Medals, Barriers, Fathers, and Careers: Institutional Inertia and Transformation in the Russia Artistic World in the End of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract

This paper employs quantitative historical-sociological analysis to describe the social background, professional practices, and achievements of Russian artists who participated in exhibitions in 1871–1917, starting with the first private exhibition of the “Peredvizhniki” society whose success stimulated the appearance of numerous artistic groups and associations. The biographies of three generations of painters are studied to check the hypotheses on the transition of the artistic world to the “institutionalization of anomie” (Bourdieu) and “singularity regime” (Heinich). The paper analyses how initial family resources and personal career investments influenced the chances of artists to receive recognition during their lifetime, and museum consecration after their death. The controls for the following parameters were included in the analysis are the class and status of an artist’s father, minority status, the membership of an artist’s father in the artistic milieu, gender, and lifetime recognition. The study shows that contrary to Heinich’s theses on the transition to the “singularity regime”, artists whose paintings are represented in the main Russian fine-art museums do not fit the image of non-recognized asocial mavericks. Lifetime official recognition, studying in leading Russian schools for the fine arts, lessons in foreign ateliers, and involvement in the organizational building significantly increases the chances of an artist to be present at the expositions of the most renowned Russian art museums. The study helps to understand the distinctive features of the youngest generation which produced the most important artistic innovation associated with Russia, the so-called Russian Avant-garde.