scrss logo
link to Home
link to About Us
link to Library and Archive
Art and Architecture
link to Literature
link to Music and Dance
link to SCRSS Archive
link to Social and Political History
link to Theatre and Cinema
link to Photo Library
link to Events
link to Publications
link to Contact Us
link to Useful Links
 

Art and Architecture

Art

The art reference collection covers fine and applied art from Russia and the former Soviet Union. It is of interest to art historians, theatre designers and publishers.

The range is wide - from general histories of Russian and Soviet art to specific aspects of painting, sculpture, print-making and the graphic arts, theatre design, icons, folk art, textiles and ceramics. The Russian period is well represented with a substantial section on icons, the 19th-century schools and monographs on individual Russian artists. The Soviet period covers the avant-garde, socialist realism and individual Soviet artists. In particular, there is a strong section on the constructivists, some rare books by and about designers, and excellent coverage of the Cold War years.

Titles are in Russian and English, predominantly from Soviet publishers. The collection is supplemented by back issues of a number of Soviet art and cultural magazines.

Architecture

The architecture reference collection covers all aspects of architecture, building and town planning in Russia from medieval times to the 20th century. It is an invaluable resource on the Russian and Soviet period for architecture historians and researchers.

The collection holds over 500 reference titles, many illustrated with extensive plans and architectural details, as well as photographs and illustrations. The Russian period includes monographs on Russian and Western architects to the Tsarist court, such as Bazhenov, Cameron and Rastrelli. The Soviet period includes monographs on figures such as the avant-garde designers Leonidov and Melnikov; Alexei Shchusev, designer of the Lenin Mausoleum; and the 20th-century theatre designers and architects Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin. There are also titles on the Soviet avant-garde period donated by the late Dr Catherine Cooke.

The majority of titles in the main architecture collection are Soviet publications in Russian or English. It is supplemented by back issues of a number of Soviet architecture magazines. The Huntly Carter Collection within the photo library also provides an important visual resource on avant-garde architecture in the 1920s-30s.

Two special archives enhance the collection - the Arthur Ling Bequest and the SCR Architecture and Planning Group Archive.

Arthur Ling Bequest

The Arthur Ling Bequest was received by the Society in 1996.

Professor Arthur Ling (1913-95) was a notable progressive architect and town planner with a firm belief in the importance of architecture and city planning for community structure. He was City Architect and Planning Officer for Coventry from 1955-64, Head of Nottingham University's Department of Architecture and Civic Planning from 1964-69, served as Vice President of the RIBA from 1963-64 and as President of the Town Planning Institute from 1968-69, and worked in his own practice Arthur Ling and Associates, among other posts.

Having become interested in the Soviet planning system in the 1930s, he visited the USSR in 1939, staying on to study Soviet town planning - just as the UK declared war on Germany. His research produced several articles for the Anglo-Soviet Journal (he joined the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR - SCR in 1940 or 1941), as well as a pamphlet Planning and Building in the USSR in the early 1940s, and he maintained a strong interest in Soviet and socialist architecture and planning throughout his career. In April 1945 he founded the SCR's influential Architecture and Planning Group (see below) and remained its Chair until it ceased to exist in 1956 during the Cold War. From 1986-92 he also chaired the revival of this SCR group, when Ling saw an opportunity to renew exchanges between Soviet and British architects and planners under perestroika.

The Arthur Ling collection covers architecture and town planning in both the Soviet Union and post-war Eastern Europe. It includes books, photographs and slides taken on his travels in the region.

SCR Architecture and Planning Group Archive

The Society holds the archive of the influential SCR Architecture and Planning Group (1945-56), founded by Arthur Ling and whose members included such alumni as Sir Patrick Abercrombie, Wells Coates, Erno Goldfinger, Berthold Lubetkin and Sir Charles Reilly. The group was revived in early 1986 during the Gorbachev period as 'SCR Architects and Planners', under Arthur Ling's chairmanship, and continued until 1995.


 

Pioneer camp poster (Cicely Osmond Collection, SCRSS Library)

 

Related Links

SCRSS Online Catalogue

SCRSS Archive

Huntly Carter Collection

 

Design by Melnikov for USSR Pavilion at Paris Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts 1925 (SCRSS Library)

© SCRSS