![]() The first room, painted in light turquoise, introduces the Thaw period from the late 1950s, demonstrating the international exchange and communication after the death of Stalin and the loosening of Soviet isolationist policies. The exhibition is divided into five categories, clearly demarcated by distinct wall colors. This is the first exhibition in the United States to explore Soviet industrial design from the postwar era. In this exhibition, Julia Tulovsky, Curator of Russian and Soviet Nonconformist Art at the Zimmerli Art Museum, and Alexandra Sankova, Director of the Moscow Design Museum, put in dialogue 85 nonconformist artworks (from the 1950s to the 1990s) with over 300 industrial objects (from the 1950s to the 1980s) from their respective collections. “You must not be afraid of ideas!” he proclaimed, to which Khrushchev retorted, “ My vam govorim, vy -to ne boites’ idei! ” This tense exchange, embodying Cold War sentiments of technological and ideological competition, frames the artistic and design progress in the USSR that is the subject of the Zimmerli’s exhibition.ĭuring Khrushchev’s Thaw (1953-1964), the Space Race and American postwar culture inspired Soviet industrial designers and unofficial, nonconformist artists alike. During this now-legendary standoff, Nixon ostensibly advocated for a free exchange of ideas between the two countries. The irony lies in the fact that the whole conversation was broadcasted live and in color to Americans - a recent technological feat that the Soviet Union had yet to match. The technology to which Khrushchev refers is television. On a small screen in the downstairs gallery, Khrushchev boasts to Nixon: “ My vas v raketakh operedili i v etoi tekhnike operedili! ” The notorious “Kitchen debate” (1959) between Vice-President Richard Nixon and First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev sets the tone for the Zimmerli Museum exhibition Everyday Soviet: Soviet Industrial Design and Nonconformist Art (1959-1989). Everyday Soviet: Soviet Industrial Design and Nonconformist Art (1959-1989) is on view until at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey.įarid Djamalov is a rising senior at Yale studying the History of Art.
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