Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2111-08-64
Title |
Tailoring American Architecture for Soviet Audience in 1965: “Modern architecture. U.S.A.” Exposition at Moma and ‘Arhitektura Ssha’ Traveling Exhibition (USSR) |
Author |
Bass, Vadim G. |
email |
bass@eu.spb.ru |
About author |
Bass, Vadim Grigorievich — Ph. D., associate professor. European University at St. Petersburg, Gagarinskaya ul., 6/1А 191187 St. Petersburg. Russian Federation. ORCID: 0000-0003-4725-6356 |
In the section |
International Art in the 20th and 21st Centuries |
DOI | 10.18688/aa2111-08-64 |
Year |
2021 |
Volume |
11 |
Pages |
795–808 |
Type of article |
RAR |
Index UDK |
72.036 |
Index BBK |
85.113 |
Abstract |
The article examines Soviet-American architectural relations on the example of “Arhitektura SShA (Architecture of the USA)” exhibition, displayed in Leningrad, Moscow, and Minsk in 1965. The show played a critical role in familiarization of the Soviet public and builders with American architecture and making it fashionable in the USSR. ‘Arhitektura SShA’ was a traveling exhibition, commissioned by USIA to Arthur Drexler, the curator of MoMA architectural department. At the same time, in May 1965, he launched an exhibition in MoMA entitled ‘Modern architecture. U.S.A.’ The article is based on the materials from the MoMA archive, including documents (such as curator’s correspondence and draft programs) illustrating the process of preparation of the show, the selection of the exhibits, the work on the content, design and production. The main question of the research has been the following: what was the difference between the image of the American architecture proposed for the audience in the USSR and the USA? What edifices, building types, formal and stylistic tendencies did the curator focus on? |
Keywords |
|
Reference |
Bass, Vadim G. Tailoring American Architecture for Soviet Audience in 1965: “Modern architecture. U.S.A.” Exposition at Moma and ‘Arhitektura Ssha’ Traveling Exhibition (USSR). Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 11. Eds A. V. Zakharova, S. V. Maltseva, E. Iu. Staniukovich-Denisova. — St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Univ. Press, 2021, pp. 795–808. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2111-08-64
|
|
Full text version of the article |
Article language |
russian |
Bibliography |
- Anderson R. USA/USSR: Architecture and War. Grey Room, 2009, vol. 34, pp. 80–103.
- Avramov K. Soviet America: Popular Responses to the United States in Post-World War II Soviet Union, Ph. D. Thesis. Lawrence, University of Kansas, 2012. 353 p.
- Chunikhin K. The Representation of American Visual Art in the USSR during the Cold War (1950s to the late 1960s), Ph. D. Thesis. Bremen, Jacobs University, 2016. 235 p.
- Cohen J.-L. Building a New New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture. New Haven, London, Yale University Press Publ., 2020. 543 p.
- Drexler A. Modern Architecture U.S.A. Presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. New York, The Museum of Modern Art Publ., 1965. 39 p.
- Hines Th. Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art: The Arthur Drexler Years, 1951–1986. Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute Publ., 2019. 196 p.
- Hristiani A. M. Noveishaia arkhitektura SShA (1945–1960) (The Newest Architecture of the USA (1945–1960)). Moscow, Gosstroiizdat Publ., 1963. 264 p. (in Russian).
- Huxtable A. L. On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change. New York, Walker & Company Publ., 2010. 497 p.
- Lesser W. You Say to Brick. The Life of Louis Kahn. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publ., 2017. 397 p.
- Mikkonen S. Soviet-American Art Exchanges during the Thaw: From Bold Openings to Hasty Retreats. Proceedings of the Art Museum of Estonia, 2013, no. 3 (8), pp. 57–76.
- Minosh P.; Wright H. P. Built in USA: Post-War Architecture – Midcentury Architecture as a Vehicle for American Foreign Policy. Histories of Postwar Architecture, 2019, no. 4, pp. 163–183.
- Scully V. Modern Architecture and Other Essays. Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press Publ., 2005. 400 p.
- Shmakov S. P. The Emotional Functionalism? On The Design and Construction of the New Buildings of V. I. Ulianov (Lenin) Leningrad Institute of Electrotechnics. Stroitel’stvo i arkhitektura Leningrada (Construction and Architecture of Leningrad), 1977, no. 4, pp. 9–13 (in Russian).
- Tolvaisas T. Cold War “Bridge-Building”. U.S. Exchange Exhibits and Their Reception in the Soviet Union, 1959–1967. Journal of Cold War Studies, 2010, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 3–31.
- Yakushenko O. V. “The Architecture of the USA” Exhibition in the Soviet Union of the Cold War Era: The Experience of Communicative Analysis. Quaestio Rossica, 2015, no. 3, pp. 141–157 (in Russian).
- Yakushenko O. Soviet Architecture and the West: The Discovery and Assimilation of Western Narratives and Practices in Soviet Architecture in the Late 1950s–1960s. Laboratorium, 2016, no. 2 (8), pp. 76–102 (in Russian).
|