Revolution Every Day
September 14, 2017–January 28, 2018
Presented on the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, this exhibition immerses visitors in the distinct textures and speeds of everyday life that arose—and have lingered stubbornly—in the wake of revolutionary upheaval.
Revolution Every Day juxtaposes works of Soviet graphic art—primarily posters from the 1920s and 1930s, many by female artists such as Valentina Kulagina—with works on video and film, including excerpts from Dziga Vertov’s documentary films from the 1930s, post-Soviet videos by artists like Olga Chernysheva, as well as a new commission by Cauleen Smith. Focused on the experiences of women under (and after) communism, these works involve viewers in visual and aural conversations concerning the temporality of the everyday, revealing how socialist labor involves feats of endurance and patience as much as heroic action.
In its distinct approach to its subject, Revolution Every Day, much like the Smart’s 2011 exhibition Vision and Communism, undermines our readymade responses to the Russian Revolution and makes it possible for Western audiences to experience Soviet visual art anew.
Artists
Lene Berg, Mariia Bri-Bein, Olga Chernysheva, Aleksandr Deineka, Elizaveta Ignatovich, Gustav Klucis, Vitaly Komar, Viktor Koretsky, Valentina Kulagina, Anri Sala, Cauleen Smith, Varvara Stepanova, Dziga Vertov, and many others.
Publication
This unique, small format companion to the exhibition Revolution Every Day is inspired by the tradition of Soviet tear-off calendars. The book has 365 calendar pages with daily entries featuring a range of images and texts drawn from primary and archival source materials that explore the historical and experiential dimensions of revolution. It presents multiple short essays and other original contributions from the curators, artists, and scholars, accompanied by full color illustrations of all of the works in the exhibition. Published by the Smart Museum of Art in collaboration with Mousse. Available November 2017.
Purchase this catalogue
Available for $30 online through Mousse Publishing or in person at the Smart Museum Shop.
On Campus
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Smart Museum and Film Studies Center present the series Revolution Every Day: Dziga Vertov in the 1930s, three screenings of rarely seen “poetic documentary” films by the Soviet filmmaker. At the University of Chicago Library, the Special Collections Research Center presents a parallel exhibition Red Press: Radical Print Culture from St. Petersburg to Chicago (September 25, 2017–December 15, 2017). The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society’s research project Revolutionology: Media and Networks of Intellectual Revolution questions the link between political and intellectual change through workshops and public programs. And the University Symphony Orchestra presents Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12, The Year 1917, as part of a performance of poignant musical reflections on historical turning points of the last 100 years (December 2, 2017).
Top (left to right): Sergei Sen’kin, Let’s Make the Workshops of Factories and Plants Green! 1931, lithograph on paper (poster), 57 1/2 x 40 1/6 in. (1460 x 1020 mm), Ne boltai! Collection; Valentina Kulagina, International Working Women's Day Is the Fighting Day of the Proletariat, 1931, lithograph on paper (poster), 39 5/8 x 27 5/8 in. (1100 x 725 mm), Ne boltai! Collection; G. Komarov, The 8th of March: Woman Worker and Peasant, Enlist in Lenin’s Party, ca. 1930, lithograph on paper (poster), 40 1/4 x 27 3/4 in. (1028 x 705 mm), Ne boltai! Collection; Mariia Feliksovna Bri-Bein, Woman Worker and Woman Collective Farmer, Join the Ranks of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 1934, lithograph on paper, 40 1/8 x 28 in. (1019 x 712 mm), Ne boltai! Collection.
Above: Olga Chernysheva, March, 2005. Courtesy: Diehl, Berlin; Pace, London; Foxy Production, New York.
