Introduction

Boris Groys and the total art of Stalinism

“…Second, the transition from the Russian Avant-Garde in the 1920s to Socialist Realism was regarded as the crushing of the true, contemporary revolutionary art of the Avant-Garde by ‘Stalin’s conservative and despotic regime and the propagation of a “backward art” in the spirit of nineteenth century realism’. Therefore, this cultural shift from Avant-Garde art to Socialist Realism was seen as reflecting ‘the low cultural levels of the broad Soviet masses and Party leadership’ (Ioffe and White, 2012: 250). In this regard, the West barely considered Socialist Realism in aesthetic terms, because it always ‘dismissed Stalinist culture as kitsch or mere political propaganda without aesthetic value’ (Groys, 2000: 3).…”

“…In this regard, the West barely considered Socialist Realism in aesthetic terms, because it always ‘dismissed Stalinist culture as kitsch or mere political propaganda without aesthetic value’ (Groys, 2000: 3). In short, in the West, Socialist Realist art ‘was never seriously regarded as art’; rather, it was put in the position of an ‘outsider art’ (Ioffe and White, 2012: 253).…”

“…The purpose of its ‘fiction’ was to present Ziablov as an ‘eighteenth century artist and simple serf who began painting abstract art in this early period’ (Groys, 2010: 14). Second came Moscow Conceptualism, which aimed at ‘making possible a new approach to Socialist Realism as a purely aesthetic phenomenon, just as the approach of pop art to commercial art stimulated its study as art’ (Ioffe and White, 2012: 254).…”

“…In considering how to speak for Soviet art, Groys chose two approaches. On the one hand, Groys followed the theoretical strategies that Sots-Art scholars started, which aimed at ‘aestheticizing the achievements of Socialist Realism within the framework of the Sots Art movement’ (Ioffe and White, 2012: 33). On the other hand, Groys set out to rewrite the cultural transition from the Russian Avant-Garde to Socialist Realism and from Socialist Realism to Soviet Sots-Art.…”

“…In relation to the ‘new individual’, Socialist Realism ‘put into effect practically all the fundamental watchwords of the avant-garde’:It [Socialist Realism] united the artists and gave them a single purpose, erased the dividing line between high and utilization art and between political content and purely artistic decisions, created a single and easily realizable style, liberated the artist from the service of the consumer and his individual tastes and from the requirement to be original, became part of the common cause of the people, and set itself not to reflect reality but to project a new and better reality. (Ioffe and White, 2012: 262)By following the inherent laws of the artistic development of the Avant-Garde, Socialist Realism did not result in a fundamental distortion of the aims of the Avant-Garde. On the contrary, Socialist Realism overcame ‘the concrete, historically determined aesthetic of the avant-garde’.…”