The Wayland Rudd Collection

Wayland Rudd (1900-1952) was an African American actor who moved to the Soviet Union in 1932 and lived there until 1952. He appeared in numerous Soviet films and theatrical performances, and served as a model for paintings, drawings, and propaganda posters. Using Rudd?s personal story as a springboard, 'The Wayland Rudd Collection' presents Soviet images of Africans and African Americans produced between 1920 and 1980 alongside responses from contemporary artists, writers, and scholars. The book maps the complicated and often contradictory intersection of race and Communism in the Soviet context, exposing the interweaving of internationalism, solidarity, humanism, and Communist ideals with practices of othering, exoticization, and racist stereotyping.00The book is edited by Russian-Amerian artist Yevgeniy Fiks, whose works explore the dialectic between Communism and ?the West? and build on historical research into Cold War narratives.