The painting section of the Moscow joint Committee of the Union of artists of graphs (1976—1988): its structure and self-determination

The article is devoted to one of the aspects of history and forms of activity of the Painting section of the Moscow City Committee of Graphs in the 1970s‑1980s. — ​its structure and administrative organization. Such study was done for the first time. Based on archival materials, the work of the Section in reflecting both the nature of the relationship between art and power as well as the circumstances of the artistic life of late Soviet times, was recreated along with the creative and exhibition processes. Being a unique community of artists of its period, the Section of Painting lies between the official and unofficial layers of culture and combines both features of official creative association (formal structure of the organization) and elements of unofficial culture (directional diversity, non-ideological nature of the activity. The elements of the trade union and association according to the creative principle, as well as future non-public galleries of the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries were combined in the structure of the Section.