Two lectures by Dr Nathalia Murray Curator of the successful REVOLUTION exhibition at the Royal Academy last year

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1 On Wednesday the 13 th of June 10.am till 1pm Two lectures by Dr Nathalia Murray Curator of the successful REVOLUTION exhibition at the Royal Academy last year 1. New art for a New Society : Propaganda and Russian art 2. Heroes of the past living in the future. Fate of the Russian Intelligentsia after the Revolution. The morning will be held at St. Philip and St. James Church House, Painswick Road, Leckhampton Cheltenham GL50 2DL Cost 25 including coffee and biscuits on arrival. Lunch-time sandwiches available for an extra 5 The talks will start at with a brief break between them both. We are also happy to provide a sandwich lunch for 5 although there are lots of small eateries on the Bath Road which is very close by. The application form is attached and also a résumé of the talks

2 - Résumé 1. New Art for a New Society: Propaganda and Russian art Already in 1917 the leader of the new Bolshevik State, Vladimir Lenin, proclaimed that culture should support political needs, which effectively meant that all culture was now viewed as propaganda. Like Lenin, Trotsky believed that the essence of the new culture will be not an aristocratic one for a privileged minority, but a mass culture, a universal and popular one. This lecture will examine the impact of the 1917 revolution on artists and the quest of the new government for a new form of proletarian art. How was this to be defined? How would it come about? Where did it go? To answer these questions, we will look at the first expressions of so-called proletarian art after the revolution especially Lenin s Plan for Monumental Propaganda - a strategy that employed visual monumental art (revolutionary slogans and monumental sculpture) as an important means of propagating revolutionary and Communist ideas. In this lecture we will look at the new role of art and avant-garde artists after the 1917 October Revolution. Was art useful for the socialist revolution or was revolution useful for art? 2. Heroes of the past living in the future. Fate of Russian Intelligentsia after the Revolution October 1917 represented a clear dividing line between the old and the new. The renaissance that had occurred in the visual arts at the turn of the century was cut short when most members of the World of Art (Mir Iskusstva) group those artists, poets and musicians who were hostile toward the Imperial Academy of Arts and nineteenth century Realism, and were often referred to as the Russian Secession left Russia. In the new Bolshevik state, realism had to develop without Ilia Repin, Nikolai Feshin and Filipp Malyavin, Impressionism without Konstantin Korovin, Neoclassicism without Vasily Shukhaev, Alexander Yakovlev or Zinaida Serebryakova, and the avant-garde without Vasily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall. In this lecture we will discuss what happened to those cultural heroes who stayed behind trying to fit in with the new brutal Soviet reality.

3 DAY OF SPECIAL INTEREST 13 th JUNE 2018 APPLICATION FORM Name of Arts Society Member Name of Guest (if appropriate) Name Address - Line 1 Address - Line 2 Address Town Address Post Code address Phone number Name of Society / Guest I/we wish to enroll for Please tick below Please tick below Wednesday 13 th June Cost 25 per person I would like sandwiches Cost 5 per person Please indicate any special dietary requirements Please send your completed application form and cheque, payable to The Arts Society West Mercia, to Alexandra Davies 1-2 Tudor Lodge Road Cheltenham GL50 2SN theartssociety.westmercia@gmail.com

4 DAY OF SPECIAL INTEREST 13 th JUNE 2018 GENERAL INFORMATION Date: Wednesday 13 th June Location: Rail: Road: Parking: St. Philip and St. James Church House, Painswick Road Cheltenham GL50 2LD Church House is located next to the church just off the Bath Road (A46). Cheltenham Spa Station is served by frequent Inter-city and local trains. Take bus route D and get off at Chapel Walk stop and walk up The Promenade to the Rotunda then follow instructions for Arle Court Park and Ride. The walk from the station is approximately 20 minutes and it is probably best to take a taxi. From M5 use Junction 11 and A40, following signs for Oxford. At Westall Green roundabout fork right (A40 Andover Road). Turn right into Painswick Road (there is a large dentist s surgery on the corner) From Oxford use A40, following signs for Gloucester, after intersection with A46, take the third turning on the left into Painswick Road From Bath and Stroud use A46, after the roundabout beside the Norwood Arms take first on left (Gratton Road), Church House is the building after the church. There is a small car park adjacent to Church House in Gratton Road and there is limited parking in the streets nearby. The nearest pay and display car park is just off the Bath Road (turning at the side of the NatWest bank) Park and Ride: Arle Court Park and Ride (GL51 6SY) is signposted from the M5 at Junction 11. Service 511 (Bennetts Coaches) runs every 12 minutes. Get off at the Rotunda walk back and cross the roundabout into Suffolk Square, at the traffic lights turn left, Painswick Road is the second on the right (10 minute walk). Cheltenham Racecourse Park and Ride (to the North of Cheltenham - GL50 4SH, close to the A435 Evesham Road). Service D runs every 10 minutes, see directions for Rail travellers. Contact: Alexandra Davies ACE The Arts Society West Mercia or theartssociety.westmercia@gmail.com

5 To Gloucester and M5 Rotunda stop To Oxford Westall Green roundabout A46 from Bath Norwood Arms Public Car Park