Jean-Louis Cohen: Uncle Sam in the Land of the Soviets

Idealized notions of America, which represented both a desire and a threat, played an important role in shaping Russian architecture and urban design from the American Revolution until the fall of the Soviet Union. Jean-Louis Cohen traces the strong concept of "Americanism" and its influence on the Russian built environment from the early Tsarist interest in America during the revolutionary period through the grand world exhibitions of the nineteenth century to the department stores, skyscrapers, and factories built in Russia according to American methods in the twentieth century. The vision of America also captivated the Russian avant-garde, from El Lissitzky to Moisey Ginzburg. Cohen examines the ongoing artistic dialogue maintained between the two countries in the mid-century and the late Soviet period, when the Cold War sparked strategic competition. His study of Americanism in the architecture and urbanism of Russia presents a timely contribution to the understanding of modern architecture and its broader geopolitics. Research focusing on architecture and urbanism shows that this prism is a very useful means of understanding the theoretical or philosophical foundations of the multifaceted relationship, especially when both partners are trying to redefine the nature of society and the role of government on their own while also creating a methodology for responding to industrialization and modernization. Both the USSR and the USA valued symbols and theoretical models as demonstrations of viability and correctness: architecture and urbanism were the quintessence of policy and dogma, explaining the actions of each state from the clearest perspective.
Jean-Louis Cohen is an architect, historian, and curator, who has long focused on research in modern architecture and urban planning. Since 1994, he has served as a professor of architectural history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He has also been a visiting faculty member at the School of Architecture of Princeton University. As a curator, he has organized a number of exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt; Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paris; MAXXI, Rome. He has published more than 40 books in many countries and several languages. Among the most notable are: Building a New New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture, 2020; Frank Gehry: Catalogue Raisonné of the Drawings, Volume One, 1954–1978, 2020; Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes, 2013; Interférences / Interferenzen: Architecture, Allemagne, France 1800-2000, 2013; The Future of Architecture since 1889, 2012; Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War, 2011; Scenes of the World to Come, 1995; Le Corbusier and the Mystique of the USSR, 1992.