Forgotten Soviet art

From Moscow to Murmansk, many works extolling the collective will and honest labour were simply thrown away or stored forgotten in dusty attics, as the tide of ‘perestroika’ swept through the former Soviet Union.

All that may be about to change, however. A new and remarkable exhibition in Berlin is displaying the first-ever collection of 300 classics of the genre. And, according to some art specialists, it may be the beginning of a revival of interest in a form that up to now has been dismissed as mere propaganda.

Alessandra Lucia Coruzzi is one of two curators who have put together the show, based on work owned by Italian collectors from Milan, all of whom share a faith in the worth of the paintings both as art and as objects of historical interest.