Neo-Academicism, Russia’s Last 20th-Century Avant-Garde Art Movement

“Fearing modern art’s encroachment on artistic traditions,” Leningrad avant-garde leader Timur Novikov, during the 1990s, “called for a return to ancient Greco-Roman ideals of beauty and harmony. But rather than simply reproducing classical motifs, Novikov [and his fellows] … adapted them to the 20th century with new media and irreverent interpretations.”