Russian Art 1863-1932: Innovations, Influences and the Roots of Modernity
Online
Dr Natalia Murray
10 pre-recorded lectures and 5 Zoom seminars over 5 weeks at 18:30, and where necessary, also at 20:00 [London time], from Wednesday 5 November to Wednesday 3 December 2025
£395
Please note that booking for this course will open in mid-July 2025.
Course description
This course examines the history of Russian art in all its diversity from the first artists’ rebellion against St. Petersburg’s almighty Art Academy in 1863, the blossoming of arts in Russia’s ‘Silver Age’, to the upsurge of avant-garde art and its subsequent disappearance after 1932, when Socialist Realism became the only artistic style permitted in the Soviet Union.
We shall look at the cultural as well as geographical boundaries of Russian art, and its contact with developments in European art. Equally important will be the shifts in cultural context, which often occurred through emigration, cultural export, exhibitions, publications, and collaborations. The complex nature of the Russian avant-garde, its origins, and roots, will be examined throughout the course. We shall also look at traditional Russian art and icons and their influence on the Russian avant-garde, and will discuss the works of Repin, Serov, Benois, Bakst, Somov, Vrubel, Malevich, Tatlin, Kandinsky, Filonov, Rodchenko, Chagall, Popova, and others. Lastly, we shall examine the influence of political changes in Russia under Stalin on the development of Russian art.
Lecturer's biography
Dr Natalia Murray is a lecturer in modern art and curating at The Courtauld. She gained a BA and MA in art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, and a PhD at The Courtauld. She is a writer, lecturer and curator specialising in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian and Western European art and was the curator of the Royal Academy’s major exhibition Revolution. Russian Art 1917-1932 (2017). Natalia is currently working on several new exhibition projects in the US and in Europe. She has published widely: her most recent book, Two Women Patrons of the Russian Avant-Garde. Nadezhda Dobychina and Klavdia Mikhailova, was published in 2021 and was dedicated to the first gallerists in Russia.