SEENEXT Talk. The Lady Taking off the Mask: Recontextualizing Homosexuality in the Art of Konstantin Somov
SEENEXT
February 23, 2023
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Location
Behavioral Sciences Building
Address
1007 W Harrison Street, Suite 153, Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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Konstantin Somov (1869–1939), schoolmate of Sergei Diaghilev and family friend of Sergei Rakhmaninov, was a visual artist undeservedly forgotten after the Second World War in Europe, where Somov lived after he had emigrated from Russia in 1923. In the Soviet Union, some of Somov’s artworks were displayed in major museums, but his letters and diaries were censored because of homosexual connotations.
Based on Somov’s restored manuscripts, this talk explores what the artist concealed under the guise of campy, symbolist imagery during the initial part of his career from the 1890s to the 1910s. It also reveals how the representation of homosexuality in Somov’s art changed because of the cruelties of the Russian Civil War, and how his emigrant experience contributed to his career in the United States and France in 1920s and 1930s. The talk also includes discussion of reactions to Somov’s art in contemporary Russia and Ukraine.
PAVEL GOLUBEV is Visiting Research Scholar in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he worked at the Odesa Fine Art Museum. After the invasion and preparing the museum’s collection for evacuation, he left Ukraine for the US.
Date posted
Dec 13, 2022
Date updated
Feb 1, 2023