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Nonconformist Soviet art at the Zimmerli Museum
Archived article from Sep 20, 2004
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum is presenting the exhibition “Beyond Memory: Soviet Nonconformist Photography and Photo-Related Works of Art,” which documents uses of photography within Soviet dissident culture between the mid-1950s and late 1980s.
The exhibit, which opened Sept. 18 and runs through Nov. 28, is curated by Diane Neumaier, a professor of art at Mason Gross School of the Arts and an artist whose conceptually-based photography has been exhibited internationally.
“The exhibition represents a major contribution to the history of photography while providing a more intimate look into Soviet life than is offered by other art forms,” said Gregory Perry, the museum’s director.
Neumaier first visited the Soviet Union in 1991 as an exchange artist, a few months before its dissolution. At that time, Soviet artists were eager to share their work and engage in intense conversations around kitchen tables over tea and vodka. That initial experience, combined with her subsequent visits, profoundly affected her practice and understanding of photography.
The exhibit is divided eight sections, which offer a way to understand the period. They include: Official Soviet Photography; Everyday Life; Landscapes and Urbanscapes, Still Lifes and Home Life; Beyond Memory; The Nude and The Body; Moscow Conceptualism; Portraits of the Artists and From Photography. An accompanying publication edited by Neumaier features 17 new essays and more than three hundred illustrations.
This was a period when industrial photographic materials were rare, and Soviet underground artists were working with exotic and valuable materials. While most of the images are black and white photographs, many are conceptually-based, graphically manipulated or are other mediums, such as photo-silkscreen, photolithography, or photorealist painting.
In addition to the exhibition, the museum will offer an international symposium on Soviet nonconformist photography Saturday, Oct. 23. The daylong event will gather noted authorities in the field to explore the development of Soviet unofficial photography during this period. (Pre-registration is required: 2-7237, ext. 615.)
The Zimmerli Art Museum is located at 71 Hamilton Street on the College Avenue campus. For more information, call 2-7237, ext. 610 or visit www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu.
Return to the Sep 20, 2004 issue
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