Ural Federal University: Ural Art Historians Raised the Wave of the Second Avant-Garde

From November 15 to 18, an international scientific-practical conference “The Second Wave of Russian Avant-garde: Regional Versions” was held, organized by the Department of Art History and Museology of Ural Federal University together with the public organization “The Space of the Second Avant-garde”.

The event was held in a mixed format and gathered more than 60 specialists from different cities of Russia and the CIS. Researchers expressed their views on the problem, offered their terminological version of the phenomenon of “the second avant-garde”, presented unique materials of the leading Russian researchers of the domestic unofficial art, Soviet modernism, non-conformism of the second half of the twentieth century.

“Phenomena of the underground are studied by leading art historians long enough, but it is our chair that follows this scientific way from the moment of its formation, it is our chair that represents the Ural School of Art, which this year celebrates its 60th anniversary. The school is world-renowned for its research in the field of Silver Age and Russian Abroad art”, notes Vera Avdeeva, PhD in Art History and moderator of the plenary session.

The conference united not only theoreticians but also practitioners of art: directors and staff of museums from St. Petersburg to Ulan-Ude and specialists in exposition arrangement of exhibitions. Their presentations, based on museum collections in the regions, created a powerful visual panorama of the development of avant-garde phenomena in Russia in the second half of the twentieth century outside the capital.