Igor Golomstock (11 January 1929 - 12 July 2017) was a London-based Russian art historian. He was the author of several books about Western artists like

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oa ...

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

, Hans Holbein and

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

. In ''Totalitarian Art'', he contended that totalitarian art looked the same regardless of the regime.

Early life

Igor Golomstock was born on 11 January 1929 in Kalinin, Soviet Union (now

Tver Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...

, Russia). After his Karaite Jew father, Naum Kojak, was sent to a

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

, his parents divorced and Igor took his mother's name. From 1939 to 1943, as he was a teenager, Golomstock and his mother lived in

Kolyma Kolyma (russian: Колыма́, ) is a region located in the Russian Far East. It is bounded to the north by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and by the Sea of Okhotsk to the south. The region gets its name from the Kolyma River an ...

, a labour camp in the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

. Golomstock graduated from

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

, where he studied art history.

Career

Golomstock began his career by working for the

Soviet Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (), formed in 1936, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. It was formerly (until 1946) known as the State Committee on the Arts (). The Minis ...

. He was also a resident scholar at the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

, and he taught art history at his alma mater, Moscow University. After emigrating to the United Kingdom in 1972, he taught art history at

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

, the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. In 1977, he "co-curated the exhibition ''Unofficial Art from the Soviet Union'' at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

" in London. He subsequently worked as a radio presenter on the ''

BBC Russian Service BBC News Russian (russian: BBC News Ру́сская слу́жба) – formerly BBC Russian Service (russian: Ру́сская слу́жба Би-би-си́) – is part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output, one of nearly 4 ...

''. Golomstock was the author of several books. His first book, co-written with

Andrei Sinyavsky Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (russian: Андре́й Дона́тович Синя́вский; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965. Sinyavsk ...

, was about

. His other books were about

, Hans Holbein and

. He was best-known for ''Totalitarian Art'', first published in 1990 and republished in 2011, in which he contended that totalitarian art looked the same regardless of the regime. In particular he showed that both Nazism and Stalinism depicted "industrious families, idealistic soldiers and compassionate leaders." Golomstock found similar features in Fascist and Maoist art. Golomstock authored his memoir in 2011.

Personal life and death

Golomstock married Nina Kazarovets in 1960; they had a son, Benjamin. They resided in London, U.K. After they separated in the 1990s, he had a relationship with Flora Goldstein, an archeologist. Golomstock died on 12 July 2017, aged 88.

Selected works

*''Totalitarian Art'' (1990; 2011) *''Memoirs of an Old Pessimist'' (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golomstock, Igor 1929 births 2017 deaths People from Tver Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University Academics of the University of Essex Academics of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Oxford Russian art historians Russian radio personalities BBC radio presenters Russian Jews Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation alumni