Modernism Without a Manifesto. The collection of Roman Babichev
Catalogue Raisonné in Six Volumes
The series Implicit Modernism [Russian title: Modernism without a Manifesto] rejects the progressionist interpretation of Soviet heritage based on consecutive manifestos (avant-garde - socialist realism - nonconformism). The authors base their study on the previously little-known paintings, drawings and sculptures in the collection of Roman Babichev and suggest seeing Soviet art as a space of continuous and sustainable modernist experimentation. This approach also enables a revision of the internal logic of the epoch, eschewing the facade of ideological confrontations in favour of the real history of mutual influence of artistic currents, thus placing Soviet art in the international 20th century context. Nadia Plungian