Production Art as a Middle Theory: Art, Production and Politic in the 1920s

Abstract

This article focuses on Productivism — a key point in the process of collision and convergence of different artistic styles in 1920s Russia — and examines how artistic styles participated in the formation of socialist artistic styles at different levels. Productivism dissolved the barrier between art and the system focuses on and allowed for avant-garde and Bolshevik visions of the future society as a whole, at the level of reality.

Within the theoretical framework of Total art, production became the highest common denominator, embodying the shared vision and modernizing imagination of a country or even an entire society with regard to the future. This approach allows us to observe the profound interplay of various forces and factors, while maintaining a sufficient distance and vigilance towards a developmental and teleological view of history.

The research conducted in this article shows that from a social perspective, the overall landscape of socialist art formation is not monopolized by politics, and that various heterogeneous elements meet and combine within a broader socialist culture.

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