Art plays a special role in every culture. Artists often capture the greatness of historical scenes, beautiful scenes from cities or village life, cultural customs, traditional forms and patterns, and, of course, the likenesses of great leaders and creators.
Artists can also push the boundaries of what is acceptable to discuss and push people to see the world around them with new perspective and in new forms. Works by Ilya Repin and Kazimir Malevich, for example, are celebrated not only as remarkable art but also as insightful commentaries on the societal and intellectual shifts of their eras.
The influence of art is so profound that governments frequently seek to endorse art that aligns with their ideals and suppress art that challenges their authority.
Thus, in the diverse artistic heritages of Eurasia, we find a magnificent variety of traditional art, classical art, experimental art, and political art. This section is devoted to those artists and their creations.
Mikhail Vrubel’s importance in Russian art is now undisputed, but during his own lifetime he achieved little success. He was heavily criticized for his rough, unrealistic forms, decorative use of space and strange motifs. He was a Symbolist and an expressionist at a time when most artists still ascribed to the Realist tradition of the Wanderers. […]