Moscow conceptualism, 1970-1990

by N. O. Tamruchi

Two processes of social change preceded the advent of Conceptualism in Russia. The first was the decline of the liberal epoch with its accompanying hopes and idealism, the second was the cumulative response of members of the Underground towards the scanty and irregular information filtering in from the outside world. Conceptualism in Moscow endeavoured to explore aspects of art that had not been devoured by ideology and sought to extricate art from the oppressive classifications which had been used in the past to evaluate 'creativity'.