The State Russian Museum: Almanac, №140, 2006: Times of Change: Art in the Soviet Union 1960-1985

📓 The aim of this book is to reconstruct the artistic atmosphere in the Soviet Union between the Thaw and the start of Perestroika. The contents, unfortunately, do not cover all the main dramatis personae of these times. One of the reasons is linked to a situation not unusual for the history of art. Art life is usually not adequately reflected in museums, private collections or the press. Political, ideological, human and personal priorities often distort the true roles or correlations of phenomena. Between 1960 and 1985, Soviet museums were unable to acquire all that they considered necessary for the history of art. This applied in particular to the works of unrecognised artists, which only attracted the interest of foreigners or a handful of Russian collectors. It is now extremely difficult to find early works of nonconformist art; scattered across different countries, their current whereabouts are generally unknown.