The Territory of Freedom
Installation view of the 14th Shanghai Biennale. Courtesy The Estate of Anna Andreeva & Layr, Vienna
Installation view of the 14th Shanghai Biennale. Courtesy The Estate of Anna Andreeva & Layr, Vienna
Installation view of the 14th Shanghai Biennale. Courtesy The Estate of Anna Andreeva & Layr, Vienna
Installation view of the 14th Shanghai Biennale. Courtesy The Estate of Anna Andreeva & Layr, Vienna
The work "1/2 of the Moon" by Russian artist Anna Andreeva (1917-2008) from the Stadler Collection has traveled a long way - it will be shown at the Shanghai Biennale until March 31, 2024.
Under the title Cosmos Cinema, Chinese and international artists are exploring the relationship between man and the universe. Anna Andreeva has also been fascinated by space throughout her life. As one of the leading textile designers at the renowned Soviet silk factory Red Rose, she created hundreds of designs for scarves and fabrics.
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She found inspiration for her patterns in mathematics and, time and again, in space and space travel. In the 1960s and 70s, she created her "Cosmos" series, and in 1961 she even designed a
scarf that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin presented to Queen Elizabeth II during a visit. This kind of "cultural diplomacy" of the USSR was decisively influenced by Anna Andreeva and her designs. The work "1/2 of the Moon", with its somewhat provocative title, was also a design for a diplomatic gift that was never realized. Andreeva developed her characteristic ornamentation for the first time here - a combination of stripes of text and image.
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As a textile designer, she had the freedom to work largely abstractly, albeit always under the strict eye of the Soviet censorship authorities. Her designs were repeatedly dismissed as "abstract propaganda", but she found ways to realize them nonetheless. "Textile was the territory of freedom", as she herself once said.
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Anna Andreeva's work offers a fascinating insight into the history of art, design and science in the former Soviet Union. We are delighted that her work is lately receiving increasing attention outside Russia.
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As part of the Biennale, Christina Kiaer from Northwestern University, USA, gave a highly recommended lecture entitled "A Cosmic-Minded Comrade" at the Red Rose Collective about Anna Andreeva on November 10, 2023.