International School of Economics of Tbilisi (ISET)/CRRC Georgia

Zandukeli St. 16, downstairs Conference Hall

Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 6:15 PM

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Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mistaken conception arose within art history that the years 1989-1991 marked the end of a chapter in history. In the next chapter, it was reasoned, the disappearance of Soviet cultural institutions would liberate artists to innovate bold new styles and revive repressed ethnic traditions. This idea was especially prominent for self-evident reasons regarding the non-Russian former Soviet republics. However, recent scholarship is acknowledging that the USSR’s dissolution had variable impact across space and discipline. In the case of Kazakh painting, the connections between artworks of the Soviet and contemporary periods are strong. In fact, many of the visual and stylistic conventions of contemporary Kazakh painting were first articulated and developed during the Khrushchev period (approx. 1954-1964). This is the result of a series of historical transfers of artistic sensibilities and technologies from Russia to Kazakhstan before and during the 20th century. The primary implication is that contemporary Kazakh art bases its national imagery, at least in painting, upon Soviet and Russian imaginings of the Kazakh people. These conventions were born in a context of orientalism and colonialism, a condition which contemporary Kazakh art is yet to negotiate.

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Paull Randt is a US Fulbright Fellow in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he is researching Kazakh art of the post-Stalin period. He received his undergraduate degree in art history from Yale University and an MPhil in political science from the University of Cambridge. His interests include Central Asian political and cultural development before and after the collapse of the USSR. Currently, he is exploring Central Asia’s formal and informal cultural links to Moscow and Leningrad and the fate of these connections in the post-Soviet era. In August, Paull will begin an MBA program in the US and hopes to return to Kazakhstan in the near future.

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W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place every Wednesday at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). All of the talks are free and open to the public.

The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.

Would you like to present at one of the W-i-P sessions? Send an e-mail to wip@crrccenters.org.