Revolution: Russian Art 1917 to 1932 review: an era of abstraction and propaganda

Kazimir Malevich’s ‘Peasants’, from 1930. A collection of 30 of Malevich’s paintings can be seen together for the first time since a 1932 exhibition in Russia. Courtesy State Russian Museum, St Petersburg

Arkadii Shaiket, ‘Construction of the Moscow Telegraphic Centre’, from 1928. Courtesy Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York

Isaak Brodsky, V.I.Lenin and Manifestation from 1919. Courtesy of the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSIZO

Marc Chagall’s Promenade, 1917-18. Courtesy State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Alexander Deineka’s Textile Workers from 1927. Courtesy State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and one of the blockbuster shows to mark this has just opened in London. Revolution: Russian Art 1917 to 1932 explores a moment after the revolution of October 1917 when abstract art flourished until 1932, and when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin began his onslaught against the Avant Garde.

More than 200 pieces are on display, including photography, sculpture, film, posters. The exhibition is arranged in sections. “Salute the Leader” for example, examines Lenin’s rise to power; “Man and Machine” looks at the heroic portrayal of the workers; while “Stalin’s Utopia” charts the strongman’s grandiose public projects and the dark reality associated with them.

The pieces can largely be construed as propaganda. But it was a period when artists did employ creative means in their attempts to build a proletarian art.

The paintings include Boris Mikailovich Kustodiev's Bolshevik (1920), which shows a larger than life revolutionary charging through the streets, while particularly impressive is a collection of 30 works by Kazimir Malevich. Malevich is famous for his Black Square paintings – one of which is on display at the exhibition. He was born in what is now Ukraine and he was one of the founders of the Suprematism movement, which focused on geometric patterns such as lines, circles and squares. These paintings are seen together for the first time since a 1932 exhibition in Leningrad and particularly striking is his 1930 work, Peasants. Here we see two effectively anonymous workers with their faces obscured – quite the contrast from a typical portrait of happy workers in the fields.

• Revolution: Russian Art 1917 to 1932 runs at the Royal Academy of Arts in London until April 17. For more information visit www.royalacademy.org.uk

John Dennehy is deputy editor of The Review.