Against utopia: Osip Brik and genesis of productivism.
Item
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Title
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Against utopia: Osip Brik and genesis of productivism.
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Identifier
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AAI3187366
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identifier
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3187366
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Creator
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Kurchanova, Natasha.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Rose-Carol Washton Long
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | Biography
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Abstract
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This dissertation explores the life and career of Osip Brik, a prominent member of the artistic left in Russia during the revolutionary period. It traces his life from his youth in Moscow to his acquaintance with the poet Vladimir Maiakovskii; his involvement with pre-revolutionary scholarly and political organizations; his joining of the Bolshevik government after the revolution; his active participation in the establishment and management of institutions of artistic education; his leading role in supporting emerging Constructivist artists, the formulation of the Productivist theory, and the foundation of the journal LEF, a mouthpiece for the expression of ideas by the Russian artists and writers of the avant-garde. The last chapter explores Brik's pioneering efforts to establish photography as a legitimate form of artistic expression in Soviet Russia and examines his role as a film critic and a scriptwriter for a Moscow film studio.;Apart from Brik's contribution to the development of Constructivism and Productivism, this dissertation also looks at his not-so-glorious involvement with authoritarian politics of Bolshevik Russia and his attempt to position himself and the artists he protected in such a way as to become immune to inhumane acts committed by the repressive political regime. For example, Brik's service in the Cheka, the Bolshevik Secret Police, marked him in the eyes of many as an evil figure, willing to go to extremes to prove his allegiance to those in power. A close look at Brik's writings and his career does not show him as a monster, however, but as an extreme pragmatic and a skeptic who did not believe in abstract ideals that were not buttressed by a solid political foundation.;In its focus on a controversial figure within the Russian revolutionary art, this dissertation contests the tendency of recent investigations of the Russian avant-garde to ascribe its motivation to either a "utopian" or a "dystopian" extreme and argues that in its day-to-day operations much of its activity was directed by immediate pragmatic concerns, which, in the absence of belief in a greater good, sometimes led to its affiliation with repressive politics.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
