Elena Varshavskaya
An art historian of a broad profile, Elena Varshavskaya has two foci of interest – the arts of Japan with emphasis on ukiyo-e woodblock prints and the arts of Russia with the emphasis on the avant-garde movements. She has lectured widely on these and related topics. Her research has been centered on the treatment of the banned historical material in ukiyo-e prints published under the strict censorship regulations of the late Tokugawa period. To this theme she has devoted numerous articles and a monograph “Heroes of Grand Pacification” published by Brill, a leading European publishing house on oriental arts. Varshavskaya has a considerable curatorial experience, co-curating and curating exhibitions of ukiyo-e prints at the Hermitage Museum, Russia, at Springfield Museums, Massachusetts, and at the RISD Museum. As a teacher, Varshavskaya firmly believes in the ultimate value of first-hand art education and has elaborated and continues to lead art history academic courses in Russia (hosted by the Hermitage Museum) and in Japan.
Academic areas of interest
- Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and urban culture of Japan
- Censorship and ukiyo-e woodblock prints
- Musha-e: warrior genre in ukiyo-e woodblock prints
- Warring States Period and warrior culture in Japan
- Japonisme and Russian avant-garde painting and graphic arts
- Nomadic art of Eurasia (Scythian and Turkic) and its repercussions in Russian avant-
garde painting - Oases on the Silk Road: Buddhist art, its spread eastward and history of Russian
excavations in the region
Fall 2021
Wintersession 2022
Spring 2022

- Elena Varshavskaya
- Senior Lecturer - History of Art & Visual Culture
- evarshav@risd.edu
- 401-454-6269
- Elena Varshavskaya’s CV
- MA, Herzen Pedagogical University
- MA, The State Hermitage Museum
- PHD, State Academy of Art, Moscow