Jean Claude Marcadé, The Russian Avant Garde
The first-hand documentation on which Jean-Claude Marcadé’s book on the Russian Avant Garde is based, make it a great leader.
Distinguished Russian expert, translator of Malévitch into French, Jean-Claude Marcadé is an experienced connaisseur of the writings and the archives of Russian artists between 1890 and 1930. The great fresco he gives us here of the great artistic movements of Russian avant garde from 1907 to 1927 - neoprimitivism, cézannism, Russian fauvism, cubo-futurism, first abstraction, suprematism, constructivism, School of Matiouchine, School of Filonov – systematically puts them within the context of the problematics and polemics of the artistic environments of the beginning of this Century, the multi-disciplinary applications of each trend (books, theatre, popular prints, design) and the hazards of reorganising the artistic system after the 1917 Revolution.
The considerable annexes include biographical notices of the main artists, a chronology of the political and cultural events, a glossary of Russian terms, of movements and reviews, as well as an index.
Jean-Claude Marcadé leads research at the CNRS. He has translated numerous texts by Malevitch, to which he dedicated in 1992 a monograph that is an authority.
(© Flammarion, Paris 1995)