Almanahh "Kunst ja Kodu" 1973-1980
“Kunst ja Kodu” 1973–1980

Summary/Abstract: This article will look at the leading home decoration magazine from the Soviet period, “Kunst ja Kodu” (“Art and Home”), during the 1970s. It will firstly endeavour to analyse the magazine’s position and significance in the context of the changed art paradigm of the 1960s, foremostly the approach to art unleashed by Pop Art and then in the context of the peculiarities of the Soviet private space. Finally, it will examine how the magazine constructed a personal urban landscape opposed to the official channels of representation. Most researchers of the Soviet period have emphasised the special nature of the private sphere in the period in question, seeing it as a unique oasis in the midst of public totalitarianism. According to this approach the home, as a theme, allowed greater freedom for the makers of the almanac and offered cover for the introduction of forbidden or partially forbidden topics. But I think “Kunst ja Kodu” contains more complex levels of meaning in that the magazine can be viewed as a parallel to SOUP 69, an Estonian Pop Art group whose artistic activities are connected with the ideas of opposition to mass production, mass media and everyday life – which stems from Pop Art.

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