The Phenomenon of Post-Memory and Its Aesthetics on the Example of Pyotr Belov’s “Anti-Stalinist Cycle”

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of numerous paintings by the Soviet artist Pyotr A. Belov (1929–1988). For the first time, these artworks were presented in Moscow in 1988, at the posthumous exhibition of the artist, revealing complex issues in the history of the USSR. The paintings presented at the exhibition were later referred to the “anti-Stalinist cycle”. In 2020, the GULAG History Museum (Moscow) accepted these paintings into the collection and organized the exhibition The Queue for the Truth. The authors of the article rely on the concept of post-memory believing that the artist can be attributed to the “first generation” — the generation of witnesses to the traumatic events of history, in this case, the totalitarian regime under which the GULAG system developed. Within the framework of this cycle, Pyotr Belov addresses various narratives, both collective and individual: he represents the history of the USSR through images of power, recognizable elements and symbols of everyday culture of the USSR, as well as tells about his personal history and the history of his family. The authors of the article consider works presented at The Queue for the Truth exhibition using the semiotic and formal-stylistic methods of analysis. In the conclusion section of the article, the authors focus on the features of Pyotr Belov’s painting style (which appear only in the “anti-Stalinist cycle”), the plots of the paintings, and the episteme that influenced the creation of the painting cycle in the 1980s.

Keywords

• post-memory
• pyotr belov
• history of political repressions
• visual culture
• anti-stalinist cycle
• soviet art
• visual language