Angelina Lucento’s admiration for post-Soviet spaces can be traced back to the 1992 summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The assistant professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies cut her teeth in the world of women’s competitive gymnastics at a time when the newly dissolved USSR had reconfigured into the Unified Team — and continued to dominate the sport.
Lucento’s specialty was the uneven bars, where the teenager utilized her physical strength to execute bold transitions navigating from bar to bar. And as she closely followed the Olympic successes of the Unified Team on her television back in the States, the teenager began to develop a fascination with Soviet spaces.
“All those female gymnasts on the Unified Team were from different countries,” she explains. “The gymnast who won the individual gold was from Ukraine and another was from Belarus. They weren’t just Russian, so that’s what really started my interest in the Soviet Union as a global entity.”
Bringing this Soviet-era appreciation with her to Bryn Mawr College as an undergrad, she chose Russian for her language requirement. The more she studied, the more she treasured not only the country’s language and culture but also its rich visual art.
“I naively thought that I’d study Russian for the required two years and then I’d know the language,” she confesses. “Russian doesn’t work that way, so I just stuck with it and really fell in love with the whole package.”
So much so that she eventually moved to Russia. And after seven years of teaching at HSE University in Moscow, Lucento has returned to the United States. We sat down with her to learn more about her journey, current research projects and what the fall semester entails.
The summer of your junior year at Bryn Mawr, you traveled to Russia and returned to the States with a different career path. How did that trip recalibrate your trajectory?
That summer, I was studying Russian in St. Petersburg when I took a three-day trip to Moscow that changed everything. I visited the State Tretyakov Gallery, the national gallery housing Soviet and post-Soviet art. Although I had taken undergraduate art history courses, I had never seen artwork like that before.
It didn’t fit any rubric I had been taught, so I had so many questions: Why did it look the way it did? What was the meaning behind the work? How did it fit with contemporary art? I couldn’t simply shoehorn it into any models I knew, and that really piqued my interest — and made me question my career path.
Because medical professionals must make monumental ethical decisions every day, I felt that if I had any doubts about a career in medicine, I needed to listen to them sooner rather than later. So, I applied to grad programs and was accepted to Northwestern University, where I earned a Ph.D. in social art history.
While you minored in Russian, you majored in chemistry as an undergraduate. Do you find that your STEM education benefits your humanities and arts scholarship?
Absolutely. There’s an analytical thinking that develops when studying the natural sciences, and I’ve found that to be so useful in other aspects of my life. My chemistry background made it easier for me to understand the mechanics of painting, why the colors come across the way they do and why the materials have a particular interaction or wear. It’s not uncommon for artists, especially modern artists, to be interested in science and medicine.
Can you give us some insight into your current research projects?
I’m finishing a monograph that I’ve been working on for a while: “The Socialist Surface: Painting as the Origin of Soviet Visual Media, 1918 to 1941.” It focuses on the influence of both easel and monumental painting on Soviet avant-garde art, mass media culture and visual communication theory. Fortunately, living and working in Russia gave me the ability to conduct research on a level I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
I have a second where I’m focusing on the late African American artist Sam Gilliam. I examine his canvases, which are so physical and sculptural, while exploring his participation in the Civil Rights Movement.
Along with your research projects and adjusting to North Carolina summers, what does your Fall 2024 course load look like?
I’m teaching Avant-Garde Art 1900-1945 and a course on internal modern realism, as well as an introduction to Russian culture through art. I’ll also teach a seminar exploring the art and politics of cotton, where we’ll look at its influence in the United States and the Soviet Union and discuss slavery and racism in these capitalist and socialist cultures through this cash crop.
It’s going to be a busy semester, but I’m prepared and excited for the transitions.