Lili Brik and the New Soviet Woman: A Lunchtime Talk with Anastasia Skoybedo

This talk will look at how Lili Brik’s position, as both muse and socialite, reflected the changing gender norms and the status of women in the decades following the Russian revolution. We will discuss the depictions of women in popular visual culture and art to illuminate the nuances and contradictions that existed in Soviet society in the 1920s and 1930s as the establishment of the new social order was taking place.

About Lili Brik

Lilia Brik is one of the most well-known women in Russian twentieth century culture, as well as one of its more controversial figures. She was immortalized by Aleksandr Rodchenko in his photography and Vladimir Mayakovsky in his poetry, becoming one of the more pronounced symbols of a modern Soviet woman. At the same time, she maintained a flamboyant lifestyle that was at odds with the lives led by the majority of Soviet citizens, and was friendly with members of the Soviet secret police (NKVD), while many of the people around her, including her own friends, were killed.

About Anastasia Skoybedo

Anastasia Skoybedo is a PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge. She is supervised by Professor Rosalind P. Blakesley. Her dissertation focuses on the Circle of Artists (Krug khudozhnikov), a group of overlooked Soviet artists from Leningrad, who were active from 1926 onwards.

Anastasia obtained her B.A. in International Relations and Philosophy from Boston University and completed her M.A. in the History of Art at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts in New York. Her research interests include history of printmaking and bookmaking, Soviet modernism, artistic agency in totalitarian/authoritarian regimes, institutional art history, and the intersection of art and politics in general.