In the art institutes of the Soviet Union, artists were influenced by traditional academic curriculum, styles from previous movements like Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, and their own lived and varied experiences. Encouraged to use this depth of training and experience, the artists pushed each other to not rely on past themes, but find new subject matter and a new perceptions of reality. To remind them of this great goal, there were banners hung across their art studios that read: “The picture itself above everything”.