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[THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIALIST REALISM] Tvorcheskiye voprosy sovetskogo iskusstva [i.e. Creative Issues of Soviet Art]

Mácza, J.

Item #2754

[Moscow]: Izogiz, 1933. 48 pp. 12,3x9,9 cm. In original publisher’s printed wrappers. Light soiling of the wrappers, minor tears of the rear wrapper, but otherwise near fine.

Scarce. First edition. Text in Russian.
An uncommon theoretical manifesto documenting the decisive shift of Soviet art from the experimental avant-garde culture of the 1920s toward the ideologically controlled doctrine of Socialist Realism.
The book reproduces a major report delivered by János Mácza (1893-1974), one of the leading Marxist theorists of Soviet art, at the Artists’ Club in May 1933. The text captures the Soviet art world during the radical cultural reorganization that followed the 1932 decree abolishing independent artistic movements. In the report, Mácza moves away from the analytical “sociological method” of the 1920s and argues instead for a more emotional and ideologically committed artistic program. Mácza openly attacks formalism, avant-garde experimentation, and “bourgeois” aesthetics while defining the new expectations placed upon Soviet artists. In their place, he advocates a “heroic realism” in which art should depict reality not passively, but in the process of revolutionary transformation. The text includes detailed discussion of contemporary Soviet visual culture, praising artists such as Gustav Klutsis and Kolvits while sharply criticizing Denisovsky’s portrayal of Joseph Stalin at the 16th Party Congress. According to Mácza, many Soviet works of the period still lacked the necessary “socialist psychology” capable of inspiring the masses and therefore remained trapped in outdated descriptive traditions.
János Mácza, born in Hungary, emigrated to the USSR in 1923 and became an influential Soviet historian and theorist of art and architecture. He was among the founding members of VOPRA (the All-Union Society of Proletarian Architects), one of the principal architectural organizations of the early Stalinist period, and authored several important works on Soviet art theory.
Overall, a vital manifesto of the newly introduced Socialist Realism.

Worldcat shows 3 copies of the edition at the Princeton University, University College London, and the Contemporary in Nanterre.

Price: $350.00