Agent of Change: Ukrainian Art Between R

This course examines Ukrainian visual art at the forefront of geopolitical and social change from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Foundational theories of the avant-garde, nonconformist art, and dissident culture will be studied alongside some of the most celebrated and influential examples of innovative and radical art from the region. We will begin with nineteenth-century paintings of Ukrainian subjects and the work of Ukrainian-born artists in the Russian Empire before turning to the Soviet period. Topics will include artists' responses to the Bolshevik Revolution, the founding of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, and the eventual decline of the avant-garde paradigm. Officially sanctioned Socialist Realist art will be examined alongside its specifically Ukrainian dimensions. The course will also explore the emergence of unofficial culture, the revival of avant-garde practices during the Khrushchev era, and the dissident movement in Ukraine. Finally, we will study the rise of contemporary Ukrainian art during Gorbachev's perestroika, its development after independence, and its responses to the Orange Revolution, the Euromaidan Revolution, and the Russian-Ukrainian War.

The class is offered for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Knowledge of Russian or Ukrainian is not required.