Art
Soviet Art
ONE of the most remarkable. features of the art of the Soviet Union during the last few years is the extreme unevenness of its manifestations in different forms. In some arts it has been triumphant, in others its achievement is almost negligible, and in some cases the works produced now arc considerably less attractive than those of ten years ago.
The new survey of Soviet art published in the special autumn number of the Studio* gives a very fair idea of the present situation. It is at once evident from a glance through the book that the greatest advances have been made in those arts which are mainly . communal in their appeal. The achievement of the cinema cannot be more than indicated by the series of stills reproduced, but they are enough to remind us that ever since the days of Potemkin and Mother the Russian cinema has produneedaeaosntstthe equal entirely personal and original and at le stream anything
films
tfihling that we have to show in the west. This situation is natural in a Socialist state where arts of wide appeal must be of the greatest importance, and it is only to be expected that in the Theatre something of the same inventiveness should appear. This has also been the ease, and here again the Studio volume gives a taste at any rate of the best that has been done.
In the visual arts nreldteeturehas, architectso f course, taken have n great first
place, and in certain ways Russian
achievements to their credit. The best blocks of living houses in Moscow are extremely impressive, but it is not obvious that they are better than similar buildings produced since the War in Germany, by which they were largely influenced. To judge from photographs the House of Projects at Kharkov is much the greatest single creation of the period. The schemes for the complete reconstruction of Moscow are a model of town planning, but from the specimens of .buildings at present being put up there it is doubtful whether individual details will be as good as the general scheme. The return to a rather uninteresting use of the classical orders seems regrettable, and, though it is difficult to judge from the designs, the projected Palace. of the Soviets threatens to. look more like a giant Selfridge's wedding cake than a worthy monument to the October Revolution. The new Metro, to which so much Publieity, has been given, is perfect in . comfort . and chic and one almost expects a
efficiency, but it has a Parisian top-hat to emerge from its doors. •
However in passing judgement on these achievements it must be remembered that the guiding principle of Soviet art development at the present time is Lenin's remark : " All the culture left by capitalism must be taken and Socialism built with it. All science, technology, all knowledge and art must be taken." This explains particularly the situation in the visual arts in which pre-revolutionary Russia left only the most horrible of traditions to its Socialist successors. In painting and architecture, therefore, Soviet artists are now trying to absorb all that is useful in western culture as a prelude to developing a real style appropriate to Socialist conditions. The process is instructive and necessary, but in general the resulting products are not -particularly attractive to western minds. But it is at any rate worth noting that the tendency is strictly towards absorbing the realistic elements of western art, neglecting all experiments in abstraction. In the 'easel picture, therefore, nothing very original has been produced, and the question arises why the Soviet Union should bother itself so much about a form of art which is essentially bourgeois and based on the idea of private owner- ship. Perhaps the process, is only one of training, and it ' would in any case be natural to suppose that the great achieve-. ments of Socialist. art would be in decorative painting on a large scale--as was the case when painting was last a com- munal art, in the Middle Ages, and as is beginning to be the ease in America. But that is certainly for the Mare ; at present there arc no signs of a great decorative painter in Russia, and even the opportunity provided by the Metro, above mediocrity. So far the
failed to provoke anything best work produced in the visual arts is in book illustration, and above all in the poster, where propaganda and technical
ingenuity are happily combined. ANTHONY MU NT.
* Art in the U.S.S.R. Edited by C. G. Holme. (Studio. Os.)
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