Caricaturing Modernism

Exhibition Catalogue. Soviet Cartoons on Art from the Collection of Yuri Albert. Through a rare selection of 24 cartoons created between the 1930s and 1970s and published in the satirical magazine Krokodil and other periodicals, the exhibition explores the multifaceted realities of everyday life in Soviet society. The works reveal the complex relationships between artists and authority, artists and the public, as well as the intrigues surrounding exhibition committees, the privileges and anxieties of creators, and the ideological conflict between Socialist Realism and the “decadent” art of the West.

The collection was assembled by conceptual artist Yuri Albert, who was drawn to these images precisely because of their distinctive relationship with reality. As Albert has noted, the cartoonists often mocked artworks they had never actually seen, while audiences formed their understanding of modernism through these distorted representations. In this way, satire itself contributed to the creation of a “fictional” version of modern art — one shaped as much by ideology and imagination as by artistic reality.

This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Soviet Cartoons on Art from the Collection of Yuri Albert, presenting a unique visual archive that reflects the tensions, contradictions, and cultural narratives of the Soviet era.