Courtauld Summer School: Russian Art 1863-1932 with Dr Natalia Murray

Summer School 2012
A variety of week-long intensive art history courses at one of the word’s leading Institutes for the study of art history and conservation. Open to everyone over the age of 18.


Course 9:Russian Art 1863-1932: Innovations, Influences and the Roots of Modernity
Dr Natalia Murray
9 - 13 July 2012 (£435)

Image: Léon Bakst, La Sultane Bleue. A costume sketch for the ballet Schéhérazade. 1910, watercolour on paper, collection of Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky.



This course will examine the history of Russian art in all its diversity from the first artists’ rebellion against St. Petersburg’s almighty Art Academy in 1863, the blossoming of arts in Russia’s Silver Age, and the upsurge of avant-garde art to its subsequent disappearance after 1932, when Socialist Realism became the only artistic style permitted in the Soviet Union. We will look at the cultural as well as geographical boundaries of Russian art, and its contact with developments in European art as well as the shifts of cultural context, which often occurred through emigration, cultural export, exhibitions, publications, and collaborations.  The complex nature of the Russian avant-garde, its origins and roots, will be examined throughout the course. We will also look at traditional Russian art and icons and their influence on the Russian avant-garde and will discuss the works of Repin, Serov, Benois, Bakst, Somov, Vrubel, Malevich, Tatlin, Kandinsky, Filonov, Rodchenko, Chagall, Popova, among others.  Lastly, we will examine the influence of political changes in Russia under Stalin on the fate of Russian art. Visits include the Victoria and Albert Museum (Ballets Russes drawings and stage designs); the Naum Gabo archive at Tate Britain; Tate Modern and The Courtauld Gallery.


Lecturer’s Biography
Dr Natalia Murray was born in St Petersburg, where she studied Art History for five years at the Academy of Arts.  In 1995 Natalia won a place at the State Hermitage Museum to study for her Doctorate, also in Art History.  From 1997 to 2006, she organized exhibitions of contemporary Russian art in London and has completed the first biography of one of the most influential Russian art critics, Nikolay Punin (due to be published in 2012).  In the last five years Natalia has been giving lectures on 20th- century Russian Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art.


For further details and to book, contact:
Short Courses, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
T: 020 7 848 2678; E: Short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk