Tag: new york

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Stalin by Picasso (or Portrait of a Woman with Moustache)

The death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on 5 March 1953 marked the end of the most violent and wretched years in the history of the USSR. As his iron grip on the lives of millions of Soviet citizens was loosened, his successor Nikita Khrushchev ushered in a period of De-Stalinization. Soon after Stalin’s death, the French poet Louis Aragon invited fellow communist Pablo Picasso … Continue reading Stalin by Picasso (or Portrait of a Woman with Moustache)

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Recommended Read: How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art

Serge Guilbaut. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom and the Cold War. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. In the thirty years since it was first published, Serge Guilbaut’s account of how Cold War ideology shaped the visual arts still stands as the best book in its field. French-born Guilbaut begins his tale in Paris … Continue reading Recommended Read: How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art

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Soviet Realism Comes to New York

54 years ago this week the Soviet Exhibition of Science, Technology and Culture opened in Midtown Manhattan. Over the course of 6 weeks in the summer of 1959, more than a million Americans streamed into the New York Coliseum exhibition centre to gawp at all things Soviet: from automobiles and a full-scale replica of Sputnik III to examples of women’s fashion and displays on the … Continue reading Soviet Realism Comes to New York

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