for news bulletins and propaganda material. This is an example of the desire at this time to show power and strength; though it was intended to be built, the building materials were simply not available in post-Revolution Russia, especially in the context of widespread poverty.

image | wikipedia.org

[miu_miu]

Kazimir Malevich
Black Square

hermitagemuseum.org

[flyingace]

Great film "the russian ark", though I never understood the relation between the narrator and the other guy the diplomat. Why he's the only one who sees him, and why they are there.

This is a great sience fiction film: "Aelita queen of mars" from 1924. Directed by Jacov Protazanov. I love both the setting and the clothes. In the end it has quite the political content, very pro-cummunism as you might imagine.


from thevalve.org and picasaweb.google.com/ajanus

[flyingace]

this is Shostakovich's "portrait of Stalin", the second movement of his 10th symphony. The sound quality could be better, the percussion is somehow anoying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRuyhxsGYU8

[jeepster]

ive got a bunch of 60's soviet posters that my grandpa gave to me from an art exchange and doctoral exchange he did when he was there in the 60's, and i got a few post-revolution communist repro posters from an exhibit that i went to some time ago. will snap pics very soon. this stuff is some of my favorite.

[sister vladapeg]

St. Basil's as seen from Red Square. 16th century. 7 spires in all. Cannot see more than 5 from any one place. Personal collection (the pic, not the church).

[Royal-Galliano]

i adore shostakovich,
thanks for posting flyingace

some soviet brutalist architecture


Polytechnic University (Minsk, Belarus, 1981)


Wedding Palace (Tbilisi, Georgia, 1985)


“Roads Ministry” (Tbilisi, Georgia, 1975)


“Soviet Palace” (Kalinigrad, Russia, 1975)


“Druzhba Holiday Center Hall” (Yalta, Ukraine, 1984)

source: pingmag.jp

[sister vladapeg]

Royal, thanks for starting this thread. Many interesting posts already. And I have lots of both Soviet and Tsarist era items if you are interested. Mostly art and architecture of Moscow and St. Petersburg (did someone say Leningrad?), the places I have visited.
Let me know if you want my personal pics of this. Will be happy to post more.
Also have pics of Natasha Poly nekkid. Just kidding (then again....).
Love you for starting this, Royal.

[espritDEcouture]

I am so excited for this thread!

[flipcalendar]

I'm so glad this thread exists! Yay!!

El Lissitzky's The Constructor:
(I had read about it in a book on Constructivism and I don't have the exact excerpt about this piece but I remembered that I rather liked it; it said that the photomontage is a self-portrait of Lizzitzky with a perfect circle, demonstrating the power of the human mind...or something to that extent?)


wikipedia

[seanutbutter]

Here's two Soviet posters I've always liked. I'm not sure of the history behind them, even though I once read it, but maybe someone else will know.

The first poster says "no"; the second, "do not speak."


nytimes.com, secondthoughts.typepad.com