Russian avant-garde

The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modern art that flourished in Russia from approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960. The term covers many separate, but inextricably related, art movements that occurred at the time; namely Symbolism, neo-primitivism, suprematism, constructivism, and futurism. Given that many of these avant-garde artists were born or grew up in what is present day Belarus and Ukraine (including Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandra Ekster, Vladimir Tatlin, Wassily Kandinsky, David Burliuk, Alexander Archipenko), some sources also talk about Ukrainian avant-garde.

The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism. Notable figures from this era include:

Artists and Designers
*Nathan Altman
*Marc Chagall
*Vladimir Baranoff-Rossine
*David Burliuk
*Ilya Chashnik
*Aleksandra Ekster
*Pavel Filonov
*Naum Gabo
*Michail Grobman
*Natalia Goncharova
*Anna Kagan
*Wassily Kandinsky
*Ivan Kliun
*Gustav Klutsis
*Aristarkh Lentulov
*El Lissitzky
*Kazimir Malevich
*Paul Mansouroff
*Michael Matjuschin
*Vadim Meller
*Solomon Nikritin
*Liubov Popova
*Kliment Red'ko
*Alexander Rodchenko
*Olga Rozanova
*Léopold Survage
*Varvara Stepanova
*Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg
*Vladimir Tatlin
*Vasiliy Yermilov
*Nadezhda Udaltsova
*Alexandr Zhdanov

Journals
*LEF
*Mir iskusstva

Filmmakers

*Alexander Dovzhenko
*Sergei Eisenstein
*Vsevolod Pudovkin
*Dziga Vertov

Writers

*Velimir Khlebnikov
*Vladimir Mayakovsky
*Sergei Tretyakov

Theatre Directors
*Vsevolod Meyerhold
*Nikolai Evreinov
*Yevgeny Vakhtangov
*Sergei Eisenstein

Architects
*Yakov Chernikhov
*Moisei Ginzburg
*Ilya Golosov
*Ivan Leonidov
*Konstantin Melnikov
*Vladimir Shukhov
*Alexander Vesnin

Preserving Russian avant-garde architecture has become a real concern for historians, politicians and architects. In 2007, the Modern Museum of Art MoMA in New York, devoted an exhibition entirely to the * [http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=5138 Lost Vanguard: Soviet Architecture] , featuring the work of American Photographer Richard Pare.

Main Articles

*Constructivism
*VKhUTEMAS
*Russian Futurism
*Cubo-Futurism
*Suprematism
*Constructivist architecture
*Soviet art
*Avant-garde
*Russian Symbolism

External links

* [http://www.dekaro.it/soviet.html "Why did Soviet Photographic Avant-garde decline?"]
* [http://www.russianavantgarde.org The Russian Avant-garde Foundation]
* [http://www.greekstatemuseum.com Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art - Costakis Collection]
* [http://www.shukhov.org/news.html?n=34&id=1#news_34 International campaign to save the Shukhov Tower in Moscow]
* [http://www.avangard-ru.org/pages/masters-of-avantgarde.php Masters of Russian Avant-garde]

References

* Kovalenko, G.F. (ed.) "The Russian Avant-Garde of 1910-1920 and Issues of Expressionism". Moscow: Nauka, 2003.