The Role of Printed Media in Forming National Identity in Russia and Britain

Joint conference with The Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre (CCRAC), Yaroslavl State University, and Moscow State University
12-13 September 2016
The Department of History, Yaroslavl State University, Yaroslavl, Russia

Printed media was arguably the most important form of communication for progressive literature and visual arts both in Russia and Britain in the first half of the 20th century, but also exerted powerful influence from the 18th century onwards. This two-day conference will draw together an international line-up of experts from Cambridge, London, Moscow and Yaroslavl to focus on printed media in a range of contexts, including fine art prints, posters, journals and magazines.

The conference will include monographic, thematic and problem-oriented papers on printed media published in Russia and abroad from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. Encompassing an interdisciplinary perspective, diverse methodological approaches and detailed case studies, these will examine printed media as a discursive space of communication, as a gesamtkunstwerk, and as a historical document. As recent scholarship positions Russian art in an international context, a particular aim is to explore the relationships between local contexts and international networks. Special attention will also be paid to the role of printed media in Imperial and Soviet propaganda, and to the complex nature of national/local versus international/cosmopolitan. Collectively, the papers aim to expand our understanding of printed media as a vital and often problematic stimulant in cultural and aesthetic debate.

CCRAC is extremely grateful for the kind support of the IN ARTIBUS foundation and Yaroslavl State University.

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Conference Photos

List of Participants and Paper Titles:

Yaroslavl:

Dr Denis Karpov (Yaroslavl State University), Pushkin Festival in 1899 in Yaroslavl

Dr Mikhail Kerbikov (Yaroslavl State Museum), The Library of Theological Seminary as a crossroad of cultures. About the collection of Gothic books from Yaroslavl State Museum

Dr V. Kulikov (Yaroslavl State University), Exhibitions of Russian art in Great Britain 1900-1914

Dr A. Uriadov (Yaroslavl State University), ‘Exhibition activities of Russian émigré circles in interwar Europe’

Moscow State University

Dr A. Salienko (Moscow State University), Proletarian art in search of identity in the Soviet press of the 1920s.

Prof. V. Sedov (Moscow State University), ‘Architectural criticism and theory and the Russian style movement in 1940 — the case of A.G. Mordvinov’

A. Kharitonov (Moscow State University), Russia at the first international exhibitions, through the eyes of Russian observers.

Dr S. Khachaturov (Moscow State University), “Gothic” in Russian and British literature of the end of 18th century: affinities and differences.

CCRAC

Dr Rosalind P. Blakesley (University of Cambridge), Picturing Russia in ‘The Studio’ Magazine.

Natalia Budanova (Courtauld Institute of Art), Graphic cycles by Maria Siniakova within the context of Russian patriotic culture of the Great War.

Dr Louise Hardiman (University of Oxford),  Alfred Maskell’s “Russian Art and Art Objects” (1884): Russia and the South Kensington Museum.

Dr Nicola Kozicharow (University of Cambridge), Russian Émigré Identity and the Cartoons of MAD (Mikhail Drizo) in ‘Russia Illustrated’

Dr Galina Mardilovich (Independent Scholar), The Making of a Russian ‘Arts Bulletin’

Dr Maria Mileeva (Courtauld Institute of Art), Debating Socialist Realism in the Soviet press during the 1930s’

Dr Natalia Murray (Courtauld Institute of Art), ‘Art of the Commune’ and the quest for the new art in post-revolutionary Russia’.

Dr Natalia Sidlina (Tate Modern), Red Star over Russia: the David King collection – shaping the image of Russian and Soviet visual cultures

in artibus

yaroslavl