Russian Avant-garde

The imagery of the revolutionary Russian artists and architects from 1910 to 1920 still remains popular today: however, many of the underlying theories of these artists and designers are only available in the Russian language and remain inaccessible to the West. Through a series of collected essays, many appearing in English for the first time, this text focuses on the influences, architecture, design and art of these underlying theories and concepts, exploring such issues as: new approaches to art and architecture; the aesthetic and social impact of mass production; and new technologies and new communications. The book contains accounts of the theories of such artists as Kandinsky, Malevich and Rodchenko and of key modernist architects such as the Constructivists, the Rationalists and Melnikhov. Other issues discussed include the impact of Viollet-le-Duc in 19th-century Russia and the role of Russian art nouveau in the 1900s.