NEW - William Brumfield Soviet Jewish Architects from Avant Garde to Empire

In the 1920s, transformations within Soviet society were linked to the architectural avant garde--particularly Constructivism, whose most prominent theoretician and practitioner was Moisei Ginzburg. (Also Grigory Barkhin, Moisei Reisher) The 1930s, in contrast, witnessed the revival of traditional architectural forms under the guise of Socialist Realism, more generally known in architecture as "Stalinist Empire". The discussion of this period will include notable Jewish architects such as Boris Iofan and Mikhail Minkus. The workshop will also note important, but often neglected, pre-revolutionary antecedents to these developments. The conclusion will emphasize thematic continuity, exemplified by the work of Andrei Chernikhov, grandson of a major avant-garde proponent Iakov Chernikhov, and that of Aleksei Ginzburg, grandson of Moisei Ginzburg. (Brumfield has worked with both.)  

William Craft Brumfield, photographer and historian of Russian architecture, is Professor of Slavic studies and Sizeler Professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane University. He earned his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages (specializing in 19th-century Russian literature and history) at the University of California, Berkeley. He was assistant professor at Harvard University (1974-80), and has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Wisconsin (1973-74) and Virginia (1985-86).