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The Avant-Gardists
Artists in Revolt in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union 1917–1935
Sjeng Scheijen
£35.00
A fascinating narrative biography of the art movement that transformed the modern world, tracing the lives and activities of the key protagonists as they set about a revolution in art
See InsideOverview
October 1917. The Russian Revolution wipes the old tsarist empire off the map. Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, Olga Rozanova, Vladimir Tatlin and other avant-garde artists participate in the revolutionary struggle, transforming inner cities with their progressive murals, posters, installations and performances. The new political leaders soon want nothing to do with these radical artists. While their reputation is growing in Europe, they experience increasing pressure in the Soviet Union.
Against a background of violent social and political change, author Sjeng Scheijen describes with compassion and humour events that shaped the artistic revolution in this, the first illustrated biography to relate the rise and fall of the leading figures of the Russian avant-garde. From philosophical and political subversion, involvement with the Bolshevik administration and links with Europe, to violent repression, incarcerations and torture in the 1930s under Stalin, events are narrated through artists’ personal memories drawn from existing and important new archival findings. Excerpts from diaries and correspondence reveal the extent of the avant-garde’s energy and determination to survive a totalitarian regime, civil war, hunger and terror.
Scheijen’s vivid, dynamic style, authoritative command of his source material and extensive original research provides exceptional insight into the lives of these avant-gardists, whose art left a lasting legacy that transformed modern art.
Against a background of violent social and political change, author Sjeng Scheijen describes with compassion and humour events that shaped the artistic revolution in this, the first illustrated biography to relate the rise and fall of the leading figures of the Russian avant-garde. From philosophical and political subversion, involvement with the Bolshevik administration and links with Europe, to violent repression, incarcerations and torture in the 1930s under Stalin, events are narrated through artists’ personal memories drawn from existing and important new archival findings. Excerpts from diaries and correspondence reveal the extent of the avant-garde’s energy and determination to survive a totalitarian regime, civil war, hunger and terror.
Scheijen’s vivid, dynamic style, authoritative command of his source material and extensive original research provides exceptional insight into the lives of these avant-gardists, whose art left a lasting legacy that transformed modern art.
Reviews
'A story as gripping as a thriller, and central to 20th-century art history. Scheijen’s account, drawing on artists’ letters, diaries and other substantial archival discoveries, is masterly and moving'
Best Summer Books of 2024: Visual Arts, Financial Times
'Definitely the best overview of the Russian avant-garde ... based on thorough research, it reads like a detective story'
Natalia Murray (Courtauld Institute), curator ‘Revolution’ (2017, RA)
'Marvellous … [Scheijen’s] deeply researched study charts in particular the improbable and brief elevation of radical artists to central positions in the Bolshevik administration in the early revolutionary years … It is a story he tells with verve … There is little that could be deemed as superfluous in this compelling and voluminous study'
Apollo
'Exemplary ... Schiejen’s book is multi-faceted, handsome on the mantelpiece – and blood soaked'
The Art Newspaper
'The pages follow the gripping lives and struggles of the lead characters of the Avant-Garde movement in their journey to alter the history of art. The illustrations in the book help the reader to imagine how art was a crucial aspect of the notorious movement ... The writing gives a chance to experience the lives of these artists through their memories and existing achieves with excerpts from diaries and correspondence reflecting the vigor of these extraordinary individuals waging a war against an unbeatable establishment'
.Cent
'An exhilarating history of the movement, illuminated by new research and insights, and with many comic moments amid the unfolding tragedy. Most enjoyable is the vividness with which he conjures up the personalities in the group, in particular the two great rivals Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin'
The Spectator
'Sjeng Scheijen is a master of his facts and wears his learning lightly'
Artbookreview
'Mr. Scheijen takes [readers] through the awkward romance between the 'proletarians of the brush' and a revolutionary state, underlining that the only commonality they truly shared was a nihilistic anti-traditionalism ... a sobering story told well and told roundly. It is likely the best overview of the era we’ll have for some time'
The New York Sun
'[A] rich, engaging narrative'
The Wall Street Journal
'In cutting through the retrospective romance that has clouded so many accounts of those years, Scheijen makes it more clear than ever before that the avant-garde’s relationship with Bolshevism was at best shaky long before Stalin’s program of annihilation was fully underway. The story Scheijen tells is full of frustrations, dashed hopes, and disasters'
The New York Review of Books
Product Information
Book Details
Format: Hardback
Size: 23.4 x 15.3 cm
Extent: 504 pp
Illustrations: 128
Publication date: 16 May 2024
ISBN: 9780500024553
Contents List
Introduction: why we paint our faces!
1. Kazimir Malevich in the Kremlin/ 1917
2. Tatlin, the Pittoresque collective/ 1917-1918
3. A white revolution/ 1917-1918
4. Monumental propaganda! Or, the avant-gardist as bureaucrat/ 1917-1918
5. Tatlin’s tower/ 1919-1921
6. Many avant-gardists in the provinces/ 1919-1922
7. The last laboratory/ 1922-1925
8. Family ties/ 1925-1927
9. Tatlin’s bird/ 1927-1932
10. Farewell/ 1932 and beyond
1. Kazimir Malevich in the Kremlin/ 1917
2. Tatlin, the Pittoresque collective/ 1917-1918
3. A white revolution/ 1917-1918
4. Monumental propaganda! Or, the avant-gardist as bureaucrat/ 1917-1918
5. Tatlin’s tower/ 1919-1921
6. Many avant-gardists in the provinces/ 1919-1922
7. The last laboratory/ 1922-1925
8. Family ties/ 1925-1927
9. Tatlin’s bird/ 1927-1932
10. Farewell/ 1932 and beyond
About the Author
Sjeng Scheijen is an author and an internationally acclaimed expert on Russian art. He has curated several important exhibitions in London, Groeningen and elsewhere, and is the former cultural attaché to the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Moscow. His previous book, Diaghilev: A Life (2009) received much critical acclaim, being described as ‘masterful’ by the Guardian and ‘magnificent’ by the Daily Mail.
