Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine, 1910–1930

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.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: The “Historic” Avant-Garde of 1910–1930Forging the European Connection1. Kyiv to Paris: Ukrainian Art in the European Avant-Garde, 1910–1930Politics and Painting2. Politics and the Ukrainian Avant-Garde3. Political Posters 1919–1921 and the Boichuk School4. Jews in the Artistic and Cultural Life of Ukraine in the 1920s5. National Modernism in Post-Revolutionary Society: Ukrainian Renaissance and Jewish Revival, 1917–1930Artists in the maelstrom: Five Case Studies6. David Burliuk and Steppe as Avant-Garde Identity7. Kazimir Malevich’s Autobiography and Art8. Vadym Meller and Sources of Inspiration in Theatre Art9. Ivan Kavaleridze’s Contested Identity10. Dziga Vertov’s Enthusiasm, Kharkiv and Cultural RevolutionThe Avant-Garde in Today’s Cultural Memory11. Remembering the Avant-GardeBibliography

“Shkandrij highlights an important Ukrainian dimension ofthe avant-garde movement. … Undoubtedly, this book’s most importantcontribution to scholarship is its focus on the Ukrainian dimension of theavant-garde, that has long been neglected in the historiography. Shkandrijnotes that their peculiar group features have been obscured by their belongingto the international movement (xi); or their association with the Russianavant-garde. Such a view has become deeply embedded in public reception, asseen from Wikipedia entries, or the controversy surrounding the debate to nameKyiv airport after Malevich. To challenge this contested legacy, Shkandrijoffers to examine these artists’ self-identification and investigate national inspirationsfor their artwork.” —Olena Palko, Birkbeck, University of London, EuropeanHistory Quarterly