Russian art in the second half of the 20th century begins with the so-called "Thaw" (late 1950s-early 1960s). In 1954 I.G. Erenburg published a book entitled "The Thaw" where the main character was an artist who followed the traditions of Russian Impressionism. The revival of Impressionism marked the first step towards expanding aesthetic forms and reviewing the very notion of "painting" in Soviet art. The Impressionistic worldview stood in stark contrast to solemn Soviet
painting, as it focused on spontaneous observation and the expression of life experience.
The atmosphere of that period was largely formed by the hope for a certain rejuvenation in every sphere of life and this was reflected in different types of Soviet art. After the personality cult of I.V. Stalin had been condemned from the high platform of the Party, it seemed that a new time had arrived, an era devoid of false pathos and totalitarian ideology.
From the late 1950s the doctrine of Socialist Realism gradually began to be shaken. The young people of the Artists' Union proposed a new concept which was called the "Severe Style". They juxtaposed the truth of life with the myth that had been formed in the solemn art of the Stalinist period (N.I. Andronov, "The Rafters", 1960-1961; P.F. Nikonov, "The Geologists", 1962). One of the main features of this trend was its open social orientation and its sincere moral pathos, when it seemed that many things could be changed in Soviet society.
The Moscow underground also appears during the "Thaw" (O.Y. Rabin, "One Ruble No.3", 1967). While the artists of the Artists' Union fought to breathe new life into Soviet art, the masters of the underground opposed stable norms and rules. These artists renounce the principles of Socialist Realism and insist on creative freedom. They try to restore the avant-garde to its rightful place and rely on contemporary art from Europe and America. Various trends emerge in this movement. The most famous of them are Sots Art and Conceptualism. Sots Art debunks Soviet myths based on political
symbolism, signs and cliches which determine the everyday mentality of the Soviet person (G.D. Bruskin, "Alefbet", mid-1980s). The artists of this trend often use techniques and methods characteristic of Pop Art. They work with objects, use mass prints from advertising and periodicals; even the terms they use have a certain affinity with but stress the distance between the aims of Sots Art and Pop Art. The intonation of their works is ironic, while they are often playful.
Conceptualism also profoundly analyses the problems of social reality. Its favourite themes are ideology and mythology, spiritual atmosphere and everyday life. Unlike Sots Art, Conceptualism focuses on the problem of the language of pictorial creation. It studies the specific features of how art works in society. Conceptualists bring the problem of realising the creative idea into the foreground. They are convinced that the idea can be expressed in any form, which is often far from the aesthetic goals of art (I.S. Chuykov, "The Window", 1974; I.I. Kabakov, "Masters of the Arts", 1981).
While at the beginning of the 1960s there was a desire to find a certain grand style, the next decade concentrated upon the use of different styles and cultural eras. This use takes place at different levels, ranging from dialogue to quotation.
Artists study the language of Old Russian Art, of Renaissance painting (D.D. Zhilinsky, "At the Sea-Side. A Family", 1962), the traditions of the primitive and Primitivism (N.I. Nesterova, "A Cafe in Yalta", 1979).
The artist was highly evident in the works of 1960s-1970s. The most important thing was to make a statement about the individual's attitude towards life, art and social issues. It was difficult to speak openly at that time. One had to resort to allegory. The natural means of the language of art, metaphor, grotesque, allegory, were again restored in Russian culture during these decades (V.E. Popkov, "Memories. The Widows", 1966).
The lyrical element begins to dominate intonation: the man and the world, myself and the world, my attitude to the world, myself and my friends were the main themes in the art of young artists (T.G. Nazarenko, "A Moscow Evening", 1978). Their creative work consciously relied on the intellectual perception of reality. The artists strove to produce multifaceted, sophisticated approaches to the emotional and psychological state of the human being.
The new generation of young artists partially continued these explorations in 1980s. But the theatre-like drama and rational intellectualism of the 70's were foreign to them.
The creative work is replete with lyricism, with open, abundant expression. They work freely with traditions and search for their own way in art. M.K. Kantor, for instance, achieves full mastery of the aesthetic language of Expressionism ("Chernobyl. The Wormwood Star", 1987).
During the last decades of the century new forms of creation were energetically established in Russian artistic life, such as performances, installations and various aesthetic actions (I.G. Makarevich, "The Dream of Painting Engendering Monsters", 1990).
Despite the long and hard road which Russian art passed along in the 20th century, it gave art history many famous names and remarkable works.
