The Twitter bot bringing you non-stop socialist-era art
Pioneer Control, by Alla Horska, 1952 via Wikiart
22 July 2020
Text:
Paula Erizanu
Uncover Eastern Bloc art from the 1930s to the 1970s with Twitter account @SovietArtBot.
“Podmoskovnaya youth. Ligachevo”
Konstantin Yuon, 1926 pic.twitter.com/u2cd66JI6o— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) May 16, 2020
“Komsomol member (V.M. Terekhova)”
Dmitry Nalbandyan, 1934 pic.twitter.com/QmpT1z9RKw— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) May 26, 2020
Created by American author Vicki Boykis, the automated account spotlights socialist-era images from Wikiart. That includes the likes of Ukrainian artist Tetyana Yablonska, with her painted snapshots of work and play, including farming, hiking, and skiing.
“Bread”
Tetyana Yablonska, 1949 pic.twitter.com/xZzhYsJbgJ— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) May 18, 2020
“Over the Dnipro River”
Tetyana Yablonska, 1954 pic.twitter.com/jFFSzruLOz— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) May 13, 2020
“Before the Start”
Tetyana Yablonska, 1947 pic.twitter.com/ii9p1jTMgf— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) March 27, 2020
The avant-garde is represented by leading artists such as the Georgian David Kakabadze and Hungarian-Romanian Janos Mattis-Teutsch.
“Industrial landscape”
David Kakabadze, 1950 pic.twitter.com/4he5Y9Z5dZ— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) May 29, 2020
“Two Figures”
Janos Mattis-Teutsch, 1930 pic.twitter.com/DWFUCMSqg3— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) June 1, 2020
In addition to artists who reinforced the party lines, the account also features dissident figures such as the Ukrainian “sixtiers” — painters who rejected socialist-realism and opposed the regime. They include artistic couple Viktor Zaretsky and Alla Horska, who was allegedly murdered by the KGB for her human rights activism in the 1960s.
“The Victory Banner. A Sketch for Mosaic in Krasnodon (made in Cooperation with Victor Smirnov and Victor Zaretsky)”
Alla Horska, 1968 pic.twitter.com/k1wPDfgPje— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) October 29, 2018
“Against the Background of Space”
Victor Zaretsky, 1960 pic.twitter.com/AEpT7FzOxz— SovietArtBot (@SovietArtBot) May 29, 2020
Read more
