After the Soviet Union's dissolution, Soviet life and art had ended. Artists, glad to be free from a controlling communist regime, began creating works independently from the state. It seemed as though all were happy to forget Soviet art and life in general. After 1991, artists depicted Soviet art ironically in the Sots Art style, if at all. Eventually, Socialist Realism and its creator so annoyed people that they refused to mention it at all. Citizens and authorities alike dismantled and hid Socialist Realism works from the public's eye for over a decade. 33
Gely Korzhev
Kvartiranktka (1997)
An example of Russian art after the Soviet Union's collapse.
Kvartiranktka (1997)
An example of Russian art after the Soviet Union's collapse.
Recently, however, the history of Socialist Realism has gone from being deemed "stultifyingly boring" to trendy. Art collectors and Russian moguls began snatching Socialist Realism pieces, interested in their history more than their ideology or technique. 34 Such pieces have been put on display around the world, featured in exhibitions from Berlin to London and even Minneapolis. 35,36 One article, interestingly named "Socialist realism: Socialist in content, capitalist in price," dubbed 2014 "the year of socialist realism."37 The article described a 2014 Sotheby’s auction in London that featured around forty Socialist Realism works, but the exhibition was only one of many. A June, 2014 Sotheby's auction estimated that about twenty-four of the pieces were collectively worth around $7.7 million. Socialist Realism, once a tabooed subject of art history, had begun to honestly interest people universally in a way that it had not even in its prime.
33 Vinogradova, "Socialist Realism."
34 Neumeyer, Joy. "Socialist Realism’s Russian Renaissance." Socialist Realism's Russian Renaissance. May 19, 2014. Accessed December 6, 2015. http://www.artnews.com/2014/05/19/socialist-realism-has-a-russian-renaissance/.
35 Thorpe, Vanessa. New Exhibition in Berlin Brings Forgotten Soviet Art Back to Reality. October 24, 2009. Accessed December 6, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/oct/25/soviet-art-painting-berlin-exhibition.
36 Vinogradova, "Socialist Realism."
37 Ibid.
34 Neumeyer, Joy. "Socialist Realism’s Russian Renaissance." Socialist Realism's Russian Renaissance. May 19, 2014. Accessed December 6, 2015. http://www.artnews.com/2014/05/19/socialist-realism-has-a-russian-renaissance/.
35 Thorpe, Vanessa. New Exhibition in Berlin Brings Forgotten Soviet Art Back to Reality. October 24, 2009. Accessed December 6, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/oct/25/soviet-art-painting-berlin-exhibition.
36 Vinogradova, "Socialist Realism."
37 Ibid.