Svomas or SVOMAS (russian: Свомас or СВОМАС), an abbreviation for ''Svobodnye gosudarstvennye khudozhestvennye masterskiye'' (russian: Свободные Государственные художественные мастерские) (Free State Art Studios), was the name of a series of art schools founded in several Russian cities after the
October Revolution.
The Moscow Svomas was founded in 1918, replacing the
(which became the First Free Art Studio), and the
(which became the Second Free Art Studio). In 1920, the school was replaced by
Vkhutemas design school. The Petrograd Svomas was created in 1919 by renaming the Petrograd Free Art Educational Studios (Pegoskhuma), which had been formed a year earlier when the
Academy of Arts
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
was abolished; in 1921 it was replaced by the Petrograd State Art-Educational Studios of the Reconstructed Academy of Arts.
The aim of Svomas was to spread awareness of and competence in the arts to the previously underprivileged workers and peasants. Entrance examinations were abolished, art history courses were optional, the faculty was replaced by avant-garde artists, and students were free to choose their professors.
[Wassily Kandinsky, Kenneth C. Lindsay, and Peter Vergo, ''Kandinsky: Complete Writings On Art'' (Da Capo Press, 1994: ), p. 489.]
References
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Russian avant-garde
Universities and institutes established in the Soviet Union
Art schools in Russia