The Institute of Modern Russian Culture (IMRC), Los Angeles, is concerned with the cultural history of Russia-especially the visual arts and literature during the 19th and 20th centuries. The primary aim of the IMRC is to preserve and propagate the esthetic values of Russian culture and it manifests a particular interest in painting, architecture, photography, and the applied arts. To this end the IMRC serves as a center for the collection and systematization of archives and rare books regarding these subjects, especially editions illustrated by artists of the fin de siecle, the avant-garde, and the Stalin era, and memoirs, diaries, treatises, manifestoes, and interviews published and unpublished by artists such as Lev Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Marc Chagall, Pavel Filonov, Natalia Goncharova, Vasilii Kandinsky, Mikhail Larionov, Kazimir Malevich, Pavel Mansurov, Konstantin Somov, Vladimir Tatlin, and Viktor Zamirailo. Critics well represented in the IMRC library include Erik Gollerbakh, Nikolai Punin, Aleksei Sidorov, Yakov Tugendkhold, and Nikolai Vrangel.
Incorporated in 1979 and since then directed by John E. Bowlt, the IMRC issues a newsletter twice a year and an annual journal, Experiment. While serving as a resource for the study of Russian intellectual and material culture, especially for graduates and faculty, the IMRC also organizes or co-organizes conferences and public lectures, and sponsors exhibitions of artifacts from its own collection. The IMRC is also much involved in teaching and research programs at the University of Southern California, currently working with a team of undergraduates, for example, on the classification and digitization of vintage Soviet photographs from its collections and on a database of non-conformist materials. Another project that will play an increasing role in the activities of the IMRC is a historical exploration and appreciation of the Russian Diaspora in Southern California.
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For more information call
Institute of Modern Russian Culture
213 740 2735
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