Vitebsk "Kvadrat" and Non-Conformism as Genesis of Contemporary Post-Soviet Culture
The creative union of «Kvadrat» by Vitebsk artists as well as other groups and unions of the late 1980-ies are considered by the author in the context of correlation of art and society. Totalitarian ideology of the Soviet state controlled all aspects of society life, art including. All exhibitions went through exhibition commitees with the obligatory presence of a party leadership member and, before the exhibition was opened, it was to be ideologically cencored. Bourgeois «isms» were actively fought with, in particular, modernism and abstractionism. Artistic form was to be of only one type - realistic, and the direction in art also one - socialistic. Official art recognized only socialist realism. Since 1950-ies - early 1960-ies in the USSR signs of non official art appeared or, as later was said, of «second culture». In the 1970-ies gaining its strength nonconformist movement of Leningrad and Moscow stands counter the ideological mill and forms cultural space for the development of non official art. It was this social and cultural environment which became the base for shaping the union of «Kvadrat».