Hi, everyone!

Following up on our Zoom discussions, I’d like to share a short list of online collections where you can see and learn more about nonconformist art. I selected just a few that I think are most diverse and comfortable to use, but there’s of course much more online if you start searching.

I hope it’s not impolite if I start with our own collection 🙂

Only a part of our collection is available online at the moment (and it’s all in Russian), but this can give you a general idea of the diversity of represented artists and styles. The amount of digitalized and published works should grow significantly next year.

This outstanding collection is the largest collection of unofficial art from Soviet Russia worldwide, and also the largest available online. All thanks to Norton Dodge (tap the link to learn more), a central figure in the history of nonconformist art collecting, who brought underground art from the Soviet Union to the U.S. during the Cold War.

A very important project for the research of Russian samizdat – DIY publications created and distributed illegally during the times of censorship in the Soviet Union. Also artists were actively involved in the samizdat movement. A group that I would like to highlight are the so called transfurists’ poets, who created the amazing samizdat journal entitled Transponans. I had the pleasure to work with the originals of these publications during my research fellowship at the Research Centre for East European Studies in Bremen, where they are stored.