Russian Art: From Neoclassicism to the Avant-Garde: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

📕 This is the first ever complete survey of Russian art and architecture from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 1917. Partly because of Russia's isolationism and largely because of the central European domination of the international art scene, Russian art, especially before the twentieth century, has remained little-known in the West and is scarcely represented in Western collections. The reign of Peter the Great, which aimed to westernize Russia, had a profound and transforming effect on the arts: from the early eighteenth century onwards, and still today, Russian art reflects a ceaseless effort to reconcile European taste and trends, Russia's national history and traditions, and the Slavophile disapproval of westernization. By the mid-nineteenth century the arts in Russia had achieved a remarkable fusion of native traditions and Western progressive, international styles. And by the time oi the Revolution of 1917 Russian art and architecture, far from being subservient to Western styles, had established themselves at the forefront of international artistic activity. Professor Dmitri Sarabianov of Moscow University, internationally recognized as the doyen of Soviet art historians of the period, has created a truly magisterial volume, illustrated with reproductions of many works never before seen outside the Soviet Union, which reveals such astonishing achievement, richness and originality that it will necessitate a complete reassessment of nineteenth- and early twenti...