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.

About the Author

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.

Reviews

"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

"In many ways [this] is a restorative history, one that decolonizes Ukrainian art and artists from the Soviet-period culturo-political domination that swallowed 'smaller' non-Russian cultures, and also broadens the understanding of what a Ukrainian artist was in those times. ... The book is well researched and articulately written, and its clarity of presentation makes it accessible to both specialists and a general audience. ... The book will become a standard for those interested in Ukrainian art of the avant-garde. It is important for a number of reasons. First, it identifies the nature of and the major figures of the Ukrainian avant-garde. It also places that avant-garde in the European context in which it rightfully belongs and with which Ukrainian figures interacted. Additionally, it restores several of those figures to Ukrainian culture despite persistent Russian efforts to appropriate them. Besides indicating similarities between members and movements of the avant-garde across national borders, the book shows differences intrinsic to artists from Ukraine. Thus it offers a richer picture of the era via its more inclusive and diverse approach, along with reasoned historical correctives." -Michael M. Naydan, The Pennsylvania State University, Russian Review

"Myroslav Shkandrij's Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine, 1910-1930: Contested Memory is a timely and urgently needed publication, as it presents Ukraine as a versatile, multiethnic country capable of harboring and nourishing complex artistic and intellectual endeavors. The book should be praised as material testimony to the author's travails of many years in countering incredulity in the very category of the Ukrainian avant-garde and also in complicating this category, moving beyond nativist or ethnic approaches to the idea."

-Olena Martyniuk, Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal

"Myroslav Shkandrij's collection of essays addresses the discomfort with films like Enthusiasm and artists like Vertov in Ukraine today. Remembering the avant-garde is now contested: Were they a tragic executed renaissance, as Iurii Lavrinenko argued? Fellow travelers of a violent political project? True believers or artists simply trying to make a living? This 'contested memory' lies at the heart of Shkandrij's book."

-Mayhill C. Fowler, Stetson University, Harvard Ukrainian Studies

"The most valuable aspects of Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine come from Shkandrij's ability to catalogue the Ukrainian aspects of his artists and their artworks, to situate them in a criss-crossing network of Ukrainian and European institutions, and to synthesize how they have been discussed in Ukrainian-language scholarship. ... Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine is a thought-provoking volume that brings together many of the highlights of Myroslav Shkandrij's long, distinguished career as a fearless advocate and thoughtful scholar of Ukrainian art. It establishes the Ukrainian origins of many branches of the international avant-garde and contributes to the ongoing debates about the regional and national character of modernism."

-Nicholas Kupensky, H-Ukraine

Book Information
ISBN 9781644696279
Author Myroslav Shkandrij
Format Paperback
Page Count 202
Imprint Academic Studies Press
Publisher Academic Studies Press