The Currier Gallery of Art From Gulag to Glasnost:Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union 1956 - 1986 March 17 - June 10 Three-Part Lecture Series : "An.

The Currier Gallery of ArtFrom Gulag to Glasnost:Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union 1956 - 1986

March 17 - June 10

Three-Part Lecture Series :

"An Intimate Portrait of the Soviet Union: A

Political and Cultural View"

This three-part lecture series offered in conjunction with the Educational Continuum at New Hampshire College will explore the complex web of Russian culture as evidenced in its history, traditions, religions, and political systems.

Join Lyra Riabov of the New Hampshire College faculty as she examines the social and political environment in the Soviet Union to which the non-conformist artists responded. Professor Riabov will discuss the role of avant-garde art in the human rights movement in the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union. Having lived in Russia until 1982, Lyra will also share her personal stories and memories of the artists and society of the era examined in From Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union 1956-1986.

An Intimate Portrait of the Soviet Union: A Political

and Cultural View

Lyra RiabovAssociate Professor

Southern New Hampshire University

Art as a Mirror of the Russian /Soviet Society

A Cultural & Historical Overview

Lecture 1

April 5, 2001 Lyra Riabov

Associate Professor

Southern New Hampshire University

11th – 18th Centuries

• Christianity

• Icons

• Painters

• Schools

• Architecture

• Folk Art

•

Theophanes the Greek c. 1330 - c.1410

Andrei Rublev c.1370 - c. 1430

Dionisii or Dionysius c. 1440 - c. 1510

Kiev School

Novgorod School

Moscow School

Pskov School

The Battle Between the Novgorodians

and the Suzdalians Novgorod School,

circa 1450-1475

Russian Enamels Victor Vasnetsov (Finift) Ivan the Terrible

Church of Intercession-on-Nerl12th Century

Rostov Kremlin 17th Century

Northern Russian Architecture, 17th Century, Kizhi

Russian Architecture, 16th - 18th Centuries

PETER THE GREAT 1672-1725

CATHERINE THE GREAT 1729-1796

St. Petersburg & Peterhof, 18th - 19th Centuries

Palaces of St. Petersburg, 18th - 19th Centuries

Orest Kiprensky (1782-1836)

Alexander Pushkin Evgraf Davydov

Argunov: Portrait of a Peasant Woman in Russian Costume (1784)

Nikolai Alexeev: A Young Girl in Russian Costume (1837)

Karl Brullov (1799-1852)

Self-portrait & The Last Day Of Pompeii (Detail)

Ivan Kramskoy (1837-1887)

Leo Tolstoy Christ in the Wilderness

Nikolai Ge (1831-1894)What is Truth? Peter is Interrogating his Son Alexis

Ilya Repin (1844-1930)

Aivazovsky, Savrasov, Arkhipov, Kuindzhi, Kustodiev (19th – 20th Centuries)

Serov, Levitan, Miasoedov 19th – 20th Centuries

Andrei Ryabushkin (1861-1904)

Seventeenth Century Women in Church (1899)Russian Dance (1902)

Alexander Benois

Stage Design for "Petrushka" (1911)

Nathan Altman: Portrait of Anna Akhmatova (1914)

Zinaida Serebryakova: Self-portrait at the Dressing Table (1909)

Nathan Altman (1920) Olga Rozanova (1915)

Russian Art of the Early 20th Century

Sergei Gerasimov Arkady RylovMaster of the Land (1918) Sunset (1917)

Mark Chagall The Artist's Father (1914) Self-portrait The Red Jew (1915)

Mark Chagall Window in a Dacha (1915) Wedding (1910)

Natalia Goncharova

Harvest (late 1900)

Dancing Peasants (1911)

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

Bathing the Red Horse (1912) Mikula Selyaninovich (1918)

Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947)

Mikula Selyaninovich (1909)

Vasily Kandinsky (1844-1944)

The Volga Song Composition

•1923

Vladimir Lebedev (1920s)

Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935)

An Englishman in Moscow

PETROV- VODKIN

Herring (1918)

“Defend Petrograd” (1918)“Comrade Lenin Sweeps the Globe Clean” (1920)

“The Illiterate” (1920) “March 8, Women's Emancipation” (1920)

"Mothers of the World“(1958); "Lenin's Dreams" (1961)

“Army" (1982); "Army and People" (1988)

Kuzma Petrov-VodkinThe Year 1918 in Petrograd (1920)

Discussion of the Cultural and Artistic

Milieu of 1950s-1980s in the USSR

A Cultural & Political OverviewLecture 2

April 12, 2001 Lyra Riabov

Associate ProfessorSouthern New Hampshire University

Nathan Altman: Portrait of Anna Akhmatova (1914)

Intensity of Spiritual life in Leningrad

1970-1982

A Personal View

Lecture 3 Lyra Riabov

Associate Professor

Southern New Hampshire University

New Hampshire Colleges in RUSSIA

1965-1982

New Hampshire College Meets Russia in1970

Although I came from Leningrad (St.Petersburg), USSR to the USA and to NHC in 1982, my story and the relationship with the college, its faculty and students had begun more than 10 years earlier.

Few people in our college community know about brave endeavors of our faculty, their family members, and students who went to the USSR in 1970s and early 1980s to get a first hand experience of the life in the Communist Russia. They met with their Soviet colleagues, shared their thoughts, had fun, and came very close with the Human Rights movement of that time in the USSR.

The New York Times August 16,1965

“An experiment that may eventually involve an annual exchange of thousands of Americans and Soviet citizens began in the early hours yesterday. A group of 140 Americans representing a cross section of American society took a plane for Moscow to spend three weeks in the Soviet Union with their counterparts in their professions and trades… The Citizens Exchange Corp, a nonprofit foundation was organized by Stephen D. James, a writer from the Bronx, who believed that only through knowing each other could the Americans and Soviet people avoid a disastrous collision.”

The Union Leader August 9,1965

“Over the years, this newspaper made it abundantly clear that we look with skepticism and considerable distaste on so-called cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union…

The tourists will not be permitted to look behind the scenes and the natives cannot be expected to bare their souls to complete strangers. Thus the tourists, who like to think of themselves… as good-will ambassadors – will not be permitted to assess… these unfortunate people.”

The Manchester Area Participants

1. Mervin Weston of Bedford

2. Mr./Mrs. Philip Caplain of Bedford

3. Miss Sandra Wilcher

4. Prof./Mrs. John Windhausen of St. Anselm College

5. Mr./Mrs. Bill Green and son

6. Dr. John W. Parfitt

7. Mr. Gordon of Brookline, Mass.

“You are about to take part in one of the most meaningful journeys of our lifetime. Those exchangees who follow us will be better prepared by our experiences; however, we will have been the pioneers. As you know, our exchange is unique in that its purpose is to bring people together on a scale so massive that it will promote understanding and in turn improve the climate for disarmament.” July 2 1965, Mr. David Fleischmann, Executive Secretary of Citizens Exchange Corp.

The Pioneers

Following that pioneer trip, Prof. John Windhausen of St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH would bring students and educators to the Soviet Union almost every year.

What Was the Time?

• 1961 – Berlin Wall was built

• 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis

• 1962 – 1975 – Viet Nam War

Person-to-Person Tours

Academic Program

In 1976 NHC and St. Anselm College have developed an academic program for Person-to- Person Tours, in conjunction with International Faculty Associates. Participants of those study groups as well as many other Americans visited me in my home in Leningrad, met with my students, exchanged ideas, and built long lasting friendships.

Prof. John Windhausen, American & Russian Friends

at Lyra’s Home in Leningrad.

Prof. John Windhausen and the Participants of the First Groups Meet Lyra and her Friends in Leningrad

(1969-1970)

Dr. James Grace, Academic Dean, and NHC Students are Preparing for the First Trip to

Russia (1976)

Flight to Russia (1978)

Lyra, her twin daughters, and her students are waiting for the arrival of the NHC friends

(Leningrad, 1976)

Jim Grace and John Windhausen atLyra’s Home in Leningrad (1976)

Dr. Jim Grace and Rabbi Arthur Star meet in Lyra’s home with her students.(1970s).

NHC group at Lyra’s Home in Leningrad, 1978

Chris Toy, a Member of the NHC Group, is in Moscow (1976)

NHC group visits a Soviet School

NHC Students and Soviet Pioneers are in a Moscow Street

NHC groups visit Smolny and Battleship Aurora in Leningrad, and Cosmos Pavilion in Moscow.

Art Exhibition in Manezh

Leningrad, 1971. Photo by Vlad Ovchinnikov

Evgenii Rukhin1943-1976

Ernst Neizvestny (b. 1925) "Head"

- Confrontation with Khrushchev (1962), - The peak of prominence in the 1960s,- Emigrated in 1976.

Anatolii Kaplan (1902-1980) "Les Fiancés" - Portrayed the traditions of Jewish people.

Igor Spadaruck, “Portrait of G. Mikhailov”

Lyra at the Chemiakin Exhibition at Georgii Mikhailov’s Apartment in St.

Petersburg in 1978

Alexander Issachev

Prophet (1976) Apostle Peter (1977)

Irena Baskina & Lyra

St. Petersburg, 1978 Paris, 1986 Paris, 2000

Rabbi Star at Lyra’s Home

Discussions in Lyra’s Home

Lyra’s House in LeningradMore than 2000 people met in this house during 1970s. They studied English, celebrated

religious holidays, exchanged information and ideas,supported each other and those who were rejected by the communist society and its government. Here they felt free and could share their dreams and aspirations. Here they planed their future in the pursuit of happiness which most of

them found either abroad or later in New Russia.