Culver City,
California
x
The Divorce (Drama in Soviet Court)
Date Made: 1955
Country: Soviet Union
Measurements: 132 cm x 168 cm x 6.5 cm; 51 15/16 in x 66 1/8 in x 2 9/16 in
In his painting portraying a divorce scene, Solodovnikov fundamentally criticizes the effects of so-called “progress” and “modernization,” ideological catch words in Soviet society. The male protagonist with his fine clothes and modern wristwatch is an anti-hero who symbolizes the hypocrisy and superficiality of modern cosmopolitanism. With his distancing expression, he abandons his wife and daughter. The local peasants who attend the hearing look at him scornfully, while expressing empathy for the wife and daughter. Solodovnikov radically broke with the “theory of conflictlessness,” which defined the visual arts under Stalin. According to this directive, artists were expected to represent the ideal socialist society and to refrain from showing real-world conflicts and tensions. Instead, two years after Stalin’s death, Solodovnikov addressed a serious social conflict in this painting: the legal settlement of a divorce in the countryside.
Accession Number: 2007.225.006
Item Name: Painting
Collection/Series: Painting Collection