essay

Choosing a particular period from 1800 to the present, in what ways has art or design responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period?

In October 1917 the Bolshevik party over threw the Russian Provisional Government, this was the beginning of Communism in Russia, a new and revolutionary period of Russian history.
When Nicholas II came to the Russian throne, he never wanted to be Tsar, however despite the fact he could have made things a lot easier for himself and his country by creating a constitutional reform he did not, thus making him extremely unpopular with the majority of the population. Social problems at the outbreak of war included bread riots from the failed harvests, uncountable battle losses from the War and chaos on the front line, with soldiers lacking basic necessities including shoes and weapons, a rise of four times more inflation from 1914-1917 and the peasants began to hoard food due to the increased prices, therefore the cities had no food, Russia had a massive amount of man power, however unlike Germany they lacked the industry to equip its soldiers. ‘The real wages of the workers fell about 50 percent from what they had been in 1913. Russia's national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles’[Wikipedia]. The majority of the population blamed these problems on the Government, rather than the war. In February 1917, tsar Nicholas II abdicated from the throne, leaving the Republic Government to control the country. However, like Nicholas II, this government could not solve the problems with the country, and thus in the October of 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Provisional Government. Despite the new union of soviet Socialist Republican’s (USSR), large amounts of the population were not happy and thus civil war broke out. After fear of the ‘white army’ seizing guard of Tsar Nicholas and his family, the Bolsheviks took the whole family and servants down to the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg on the 16th July 1918 and shot them all dead. The civil war continued till 1923, by this time Russia was in a state of ruin. Its economy was in pieces, millions of people had died, disease was rife and food was short. Despite this, society changed. No longer was there an upper and lower class, people were equal, men, women, old, young. Furthermore constructivism was born as ‘Trotsky was in agreement with the Realist position that works without subject matter gave up their capacity to communicate. It was in opposition to the view that this capacity resided solely in subject and motif, and that art reflected society, that Russian Constructivism developed’. [Fer, 1989,p.15] This meant that people now sought realisation in the fact the art was not now created for arts sake, whereas now it was created with a purpose that was functional.
I have decided to look at Arkady Rylov’s Sunset of 1917[Fig 1]. This piece of art work shows a sunset across a river. The colours used are bright and bold (purple, orange, red and yellow) which are very predominant. The picture itself has no functional purpose other than to look ‘nice’, however before the Revolution, artwork was only produced for the upper class members of society for aesthetic appeal. This is evident in this piece of artwork by Rylov, as it is very aesthetically pleasing, however it has no purpose to it, other than show a landscape. I feel this image portrays everything about Russia before the revolution, the fact that this image is very fantasized, with the colours. The upper class at this period of time did live in a fantasy world, they did not understand the hardship and suffering the lower class endured.
I have decided to look at the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky ‘Remember Red Army Barracks Day’ this piece produced in 1920 depicts for illustrations on one poster [Fig 2]. The first illustration shows a man in white with white hair being stabbed in the stomach by a red pole. The second illustration shows a fat man eating a white circle, to me this represents the world, his hand has sharp nails on it too, representing evil. The third illustration depicts a soldier filled in red with a star on its head holding a gun, the soldier has an attacking stance to him and looks big and powerful due to the size of his legs and arms. The fourth illustration shows a red hand holding a blue shirt and in the background there looks like a yellow foot kicking the shirt. In the caption by the side of the poster it states what each illustration is says underneath ‘1.we’ve finished off Russia’s white guards. That’s not enough. 2. The ogre of world capitalism is still alive. 3. That means we still need the red army. 4. And that means we’ve got to help it out- the task is clear’. Art in this period of time has changed significantly with emphasis being put upon communism. The work includes many references to communism with the colour red, the hand, the pole and the soldier, which also has the star on its head, this too is a symbol of communism. It represents how communism had spread across Russia and how art work integrated this into its style. Another response to the changing social and cultural force of this period was the fact that although the majority of Russians did not want the Tsar’s to rule the country and knew that there needed to be change, some did not agree with the ‘red army’ and created the ‘white army’ this although could be represented in these images, to the communists anyone who did not agree with communism was seen as an enemy. There was also now a modernist feel to Mayakovskys work due to the ‘freedom’ of this new Government. This was represented with the sharp edges and lines to the work as demonstrated in the fourth image with the hand grabbing the shirt, the hand has a very sharp edge to it. Alongside this, the bold colours that work together create a confident and loud atmosphere to the work, which demonstrates the new era Russia had come to where everyone was equal and no one had any more than anyone else.
Alongside the opposition which influenced art work of this period there was also a new found freedom of sorts, however not in the form of wealth as in communism everyone was equal therefore nobody could have more money than anyone else. Despite this the Bolsheviks wanted art for the masses therefore artists such as Alexander Rodchenko thrived on creating new and exciting pieces of art. Lilya Brik by Alexander Rodchenko depicts this new found freedom of art for the masses it also demonstrates the change in society [Fig 3]. The image depicts a woman in a round circle ‘calling’ with her hand around her mouth, there is then a triangular shape coming out of the circle with words on it. The predominant colour in the image is red, however the colour green, black and blue are also used. The words say ‘the streets are our brushes, the squares our pallets’. I feel that this image as a whole shows so many things about the changes in Russia one was ‘for artists, the situation of putting one’s convictions, ones vision to the test by a socialist revolution was unprecedented’ (Guerman, 1979 p.8). Firstly all propaganda posters such as El Lissitzky’s work ‘beat the whites with the red wedge’ contain the image of a white circle being pierced by a red triangle. This was one of the symbols of communism that people could relate to. Therefore this is shown in Rodchenko’s work. Furthermore, as communism was meant (ideally) to make every single person equal, the woman in this image is depicted calling the people to begin to create art, however, before the revolution women would not have been placed on a poster such as this as males were seen as more dominant and therefore people would be more likely to do something if a man was telling them ‘prior to 1913, they did not even print literature dealing specifically with women’ [Bobroff, 1974, p540] However this is a prime example of social change in Russia at this time as women were now allowed to do the same jobs as men and could wear more masculine clothes. ‘most Bolsheviks themselves felt that directing particular attention to one segment of the working class would create unnecessary division within it. Until 1917, the Bolsheviks firmly opposed any form of separate organization of women. Believing that the revolution was necessary before anyone, including women, could achieve genuine liberation, they called women workers to fight for socialism ‘hand in hand with men’. [Bobroff, 1974, p.540]. Furthermore, ‘Despite all the hardships of everyday life, the strong pulse of the Soviet Republic could still be felt. The working people were of one mind, confident that everything the Revolutions enemies had destroyed could be restored, that all Russia would gain its freedom’ [Guerman,1979,p.21] again this shows that Russian art at this time was very directive in eliminating Russia’s enemies-the white army. Again, as this government was not afraid of change the sharp lines and bold colours are also evident in this image.

Therefore it is evident that art and design in Russia has responded to social and cultural forces of the early 20th Century. This was due to the Russian revolution of 1917, the whole social system changed from a hierarchy of upper class and lower class to equality (supposedly), meaning there were no classes. Furthermore the hardship, and experiences during the revolution before and after meant that there was a new birth of art in a sense of art which has a purpose-constructivism, rather than art for arts sakes.




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