The Experimental Group

“Matthew Jesse Jackson’s The Experimental Group is an engaging, beautifully written, and erudite study of unofficial Soviet art. It makes a strong case for Kabakov’s achievements across multiple art forms, and provides brilliant readings of numerous individual drawings, albums, mixed media work, and installations. Moving far beyond his own field of art history, Jackson makes a major statement about Soviet society, culture, and politics as a whole. Without idealizing the late Soviet period in the least, he shows how its norms of cultural conversation, the organization of work and free time, occasional but critical moments of access to Western innovations in the arts, emerging new philosophies of the artistic process, and the important role of viewer (or reader) response all conspired to make possible extraordinary art. Jackson prompts us to recognize the "period of stagnation" as a time of intellectual ferment--with the Soviet citizenry acting as the ultimate "experimental group." This monumental study of creativity in and after the late Soviet period is a remarkable scholarly achievement.”

"Matthew Jesse Jackson combines vast art historical and theoretical erudition with a rare ability to understand the specific social milieus and psychological motives that govern individual artistic strategies."—Boris Groys, New York University

"[Jackson’s] rich narrative . . . reads almost like a novel."

"Very few contemporary art history books are of such note that they appear to revise completely their chosen topic, as well as potentially a few others along the way, but Matthew Jesse Jackson’s The Experimental Group does precisely that."

“The best art historical text I have read on postwar Soviet art. . . . For me this book is as close to a page-turner as any art history book is ever likely to be.”

"Jackson demonstrates . . . a deep familiarity with the era’s artistic milieu."

“A rich account…a rigorous analysis…the most comprehensive treatment of the most distinguished living post-Soviet artist has arrived.”

“Jackson engagingly combines an analysis of Kabakov’s work with perceptive analysis of contemporaries such as Eric Bulatov, Oskar Rabin, Andrei Monastyrskii, Vitali Komar, and Aleksandr Melamid. He amplifies this analysis with references to Russian literature and to numerous sources in art criticism and the philosophy of language and perception. Jackson’s access to Kabakov and familiarity with Moscow’s cultural milieu give readers a sense of direct contact with the intensely nuanced world of Moscow conceptualism. . . . Recommended.”

"[T]he certainty of Jackson’s substantial scholarship make[s] The Experimental Group well worth reading."

“The most concretely informative book on the Moscow Conceptualist milieu to date. Jackson’s lucid, engaging prose further recommends his study, especially to readers seeking an introduction to Soviet unofficial art.”