Check It Out:
The Wayland Rudd Collection at Winkleman Gallery, NYC
February 10, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
A very interesting exhibit in NYC provides an opportunity to explore historical images representing Africans and African Americans in the former Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1980s and the works of contemporary artists engaging with and responding to the images. The Wayland Rudd collection, a collaborative art project organized by Yevgeniy Fiks, is at the Winkleman Gallery through February 15.
The exhibit springboards from the life and work of U.S.-born Black actor Wayland Rudd who, fed up with the racism in America and the entertainment industry, moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s where revolution was transforming all aspects of society, including real efforts to eliminate racism. Rudd became a hugely popular star in Soviet theater, and his image became a model for paintings and posters until his death in Moscow in 1952. The historic images and modern responses are a complex look at the past, and its impact on the present, with much to reflect upon and discuss.
For those who are able to see the exhibit, I'd suggest thinking about it and discussing it with others in the light of Revolution newspaper's special issue, "You Don't Know What You Think You 'Know' About...The Communist Revolution and the REAL Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future, An Interview with Raymond Lotta."
Winkleman Gallery
621 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
T: 212.643.3152
Hours: Tuesday—Saturday, 11—6 p.m.
Dread Scott's "Constitution of the USSR" (2014), in "The Wayland Rudd Collection," a show at Winkleman Gallery. Photography by Etienne Frossard. Courtesy the artist and Winkleman Gallery, New York.
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