'Painting to Scale' tells bold stories with monumental artworks

Since 1991, the Zimmerli Art Museum has been home to the world's largest selection of Soviet nonconformist art. Thanks to an expansive collection spanning multiple decades, the past 30 years at the Zimmerli have been full of exhibitions seeking to explore, reframe and offer narrative to the pieces. 

Their latest exhibition, "Painting to Scale," highlights large-scale murals and paintings from the museum's gallery, illustrating the constraints of Soviet artists working beyond the limitations of convention, material and scale. 

Opened on Wednesday, the exhibit features 60 works from both the Russian political centers and former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, Georgia and others.

Organized by Dr. Jane Sharp, professor and research curator for Soviet Nonconformist Art at the Zimmerli, the opening night of "Painting to Scale" featured guiding words from the professor on the scope and themes of the exhibition. Throughout the night, Sharp was joined by her graduate students, also commenting on standout pieces from the exhibition. 

In the Soviet context, nonconformist art is not a term that relates to a specific style of work. Rather, Soviet nonconformist art refers to a wide variety of compositions, all not approved by regulating bodies in the Soviet Union. 

In this sense, Soviet nonconformism is best seen as a type of artistic counterculture, challenging narratives of realism, straightforward representation and other conventional ideas. Works under this label range from tragic to exuberant, all in the service of mediums afforded to those otherwise shunned from the Soviet mainstream. 

Most of these "mainstream" ideas were promoted by the state-approved Soviet Realist style, which saw overwhelming arts funding and support during the mid-1900s. Under Nikita Khrushchev, the 1950s briefly emboldened nonconformist artists, though in reality, the movement's brief moment in the cultural sun only served to unify disparate communities of artists through public attention. 

This being said, the Zimmerli's arrangement is multifaceted, guiding visitors along multiple conceptions of the themes presented. Experiencing the exhibition in person leaves attendees lost in each of the worlds built by the featured works. 

Housed in the Zimmerli's lower Dodge wing, the exhibition is arranged around three primary "modes" of nonconformity — identity, nature and duplicitous strategies shared by artists. As a whole, the selection succeeds in expanding on interplay between abstraction, serialization, scale and alternative medium. 

Examples include the works of Estonian artist Leonhard Lapin, who produced scale through the serialization of forms. Lapin's 1978 "Signs" series features stark, iconographic forms, a silhouetted self-portrait and abstracted traces of the self. 

Raul Meel's "Travelling into the Green," created from 1973 to 1979, uses the repetition of abstract colors and shapes to draw the viewer into a linear visual, taking them on a journey through eight canvases. Without text, his guidance comes solely from a red "road", a spear of progression through the green background, as it diminishes throughout each individual painting.

These pieces create abstract spaces to consider both nature and history, with each artworks' subjects heavily contemplated by their respective artists. Exhibitions like these are among the greatest the Zimmerli has to offer, serving as new chapters in an evolving dialogue between works in its most impressive collection. 

The Zimmerli is entirely free for the public to enjoy and explore. The "Painting to Scale" exhibition will be available at the museum until October 5, 2025, giving those who are artistically minded ample time to take in the wild and wonderful world of Soviet nonconformist art at its most extravagant scale.