The Soviet period in the work of avant-garde artists in the collection of the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts: main trends and transformations

Abstract

The article analyzes the main stages of creativity of a number of famous Russian avant-garde artists on the example of works from the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts. The key moments of their biographies, the complexity of the conditions in the early Soviet period of creativity, the transformation of the themes and style of works are characterized. It is concluded that those avant-garde artists who remained in the USSR were broken. However, some of them were able to adapt to the new difficult conditions and became “Soviet artists”, while others, who retained their creative credo, were severely criticized and were in “spiritual opposition”. At the same time, it cannot be said that the transformations of the art of the former avant-gardists in all cases led to creative decline. Despite all the difficulties, many of them have created significant works in the style of realism.