Art and Politics in the Russian Revolution Era

Introduction: Art and Politics Intertwined

Politics and art have gone hand-in-hand from the earliest times. Politics has had an impact on art, and artists have made an impact on political structure. During times of unrest especially, art becomes a political message — serving as a motivational or propaganda tool. The decades prior to and immediately following the Russian Revolution illustrate how art relates to social circumstances, and vice versa. Artists' works played a critical role at this time in providing information about changing philosophies and in helping construct a new society.

Russian Realism and the Reform Era of the 1860s

Artists such as Ivan Kramskoy were involved with the ideological structure that represented Russian realism in the 1860s, a decade of reform and renovation. This liberal stage of the movement, reflecting the intelligentsia's efforts to free individual thought and public activity from bureaucratic controls, lasted through the mid-1880s. Artists, with their decidedly inferior status in society's estimation — and in their own — were overwhelmed by the insistent demands of radicals that they cease being quiet supporters of the state and instead contribute their share to political reform. Kramskoy lectured his peers on the moral and civic role of art, telling them that "it was essential not only to draw and paint well but also to convey… thought clearly and expressively," and that pictures had to be "wise" and "educational" as well as "beautiful" (Valkenier, 1975, p. 256).

Kramskoy's painting Christ in the Desert did not exactly portray the revolution, but it dealt with the choice between good and evil that people were forced to confront at that time. Times of revolution occur when there is a moral struggle and citizens must make a decision. Kramskoy interpreted Christ's ordeal in the desert — his temptation by Satan — as representative of the fundamental fight against the dark side of human nature. There was such public controversy over whether this Christ was meant to represent a determined person ready to act or a disillusioned and exhausted man that Kramskoy eventually explained the picture symbolized the moral problem everyone faces at a decisive moment in life: whether to serve an ideal, "not to recede an inch before evil," or to succumb to petty interests. The figure of Christ communicates to the viewer the reality of this inner, moral decision that all people must make (ibid).

Ilia Repin and Revolutionary Witness

Ilia Repin, who studied under Kramskoy, was one of the best-known and most thoroughly documented Russian nineteenth-century artists of the revolutionary period (Millon and Nochlin, 1980). He was a painter and illustrator, a master draftsman, etcher, and lithographer, as well as a teacher of considerable influence whose students made great strides in transforming the art of future generations. Repin studied at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and traveled extensively throughout Europe and Russia.

In the context of the 1917 Revolution, one of his better-known works is They Did Not Expect Him, painted during the period of arrests following the assassination of the tsar. Repin described that time: "What a time of nightmare that was… pure horror… and I remember the placards bearing the inscription 'regicide' that hung on their chests" (ibid, p. 110). He stated that his intention was to place his art at the service of the "best" element in Russia — those people who, through their "disinterested and heroic actions," sought to bring the most vital elements to their country.

He never relented on his beliefs. When he turned 80 and his birthday was commemorated, Repin took the tribute as vindication of his struggle against alien influences. He assured his admirers in Leningrad that the "futurist degeneration" — referring to the prominent position leftists had assumed in art after the Revolution — was bound to disappear and that "genuine art" would eventually triumph. He later wrote that the tribute reminded him of the "nation-wide" support he had received in 1913 in his fight against the "reds" (Valkenier, 1978, p. 28).

References

Birnholz, A. The Russian Avant-Garde and the Russian Tradition. Art Journal, 32(2).

Millon, H. A., and Nochlin, L. (1980). Art and Architecture in the Service of Politics. Cambridge: MIT.

Valkenier, E. K. (1975). The Peredvizhniki and the Spirit of the 1860s. Russian Review. p. 256.

Valkenier, E. K. (1978). Politics in Russian Art: The Case of Repin. Russian Review. p. 28.

Levinger, E. (1989). Art and Mathematics in the Thought of El Lissitzky: His Relationship to Suprematism and Constructivism. Leonardo, 22(2), 227–236.