ABSTRACT
Soviet artistic culture is a paradoxical tangle of forces, impulses, and relations generated by the nation's spiritual and social currents, which defy attempts to dispose of them in one fell swoop. Artistic production in the Soviet Union had to submit to the same principles of centralized planning and cope with the same shortages and distribution gaps as the rest of the Soviet economy. Indeed, perestroika offered Soviet artists golden opportunities for free self-expression. The chapter examines the shady transactions between the quasimarket and Russian artistic culture, and discusses the relationship between the state, the artist, and local and international markets. Official Soviet ideology prided itself on creating a state with "mass aesthetic literacy", "the highest prestige of art", and "genuinely free artistic activity". Soviet artistic culture has been often pictured in black and white: official art approved by the Communist party, on the one hand; and unofficial, experimental art that flourished on the fringes of society, on the other.
