Avantgardisté - Ruská revoluce v umění 1917-1935 – Scheijen Sjeng (2023)

They wanted to change art and with it the whole society. They changed art. Society did not... The Great October Revolution was not just a drastic turning point in Russian politics. In the eyes of the revolutionaries, a whole new society, a new world, and a new human being were being formed. One of the manifestations of this new epoch in human history was to be art: the old, bourgeois, and traditional was rejected in favor of modern and progressive art. Therefore, alongside the Bolsheviks, avant-garde artists stood at the forefront of the Soviet Union. Creators previously rejected, such as Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Vasily Kandinsky, and Vladimir Tatlin, were tasked with carrying out a socialist aesthetic transformation: educational systems were reformed, galleries were built in remote villages, and avant-garde art flooded the cities. However, it only took a few years for this artistic freedom to become a burden to the Soviet Union, the Communist Politburo, and its regulations. The triumph of art ended in human tragedy. The avant-gardists are a grand story of a few artists who wanted to change the world, a portrait of the Bolshevik revolution and terror era, and a compelling confession to modern art.