Sots Art (jan 1, 1972 – jan 1, 1990)

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Often referred to as “Soviet Pop Art”, Sots Art or soc art (Russian: Соц-арт, short for Socialist Art) originated in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s as a reaction against the official aesthetic doctrine of the state— socialist realism, which was marked by reverential depictions of workers, peasants living happily in their communes, and, during Stalinism, a young, fit Joseph Stalin.

Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid are credited with the invention of the term "Sots Art"; in an analogy with the Western pop art movement, which incorporated the kitchy elements of the Western mass culture, sots art capitalized on the imagery of the Socialist mass culture.[1]

According to Arthur Danto, Sots Art's attack on official styles is similar in intent to American pop art and German capitalist realism.[2]

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