Collections
Stories
The Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit under the oppressive rule of totalitarian regimes worldwide. The Collection presents artists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, who stood for their freedom of expression, despite the harassment and prosecution that they faced from Soviet-era authorities. These artists’ resistance to the constraints imposed on all aspects of life at that time gains new relevance today and should strengthen our resolve to preserve the open societies they fought for.
Leonhard Lapin, Holes in the Head, 1972. Gouache on paper. Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union. Collection Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. Photo Peter Jacobs.