The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...
that flourished in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960. The term covers many separate, but inextricably related,
art movements that flourished at the time; including
Suprematism,
Constructivism,
Russian Futurism,
Cubo-Futurism,
Zaum,
Imaginism, and
Neo-primitivism
In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of Idealization and devaluation, aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western ...
. In Ukraine, many of the artists who were born, grew up or were active in what is now
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
and
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
(including
,
Aleksandra Ekster
Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster (née Grigorovich; ; ; 18 January 1882 – 17 March 1949), also known as Alexandra Exter, was a Russian and French painter and designer.
As a young woman, her studio in Kiev attracted all the city's creative lum ...
,
Vladimir Tatlin,
David Burliuk,
Alexander Archipenko
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...
), are also classified in the
Ukrainian avant-garde.
The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between the
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
and 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of
Socialist Realism.
Artists and designers
Notable figures from this era include:
Journals
* ''
LEF''
* ''
Mir iskusstva''
Filmmakers
Writers
Theatre directors
Architects
Preserving Russian avant-garde architecture has become a real concern for historians, politicians and architects. In 2007,
MoMA in New York City, devoted an exhibition to Soviet avant-garde architecture in the postrevolutionary period, featuring photographs by
Richard Pare.
Composers
Many Russian composers that were interested in avant-garde music became members of the
Association for Contemporary Music which was headed by Roslavets.
See also
References
Further reading
Friedman, Julia ''Beyond Symbolism and Surrealism: Alexei Remizov's Synthetic Art'', Northwestern University Press, 2010. (Trade Cloth)
* Nakov, Andrei. Avant Garde Russe. England: Art Data. 1986.
* Kovalenko, G.F. (ed.) ''The Russian Avant-Garde of 1910–1920 and Issues of Expressionism''. Moscow: Nauka, 2003.
* Rowell, M. and Zander Rudenstine A. Art of the Avant-Garde in Russia: Selections from the George Costakis Collection. New York: The Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, 1981.
* Shishanov V.A. ''
Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art: a history of creation and a collection''. 1918–1941. – Minsk: Medisont, 2007. – 144 p.
'
“Encyclopedia of Russian Avangard. Fine Art. Architecture Vol.1 A-K, Vol.2 L-Z Biography”; Rakitin V.I., Sarab’yanov A.D., Moscow, 2013*Surviving Suprematism: Lazar Khidekel. Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley CA, 2004
*Lazar Khidekel and Suprematism. Prestel, 2014 (Regina Khidekel, with contributions by
Constantin Boym, Magdalena Dabrowski, Charlotte Douglas, Tatyana Goryacheva, Irina Karasik, Boris Kirikov and Margarita Shtiglits, and Alla Rosenfeld)
* Tedman, Gary. Soviet Avant Garde Aesthetics, chapter from Aesthetics & Alienation. pp 203–229. 2012. Zero Books.
External links
''Why did Soviet Photographic Avant-garde decline?''''Website about russian avant-garde.''The Russian Avant-garde FoundationThessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art – Costakis Collectionat th
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080506125526/http://www.avangard-ru.org/pages/masters-of-avantgarde.php Masters of Russian Avant-gardeMasters of Russian Avant-garde from the collection of the M.T. Abraham FoundationAbstraction and Estrangement across the Arts in the Russian Avant-garde Chapter 2 in ''The Poetics of the Avant-garde in Literature, Arts, and Philosoph''y, edited by Slav Gratchev, 2020, Rowman & Littlefield.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Avant-Garde
Modern art
Russian art
Russian art movements