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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 the avant-garde development from its pre-war years in Paris to the end of the 1920s in Kyiv. It includes chapters on the political dilemmas faced by this generation, the contribution of Jewish artists, and the work of several emblematic figures: Mykhailo Boichuk, David Burliuk, Kazimir Malevich, Vadym Meller, Ivan Kavaleridze, and Dziga Vertov.
“Shkandrij highlights an important Ukrainian dimension of the avant-garde movement. … Undoubtedly, this book’s most important contribution to scholarship is its focus on the Ukrainian dimension of the avant-garde, that has long been neglected in the historiography. Shkandrij notes that their peculiar group features have been obscured by their belonging to the international movement (xi); or their association with the Russian avant-garde. Such a view has become deeply embedded in public reception, as seen from Wikipedia entries, or the controversy surrounding the debate to name Kyiv airport after Malevich. To challenge this contested legacy, Shkandrij offers to examine these artists’ self-identification and investigate national inspirations for their artwork.” —Olena Palko, Birkbeck, University of London, European History Quarterly
Myroslav Shkandrij is Professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba. His previous books include Ukrainian Nationalism, Jews in Ukrainian Literature, and Russia and Ukraine. He has curated exhibitions on the avant-garde in the 1920s and written extensively on twentieth-century Ukraine.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The “Historic” Avant-Garde of 1910–1930
Forging the European Connection
1. Kyiv to Paris: Ukrainian Art in the European Avant-Garde, 1910–1930
Politics and Painting
2. Politics and the Ukrainian Avant-Garde
3. Political Posters 1919–1921 and the Boichuk School
4. Jews in the Artistic and Cultural Life of Ukraine in the 1920s
5. National Modernism in Post-Revolutionary Society: Ukrainian Renaissance and Jewish Revival, 1917–1930
Artists in the maelstrom: Five Case Studies
6. David Burliuk and Steppe as Avant-Garde Identity
7. Kazimir Malevich’s Autobiography and Art
8. Vadym Meller and Sources of Inspiration in Theatre Art
9. Ivan Kavaleridze’s Contested Identity
10. Dziga Vertov’s Enthusiasm, Kharkiv and Cultural Revolution
The Avant-Garde in Today’s Cultural Memory
11. Remembering the Avant-Garde
Bibliography