Walworth - Soviet salvage: imperial debris, revolutionary reuse, and Russian constructivism

SOVIET
SALVAGE

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Walworth, Catherine, author.

Title: Soviet salvage : imperial debris, revolutionary reuse, and Russian constructivism / Catherine Walworth.

Other titles: Refiguring modernism.

Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2017] | Series: RM : refiguring modernism | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: Examines how Russian Constructivist artists in the 1920s imagined a new physical environment through the creation of recycled and reappropriated objectsProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016054606 | ISBN 9780271077697 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Constructivism (Art)Russia (Federation) | Art, Russian20th century.

Classification: LCC N6988.5.C64 W35 2017 | DDC 709.47/09042dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054606

Copyright 2017 Catherine Walworth

All rights reserved

Printed in China

Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,

University Park, PA 16802-1003

The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z 39.481992.

Additional credits: frontispiece, image A. Rodchenko & V. Stepanova Archive, Moscow; vi (, detail), image A. Rodchenko & V. Stepanova Archive, Moscow, art Estate of Alexander Rodchenko / RAO, Moscow / VAGA, New York.

CONTENTS

Though it has come quite a long way in the intervening years, this book emerged from a series of graduate school investigations at The Ohio State University that, inadvertently, reflected my environmentalists belief in recycling. Dr. Aron Vinegar pointed this out to me one day and introduced me to Lvi-Strausss idea of the bricoleur , for which I am forever grateful. He made theory refreshingly accessible for a social historian and spurred me on to deeper critical thinking and investigation. I would like to express particularly heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Myroslava M. Mudrak, who encouraged me to adhere to my own instincts as an art historian, to take risks, and to embrace the unconventional. Dr. Mudrak was a constant source of support and encouragement to me during my graduate school years (her conscientious reading of my drafts was nothing short of herculean), and she has become my valued friend and colleague in everyday life afterward.

It was an absolute pleasure to study early film with Dr. J. Ronald Green, particularly the hours of Russian films and writings we mulled over. He also asked me one of the most foundational questions of my career, one that I have carried into intellectual and curatorial projects ever since: If someone has nearly fallen out of history, why do they deserve to be reinstated? As an art historian who loves underserved subjects, this question has become my guide. Dr. Patricia A. Cunningham led me to discover that fashion studies have much to teach art historians about fresh consideration of objects, both their physical intricacies and cultural meanings. Dr. Lisa Florman not only offered valuable counsel on my central argument but also helped me to obtain important travel and research grants, without which this project would not have been realized. I am particularly grateful for the Aida Cannarsa Snow Endowment Fund in the College of the Arts, which supported two trips to Russia, for The Ohio State Universitys Presidential Fellowship, which allowed me to concentrate on unencumbered writing, and to my friends at the Center for Slavic and East European Studies, who helped with access to rare Russian films and grant assistance.

This text would have remained a scholarly exercise, however, if it were not for the professional advice of Dr. Jessica Burstein (the paragon who first inspired and indulged my falling in love with the many forms of modernism), proposal assistance by my talented friend Heather Brand, and the unwavering support of Executive Editor Eleanor H. Goodman at the Pennsylvania State University Press and Dr. Jonathan Paul Eburne, series editor. I would also like to thank the anonymous readers, whose thoughtful criticism helped push me to develop the text beyond its initial constraints. While one could revise a text forever, like Penelope at her loom, at some point Odysseus simply must come home. I am grateful, though, for the opportunity of these last few years to make corrections and reconsider my framework in a fresh light. If some of the original exuberant language of discovery has been tempered in exchange for a more measured analysis, I hope some of it still remains.

In Russia, I would like to thank Elena Mikhailovna Vorushilina, curator at the Museum of Decorative-Applied and Folk Arts in Moscow, with whom I spent a lovely afternoon in storage exploring their collection of Soviet propaganda porcelain, handling each piece from all sides the way it was intended. It was a distinct honor to meet with Tamara Timofeevna Korchunova and Nina Ivanovna Tarasova, costume curators at the State Hermitage Museum. Together, they not only pulled Lamanova dresses for me to handle, gowns that were the subject of Korchunovas groundbreaking 2002 exhibition Russkii modeler: Nadezhda Lamanova ( 18611941 ), but also let me peek into drawers of Romanov clothing with infectious joy. Elena Obuhovich of the Rights and Reproductions Office at the State Hermitage Museum was endlessly kind and generous, as was Ekaterina Zadirova at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. I would also like to thank Dr. Maria Alley, who helped me hone my Russian correspondence and, during one initial trek to Moscow archives, served as interpreter when my nerve faltered in the unexpected presence of an idols descendent.

I have had an art historians crush on the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami for decades, and it was a dream to visit their art storage and work with their librarys collection of rare Russian publications. My sincere thanks goes out to registrars Kimberly J. Bergen, Amy Silverman, and Chief Librarian Frank Luca, who all generously supported my project, not least with beautiful new photography.

Dr. John E. Bowlt deserves my sincere gratitude, now and forever, for his wealth of published research and support of important fellowship applications. Elizabeth Durst was a kind and generous scholar, ready to share her Russian contacts, and her dissertation was an important resource for conceptualizing Nadezhda Lamanovas Silver Age years in Moscow. Aleksandr Lavrentiev, grandson of Aleksandr Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, was a generous source of images and information, and I am overwhelmed by his natural and infinite kindness.

My far-flung friend, the historian and translator John Johnson, was an essential help in Moscow. He returned to the Russian State Library in Moscow, where I took research photographs of journals in 2010 and 2011, and obtained new images that make up so much of the illustration program of this book. I get to benefit from his having thrown himself into an adventurous Russian life. Laurel Mitchell, my compatriot from Carnegie Museum of Art, took those images to a new level. My former colleague at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Elizabeth Saluk, was another wonderful help with photography. Thank you to my friend and scholar Julie Defossez for keeping rare books on hand for when I needed them and for providing images and support.