Aleksandr Deineka. Avant-Garde for the Proletariat

The Juan March Foundation holds the first exhibition in Spain to present the work of the Russian artist Aleksandr Deineka (1899-1969) and by extension the historical period from which it was born. With the aim of presenting both in a twofold context: the end of the avant-garde and the advent of socialist realism.

This comprehensive retrospective is to date the largest devoted to Deineka outside Russia: over 80 works on view are completed by a broad yet detailed selection of magazines, posters, books, documents, objects, and works by other Russian avant-garde artists, some 250 works and documents.

This show addresses two moments in Russian history: the great experiment that was the Russian avant-garde in the years preceding the Stalin era and the unofficial and decidedly postmodern form of Soviet art that emerged a decade after Stalin's death. In order to complete this historical overview, it became obvious that the interval between both periods, a defining moment in the history of modern Russia, deserved our attention. And so, Soviet revolutionary art and art produced during the Stalin era, in particular, are at the core of the present exhibition.

Deineka's straightforward painterly style coupled with the ambivalence -or ambiguity- of his art and persona serve as a representative example. The artist received his formal training at institutions traditionally influenced by avant-garde art and formed part of the last remaining constructivist groups (such as October and OST). Because of this, and in spite of his commitment to the revolution and the formation of a socialist state, he was accused of adhering to formalism.

The exhibition also presents a selection of magazines, posters, books, documents, objects, and works by other Russian avant-garde artists- that expose a unique, coherent (and unexplored) set of relationships between socialist realism and the Russian avant-garde.

Date: until January 15.
Location: Fundación Juan March. Castelló, 77, 28006. Madrid. Spain.
Horario: from Monday to Friday from 11am to 10pm. Saturdays from 10am to 2pm.  

See some of the works in the following slideshow: