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Vasily Kandinsky was one of the principal founders of abstract painting, perhaps the most revolutionary development in 20th-century art. In this collection, Messer has selected notable paintings, reproduced as colour plates, from every period of Kandinsky's career. The early years are documented in images such as the mythological "Riding Couple" from the "heroic" period of his work. In the years before World War I, he made a breakthrough into highly expressionistic abstract paintings such as "Co...

Monumental in scale and rich in detail, Konstantin Makovsky's stunning paintings epitomize the charm of Old Russia. His early career blossomed in late 19th-century St. Petersburg, where he became painter to the Tsar's court. His popularity soon spread far beyond Russia. He lived and worked in Paris and then America, where he and his paintings acquired celebrity status. This beautifully illustrated book, the first full survey of Makovsky's career in English, positions his work at the crossroads...

"At a time when interest in Russia's past has never been so strong and Russian artefacts at auction continue to achieve astonishing prices, Cynthia Coleman Sparke's new book is a timely and indispensable companion for both enthusiastic beginner and established collector." John C Benjamin, Antiques Roadshow jewellery specialist Russia's last great Imperial celebration took place at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg with the lavish ball of 1913 celebrating 300 years of Romanov rule. The fi...

With these words the sculptors Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner pronounced the official birth of constructivist art, the most revolutionary, challenging, and enigmatic of twentieth-century artistic movements. Since the time of their "Realistic Manifesto," constructivism has spread throughout the world, opposing personal, expressionistic art with abstraction and formal construction. In this book, Stephen Bann has collected the most important constructivist documents, including the writings of EI Lis...

Many of the greatest avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century were Ukrainians or came from Ukraine. Whether living in Paris, St. Petersburg or Kyiv, they made major contributions to painting, sculpture, theatre, and film-making. Because their connection to Ukraine has seldom been explored, English-language readers are often unaware that figures such as Archipenko, Burliuk, Malevich, and Exter were inspired both by their country of origin and their links to compatriots. This book traces...

This lavishly illustrated book is devoted to Russian art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - a period often known as the "age of Diaghilev." This legendary Russian Impressario was the moving force behind the ambitious publication of the magazine The World of Art and the founding of the artistic society of the same name, whose exhibitions did so much to define the face of Russian art at the turn of the century. The artists, composers and choreographers who contributed to Sergei...

This is an examination of the paintings, books, poetry and theoretical work of Russian avant-garde artist, Olga Rozanova. The text assesses Rozanova's life and work, aiming to recreate the spirit of the counterculture milieu that contributed to the transformation of 20th-century art.

In The Russian Passion for Dutch Painting of the Golden Age, Irina Sokolova presents the collection of paintings created by Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tyan-Shansky (1827–1914), an outstanding scholar and Russian statesman during the era of liberal reforms in Russia. Not only did this man of great erudition assemble a unique body of more than 700 works by Dutch and Flemish masters, but he pushed hard to ensure that it entered the Imperial Hermitage in 1914. His activities as a collector have until r...

The early experimental work of one of the founders of Russian conceptualism Russian poet, author, artist and art theorist Andrei Monastyrski (born 1949) is, along with Ilya Kabakov, one of the founders of conceptualism in Russia, and a protagonist of Collective Actions, a group of artists who have organized participatory actions on the outskirts of Moscow since 1976. Though his poetry is less well known, poetry is where he began. After writing in the manner of the Russian modernists (who were n...

An Imperial Collection explores how women as patrons, painters, and subjects contributed to the cultural history of Russia. Eminent families formed collections and created artistic commissions that brought women artists to Russia and extended the influence of western European art to the royal court of the czars. Some women artists were allowed into the inner circles of the aristocracy, providing an "insider" view into the private side of court life.Artists whose works are explored in the book in...

Providing a history of avant-garde Soviet photography and photomontage, this text analyzes the function of the photographic image in the Soviet Union between 1924 and 1937. Among the photographers whose work is discussed are Aleksander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Gustav Klutsis.

The State Tretyakov Gallery, the leading reservoir of Russian fine art in the world, has presented iconic masterpieces for the first time ever in Doha as part of Qatar-Russia 2018 Year of Culture. The exhibition catalogue traces the connections between the artworks by revolutionary pioneers of the early 20th century such as Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko and Mikhail Matyushin in comparison to the creations of the artists of the avant-garde second wave. The most radical discoveries of the...