“Russian Modernism: Cross-Currents in German and Russian Art, 1907–1917”

Curated by Konstantin Akinsha

The decade preceding the Russian Revolution witnessed productive interchange between German and Russian artists, and Munich was a major hub for the imagining and development of an alternative to Parisian modernism. Artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Alexei von Jawlensky congregated there, informed and inspired by their French colleagues but also allied with their German counterparts in an embrace of Central European and Eastern particularity. “Russian Modernism” promises to be eye-opening for US audiences more familiar with the German-Soviet exchanges of Constructivism. This earlier chapter is equally fraught with tensions between nationalist and internationalist agendas: The exhibition’s challenge will be to address the artists’ politics as well as the breach that occurred during World War I, when Russians were forced to leave Germany and any remaining ties had to be maintained over enemy lines. The catalogue features essays by scholars including Jane Sharp and Vivian Endicott Barnett.