Russian Modernism between East and West Natal'ia Goncharova and the Moscow Avant-Garde

Natal ia Goncharova and her Muscovite colleagues reclaimed Russia s Eastern cultural heritage. Before the First World War, art addressed a crisis in self-representation that was a consequence of Russia s dual cultural legacies, Asian and European.

This book reconstructs the efforts of avant-garde artists, primarily Natal'ia Goncharova and her Muscovite colleagues, to reclaim Russia's 'Eastern' cultural heritage. Before the First World War, art addressed a crisis in self-representation that was a consequence of Russia's dual cultural legacies, Asian and European. This text represents Goncharova's leading role in this project, both as a spokesperson and a painter. The animated and often polarizing debates concerning the cultural identity of contemporary art were often preceded by Goncharova's practices that react to a critical tradition that, for at least a decade, had accused the radical 'left' Muscovite artists of failing to create a national tradition.

1. Orientalisms; 2. A westernizing avant-garde; 3. Art into life; 4. Nationality on display: official versions, avant-garde interventions; 5. Orientalism in reverse; 6. Anti-artist: the year 1913–1914; 7. Vsechestvo: Russia's other modernism.

Natal'ia Goncharova and her Muscovite colleagues reclaimed Russia's 'Eastern' cultural heritage. Before the First World War, art addressed a crisis in self-representation that was a consequence of Russia's dual cultural legacies, Asian and European.

Jane Sharp is Associate Professor of Art History at Rutgers University where she teaches art of the 20th and 21st centuries, and acts as Research Curator of the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers. Though recent publications have focused on Soviet unofficial art, she has authored numerous articles on the prerevolutionary avant-garde. In 2007, Russian Modernism between East and West: Natal'ia Goncharova and the Moscow Avant-Garde won the Robert Motherwell Prize from the Dedalus Art Foundation. She is currently curating an exhibition of Moscow Conceptual art for the Zimmerli Art Museum, and preparing a book manuscript on abstract painting in the Soviet Union after the Thaw.

This book reconstructs the efforts of avant-garde artists, primarily Natal’ia Goncharova and her Muscovite colleagues, to reclaim Russia’s ‘Eastern’ cultural heritage. Before the First World War, art addressed a crisis in self-representation that was a consequence of Russia’s dual cultural legacies, Asian and European. This text represents Goncharova’s leading role in this project, both as a spokesperson and a painter. The animated and often polarizing debates concerning the cultural identity of contemporary art were often preceded by Goncharova’s practices that react to a critical tradition that, for at least a decade, had accused the radical ‘left’ Muscovite artists of failing to create a national tradition.