Russian Art and the West – A Century of Dialogue in Painting, Architecture, and the Decorative Arts: NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

This book addresses the lively artistic dialogue that took place between Russia and the West—in particular with the United States, Britain, and France—from the 1860s to the Khrushchev Thaw. Offering stimulating new readings of cross-cultural exchange, it illuminates Russia’s compelling, and sometimes combative, relation with western art in this period of profound cultural transformation.

Russian Art and the West breaks new ground in the range of its material and its chronological span. Attending both to vanguard tendencies and to the official artistic institutions and practices of the tsarist and Soviet eras, it casts light on seminal developments little studied in western scholarship, while also providing new contexts for, and fresh insights into, the avant-garde of the early 20th century.

The book’s eleven essays by leading experts on Russian art and design explore painting, architecture, and the decorative arts, considering not only the objects but also the patrons, audiences, exhibitions, and critical readings that together shaped national culture in an international context. Written in an accessible style and encompassing a variety of approaches, they collectively rethink conventional polarities and influences, and unpack the myths of separateness and isolation so often associated with artistic endeavor in late imperial or Soviet Russia.

This illustrated volume will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers seeking to understand the fuller context of Russian artistic culture during a remarkable century of social and political change.