Book contents
- Reviews
- The Firebird and the Fox
- The Firebird and the Fox
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Color Plates
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: An Age of Genius
- Part I Emancipation of the Arts (1850–1889)
- 1 Freedom and the Fool
- 2 Desire and Rebellion
- 3 Artists and Subjects
- 4 Anton Chekhov in His Time
- 5 The Writer as Civic Actor
- Part II Politics and the Arts (1890–1916)
- Part III The Bolshevik Revolution and the Arts (1917–1950)
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
3 - Artists and Subjects
from Part I - Emancipation of the Arts (1850–1889)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2019
- Reviews
- The Firebird and the Fox
- The Firebird and the Fox
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Color Plates
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: An Age of Genius
- Part I Emancipation of the Arts (1850–1889)
- 1 Freedom and the Fool
- 2 Desire and Rebellion
- 3 Artists and Subjects
- 4 Anton Chekhov in His Time
- 5 The Writer as Civic Actor
- Part II Politics and the Arts (1890–1916)
- Part III The Bolshevik Revolution and the Arts (1917–1950)
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
With literacy rising but still low, it was through the visual arts that millions of nineteenth-century Russians encountered new thinking about personhood, social relations, and national identity. Artists had been locked into an official hierarchy determined by training and awards, and they enthusiastically joined the emerging free professions. The market heated up as incomes rose and advances in printing made images affordable. Visual culture responded at every level of society. A group of artists who became known as the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki) (because they traveled to exhibit their work) deviated from tradition and took as subjects Russia’s peasants. Illustrated magazines achieved great influence from the 1860s on and also departed from officially promoted traditions, although in ways that differed from those of the Wanderers. Cheap lubok prints brought contemporary themes to the villages and to the urban working poor. Social change irrevocably altered perceptions of the Self and the Other – the faces people saw in their mirrors and their neighbors, relatives, and random passers-by on the street - and innovations in visual culture validated those changing perceptions. The inclusion of the visual arts in the gathering cultural energy propelled further innovation and creative genius in the years ahead.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Firebird and the FoxRussian Culture under Tsars and Bolsheviks, pp. 50 - 65Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019