Russian Modernism: Cross-Currents of German and Russian Art, 1907-1917

This exhibition will be dedicated to the radical modernist movements in German and Russian art at the beginning of the 20th century. Their development was parallel and often intersected. Such artists as Vasily Kandinsky or Alexei von Jawlensky are claimed by the Germans but remain Russian artists for the Russians.

The Burliuk brothers, who became celebrities of the Russian radical art scene, participated in the first exhibition of Blaue Reiter in Germany. Russian artists travelled to Germany and lived there, while their German counterparts were aware of what was shown in Moscow exhibition halls. A diverse art movement formed in Germany in the beginning of the 1910s was given the name “Expressionism” by the critic Herwarth Walden. Members of such groups as Die Brucke and Blaue Reiter were initially influenced by the French Fauves. Their Russian contemporaries also tried to find artistic truth in these new approaches. However, both in Germany and Russia, the French style underwent radical transformation. The exhibition will explore not only the direct connections and collaborations of German and Russian artists, but also the affinities in both countries’ artistic development. It will trace the Russian approach to Expressionism and put this in the context of the history of twentieth-century art.