Dreamworlds and Catastrophes: Intersections of Art and Science in the Dodge Collection

Dreamworlds and Catastrophes examines what was one of the dominant concerns of Soviet unofficial artists—and citizens everywhere—during the Cold War: the consequences of innovations in science, technology, mathematics, communications, and design. Produced between the 1960s and the 1980s, the works on view address themes of international significance from a turbulent period marked by the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a failed attempt at improved U.S.-Soviet relations. Their subject matter and formal appearance reflect the artists’ fascination with the Soviet and American space race and the worldwide tensions resulting from a nuclear arms deadlock.

Creative interpretations of these key historical events and their repercussions are presented through the works of more than twenty artists from the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia. The exhibition explores the utopian fantasies and anxious realities of everyday Soviet life in the second half of the twentieth century through a variety of media, from documentary photographs and surrealist abstractions, to hyperrealist paintings and kinetic sculptures. While technological advancements gave great hope, they also took their toll on the Soviet economy, environment, and quality of life. Seeking to improve their situations, artists embraced the new worlds opened to them, reimagining or even dreaming of escaping their earthly environments.

Framing the Dodge Collection within the period of its own conception, this exhibition honors the collecting history and legacy of Norton Dodge—an inimitable mediator—whose commitment to this work continues to shape an understanding of the transnational exchanges in art and culture during the Cold War.

Organized by Ksenia Nouril, a Dodge Fellow at the Zimmerli and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History at Rutgers

This exhibition is made possible by the Avenir Foundation Endowment Fund