Russian Art Programs?

[natcat]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious as to if anyone knows of programs or scholars who specialize in Russian art. I'm only a sophomore in college however I'm a bit of an obsessive planner so I'd like to have a general idea of my options. No one in my department is of any help, and so far internet searches have proved rather fruitless. I believe the Courtauld has a scholarship pertaining to the study of Russian art, however beyond that I'm rather clueless.

Thanks!

[jacekla]

It really depends on which period you would like to focus on. There are few academics who are experts in the 'whole' of Russian art, and many will restrict their field of enquiry to very short periods, given the huge amount of socio-historical and political themes which tend to be attached to studies in Russian visual art. Also note that many potential advisors in this area will not be based in the department of art history of a university, but perhaps in languages and literatures, or Slavonic studies departments.

I am in the UK, and certainly most specialists in the field of Russian art of any period tend to be contained within the Russian & Eastern European Studies sections, and as I look more and more at the US schools, the same seems to be the case.

My advice would be to look at the seminal books or important articles written on your prospective topic, and look up the authors to find the departments they teach in. This is how I am going about finding potential PhD supervisors, as Russian specialists can be hard to track down. I know in the UK it is not usually a problem to do an inter-departmental research degree, but it may be more complicated in the US where there is a much heavier coursework element. This might be something to research also.

[losemygrip]

For Russian avant-garde/modern, try Rutgers and CUNY and OSU as a fallback. By the time you're in grad school, John Bowlt at USC will be retired, otherwise he'd be first on the list.

Start your language study immediately if you have not already.

[natcat]

Thanks everyone! I'm most interested in pre-Soviet art and architecture (I really love the Wanderers movement as well as the architecture of the Tsars). I'm currently in second year Russian and I will be studying abroad in Moscow next fall. I am also proficient in French and will begin studying German next year.

[aojumper]

took a Russian avant-garde class with Kristin Romberg, a recent PhD from Columbia and Russian specialist, currently a fellow at the Phillips Collection in DC; from off the syllabus, here are some names (though some are early scholars, likely not currently around any more) we read work by: Bowlt, Christina Kiaer, Maria Gough, Christina Lodder, Beverly Whitney Keen, Camilla Gray, Jane Sharp, Annette Michelson, Jaleh Mansoor, Susan Buck-Morss. Kiaer came to our class and was really impressive. Of course your interest is a little earlier, but it seems to be a small field so these would be a good place to start. Good luck!

[vertov]

Courtauld has a Russian art history special option (specialisation) for the MA: "Contacts and Contexts in Russian Art c. 1905-1945" with Milner. Kemp-Welch is running a new special option, "Countercultures: Alternative Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America 1953-1991" (although as the title suggests, this isn't in keeping with what your stated interests are).

[copyprinciple]

Does anyone know how important knowledge of the Russian language is when studying Russian art?