Exhibition of Soviet nonconformist art opens in New Jersey

A new exhibition of unofficial Soviet art from the 1960s to the 1980s opens tomorrow at Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

​Dreamworlds and Catastrophes: Intersections of Art and Science in the Dodge Collection examines the influence of innovations in science, technology, mathematics, communications, and design on unnoficial art from a turbulent period marked by the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a failed attempt to improve United States-Soviet relations. The exhibition features over 50 works by artists from the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, Russia, and Ukraine.

“Dreamworlds and Catastrophes explores the utopian fantasies and anxious realities of everyday Soviet life in the second half of the twentieth century through a variety of media, from documentary photographs and surrealist abstractions to hyperrealist paintings and kinetic sculptures. While technological advancements gave great hope, they also came at a steep price, taking their toll on the Soviet economy, environment, and quality of life,” reads the exhibition’s statement.

The show is curated by Ksenia Nouril, a Dodge Fellow at the Zimmerli and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History at Rutgers. It runs from 12 March - 31 July 2016.