Central European Avant-Gardes: Exchange and transformation,
1910-1930
Timothy O. Benson (ed.)
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
439 pp., illus. b/w & col.
ISBN 0-262-02522-1
1. Art, European, Central, 20th century, exhibitions.
Reviewed by Robert Pepperell
Polar (Posthuman Laboratory for Arts Research)
pepperell@ntlworld.com
"Art must becomes international or it will perish."
Art histories have often been carved out along geographical lines, and
this collection of essays addresses itself to what is possibly a neglected
yet significant location: the vast and numerous nations sandwiched between
the Russian Empire to the East and the Gallic and Mediterranean countries
to the West. The historical period covered here was one of extraordinary
upheaval, as a map comparing national boundaries between 1910 and 1930
clearly shows. Within just 20 years empires collapsed and new nations
were born. What remained throughout, however, were the various cosmopolitan
centres of culture like Belgrade, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw,
and perhaps most centrally, Berlin. This book, produced to accompany
a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, offers a
survey of the many artistic styles and moods which these cities sustained
during the zenith of early Modernism. The survey is conducted largely
through a series of essays by critics specialising in the artistic culture
of each of the fourteen locales under scrutiny.
"Art must becomes international or it will perish." So rang
the optimistic statement of the Union of Progressive Artists intended
to rally those participating in the First International Exhibition in
Düsseldorf in 1922. Of all the Modernist styles on display - Fauvism,
Futurism, Cubism, Dada, and Purism perhaps the most characteristically
central-European, but also the most internationally minded and self-consciously
utopian was Constructivism. Many of its adherents saw it as an aesthetic
expression of scientific rationalism and as a contribution to social
reconstruction and a better world order. Accordingly, Christina Lodders
excellent essay on International Constructivism is central both in its
placement in the book and in connecting Russian avant-gardism to central
European graphical concerns. The work shown in this chapter, and in
the book generally, demonstrates how vibrant, dynamic and progressive
was the output of a whole generation in the greater part of Europe.
It is work that, despite its often misplaced optimism and political
naivety, rings with colour, imagination and creative confidence.
It is a credit to the exhibition organisers, authors, and publishers
that all this material is made available in such an accessible and authoritative
form. With some fifteen essays, artists biographies, a selected
bibliography, and high-quality reproductions, Im sure this volume
would be a necessary addition to any scholarly art library.