DUE TO ONGOING CONCERNS ABOUT PUBLIC GATHERINGS DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, THE ORGANISERS AND PUSHKIN HOUSE HAVE TAKEN THE DECISION TO POSTPONE THE EVENT UNTIL THE AUTUMN. WE WILL BE ANNOUNCING NEW DATES SOON.
What is the course about?
This weekend art history study day covers the period from in Russian art from the mid-nineteenth century through to 1917.
Whilst the eighteenth century saw the westernisation of Russia, the nineteenth ushered in a series of artistic movements that drew on Russian folklore, national tradition, and craft. By 1870, the Peredvizhniki or 'Wanderers' were actively challenging the Academy and striving for social change and realism in painting. Explore their innovations through artists like Ilya Repin, Alexei Savrasov, and Fyodor Vasilyev and then trace how they themselves were superseded in 1898 by the new Mir iskusstva 'World of Art'. The latter included Mikhail Vrubel, Nesterov, Levitan, and Diaghilev and drew on international movements like Art Nouveau and Rococo artists like Watteau.
The years prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution saw some of the most avant-garde art practices in Europe. Key patrons like Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov built collections and artists were divided between following the European path or asserting an art with a more Russian aesthetic. Practitioners included Natalia Goncharova, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Malevich, creator of Suprematism and the infamous ‘Black Square.’
What will we cover?
• The art of the Academy; artists who opposed it such as the Peredvizhniki; key works
• The Mir iskusstva and their links to western art movements
• Avant-garde artists, patrons, and movements 1900 to 1917 including Cubo-Futurism, Februarism, Malevich, Knave of Diamonds, Rayonism, abstraction, Goncharova, Chagall, Kandinsky.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to:
• Describe how the politics of Russia from the mid C19th to 1917 affected the production of art
• Recognise the works of key artists and differentiate between movements/styles such as Mir iskusstva and Suprematism
• Participate in discussions around key works of art in relation to theories of avant-gardism.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is suitable for all levels.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information, and will be invited to take part in group discussion.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught with slide presentations and group discussions.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You might wish to bring a notebook. You might wish to buy some of the books on any reading list given out in class.
Dr Marie-Anne Mancio trained as an artist before gaining a D.Phil. from the University of Sussex for her thesis ‘Maps for Wayward Performers: feminist readings of contemporary live art practice in Britain’. She is an accredited NADFAS lecturer and has lectured on art, architecture, and cultural studies for Tate Modern, The Course, Art in London, London Art Studies, and the London Art Salon. She is an accredited Art Society lecturer. Fluent in Italian and French, she lectures on City Lit’s art history study trips abroad. She has led trips to Venice, Florence, Rome, Perugia, Assisi, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, and St. Petersburg. Since attaining an MPhil (Distinction) in Creative Writing from Glasgow University, her art practice has become primarily text-based, including a novel about four migrant women in antebellum America: ‘Whorticulture’.
TICKETS
Tickets are available to purchase from the City Lit website. This workshop will take place in Pushkin House.