TRANSLATIONS AND DIALOGUES:

THE RECEPTION OF RUSSIAN ART ABROAD

Edited by Silvia Burini

Salerno 2019
 COLLANA DI EUROPA ORIENTALIS

A CURA DI
MARIO CAPALDO E ANTONELLA D’AMELIA

COMITATO SCIENTIFICO
LAZAR FLEISHMAN, KSENIJA KUMPAN
JOHN MALMSTAD, ROLAND MARTI

ISBN
ISBN 978-88-94422-77-1
Edizioni Printì
E.C.I. Edizioni Culturali Internazionali

The present volume is printed thanks to the support of

In Artibus Foundation, Kroll Family Trust and
Centro Studi sulle Arti della Russia (CSAR)

Copyright © 2019 by Europa Orientalis

Dipartimento DIPSUM – Università di Salerno
Finito di stampare presso Printì S.r.l., Avellino (2019)
 CONTENTS

Letters from I. Bazhenova, D. Kroll, N. Ilijne .............................................. 9

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Alison Hilton
How to Formulate the New Art: National Singularity and Tentative
Modernism at International Exhibitions ............................................ 63
Rosalind P. Blakesley
The First Woman Peredvizhnik: Emily Shanks and the Blurred
Realist/Impressionist Divide ............................................................. 81
Ekaterina Vyazova
Mikhail Larionov and Roger Fry: to the History of Sergei Diaghilev’s
Ballets Russes in England in late 1910’s .......................................... 91

TWENTIETH-CENTURY AVANT-GARDE AND PRE-WAR ART /IN

GERMANY IN 1920’S

Christina Lodder
Exporting the Revolution in Art Education: The Moscow Vkhutemas and
the German Bauhaus ......................................................................... 115
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Isabel Wünsche
Revolutionary Alliances: The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art
Scene of the 1920s ........................................................................... 139
 RUSSIAN AND SOVIET ART IN AMERICA AND EUROPE

John E. Bowlt
Viacheslav Zavalishin and Vladimir Markov ............................................... 153

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+/'$&2$$ ) + ! ..................................................................... 185
Alla Rosenfeld
A Legendary Collector: Norton T. Dodge and His Collection ..................... 195
Éva Forgács
The International of the Square. Reception of the Russian Avant-Garde
Abroad 1920’s – 1970’s ................................................................... 207
Nicoletta Misler
Kazimir Malevich Goes to Rome .................................................................. 217
Natasha Kurchanova
The Art of Objecthood: Tatlin through the Eyes of Flavin ........................... 231

POST-WAR AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ART:

ITS RECEPTION AND EXHIBITION ABROAD

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About the Authors .......................................................................................... 283

 REVOLUTIONARY ALLIANCES: THE RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE
AND THE BERLIN ART SCENE OF THE 1920S

Isabel Wünsche

As a result of the revolutionary upheavals of 1917-1918, first in Russia and

then in Germany, Berlin quickly became home to a large Russian émigré
community. Among the many Russian modernist artists active in Berlin in
the 1920s were Alexander Archipenko, Ksenia Boguslavskaya, Ivan Puni,
and Naum Gabo.1 The November Revolution attracted Soviet sympathies,
and German artists and intellectuals in turn took an interest in the newly
founded Soviet Russia. Numerous leftist artists’ groups were founded, and
Berlin soon was a lively center for cultural exchange among the artistic
avant-garde movements. In response to David Shterenberg’s Call of the Rus-
sian Progressive Fine Artists to the German Colleagues of November 30,
1918, which was published in Paul Westheim’s “Kunstblatt”,2 sympathetic
artists in Germany began to produce propaganda posters in support of Soviet
Russia, among them Raoul Hausmann’s Es lebe Sowjetrußland! (Long Live
Soviet Russia!) and Conrad Felixmüller’s Es lebe die Weltrevolution! (Long
Live the World Revolution!). Organizations such as the Auslandskomitee zur
Organisierung der Arbeiterhilfe für die Hungernden in Rußland (Workers
International Relief, IAH) and the Gesellschaft der Freunde des neuen Ruß-
land in Deutschland (Society of Friends of the New Russia in Germany)
were set up to actively support the people of Russia through a wide range of
_________________

1
K. Passuth, Treffpunkte der Avantgarden Ostmitteleuropa 1907-1930 (Meeting Places of
the Avant-garde East Central Europe 1907-1920), Dresden, Verlag der Kunst-Philo Fine Art,
2003, pp. 245-257; F. Mierau ed., Russen in Berlin. Literatur, Malerei, Theater, Film 1918-
1933 (Russians in Berlin: Literature, Painting, Theatre, Film 1918-1933), Leipzig, Reclam,
1990; K. Schlögel, K. Kucher, Bernhard Suchy, Gregor Thum eds., Chronik russischen Lebens
in Deutschland 1918-1941 (Chronicle of Russian Life in Germany 1918-1941), Berlin, Aka-
demie-Verlag, 1999.
2
Aufruf der russischen fortschrittlichen bildenden Künstler an die deutschen Kollegen
(Call of the Russian Progressive Fine Artists to the German Colleagues), “Das Kunstblatt”,
vol. 3, no. 3 (March 1919), p. 126.
140 Isabel Wünsche

cultural activities.3 The mutual interest in the most recent artistic develop-
ments in both countries found expression in numerous publications, exhibi-
tions, and lectures.
The activities intensified during the Russian famine of 1921-1922. Solic-
iting support for the Russian people, Käthe Kollwitz, a founding member of
the IAH, created the poster Helft Russland! (Help Russia). Otto Nagel, de-
puty secretary of the artists’ relief wing of the IAH and an active member of
the Society of Friends of the New Russia, played a leading role in the Ger-
man-USSR cultural dialogue. Leftist artists and writers in Germany came
together to hold exhibitions and publish manifestos, pamphlets, and print
portfolios to benefit the IAH.4
An important step in familiarizing the German public with the latest
achievements in Russian art was Konstantin Umanskij’s 1920 book, Neue
Kunst in Russland 1914-1919 (New Art in Russia 1914-1919).5 Aware that
few contemporary Russian artists were known in the West – he mentions
Alexander Archipenko, David Burliuk, Marc Chagall, Alexei Jawlensky, and
Wassily Kandinsky – Umanskij set out to extend this list and market Russian
art to a German readership. The discussion in his book ranges from the crea-
tions of the “Mir Iskusstva” artists and the paintings of the Russian Cezann-
ists to the pictorial constructions of the cubo-futurists and abstract painting.
Umanskij identified the roots of Russian modernism in Russian folk art and
Eastern primitivism and its culmination in the works of the members of
“Bubnovoy Valet” (Knave of Diamonds), among them David Burliuk, Natalia
Goncharova, and Pyotr Konchalovsky, whose work, he suggested, was influ-
enced by Pablo Picasso and Robert and Sonia Delaunay.6 Umanskij also high-
lighted the creative work and painterly perfection of Pavel Filonov. Turning
to abstract painting, Umanskij distinguished two directions: 1) the solitary
group of Kandinsky and 2) Kazimir Malevich’s group, representing Supre-
matism.7
_________________

3
G. Calov, Deutsche Beiträge zur bildenden Kunst und Architektur Rußlands und der
Sowjetunion von 1914-1941 (German Contributions to the Visual Arts and Architecture in
Russia and the Soviet Union 1914-1941), in Deutsche in Rußland und in der Sowjetunion
1914-1941 (Germans in Russia and in the Soviet Union 1914-1941), eds. Alfred Eisfeld,
Victor Herdt, Boris Meissner, Berlin: LIT, 2007, p. 342.
4
D. Crockett, German Post-Expressionism: The Art of the Great Disorder 1918-1924,
University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999, pp. 60-61.
5
K. Umanskij, Neue Kunst in Russland 1914-1919 (New Art in Russia 1914-1919), Pots-
dam: Gustav Kiepenheuer; Munich: Hans Goltz, 1920.
6
Ibid., pp. 16-18.
7
Ibid., p. 20.
The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art Scene of the 1920s 141

These efforts to introduce a German audience to the artistic achievements

of the “new Russia” culminated in the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung
(First Russian Art Exhibition), which opened at the Galerie van Diemen in
Berlin in October 1922. The exhibition was organized by the People’s Com-
missariat of Enlightenment (Narkompros) together with the Workers Interna-
tional Relief; all works were offered for sale, with the proceeds intended for
“the starving people of Russia”.8 In order to elucidate the developments in
modern Russian art, the exhibition featured specific movements as well as
individual artists. Among the more traditional Russian art, featured on the
ground floor of the gallery, were works by representatives of the Peredvizh-
niki, the Russian impressionists, the World of Art, and the Knave of Dia-
monds. These were complemented by the so-called expressionists David
Burliuk, Marc Chagall, Pavel Filonov, Vladimir Lebedev, Nikolai Lapshin,
and Nikolai Sinezubov.9 Works by the avant-garde were displayed on the
second floor, including cubist works by Varvara Stepanova, Nadezhda Udal-
tsova, Aleksei Morgunov, and Ivan Puni; abstract paintings by Aleksandra
Ekster, El Lissitzky, Wassily Kandinsky, and Liubov Popova; suprematist
works by Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Kliun, and Olga Rozanova; the constructi-
vism of Naum Gabo and Vladimir Tatlin; and utilitarian constructions by
Boris Joganson, Gustav Klutsis, Konstantin Medunetsky, and Aleksandr
Rodchenko. The display of contemporary art from Soviet Russia, including
adventurous avant-garde works, had an enormous impact upon the German
art scene.10 The comprehensive exhibition – 237 paintings, more than 500
graphic works, sculptures, stage designs, architectural models, and porce-
lains – attracted 15,000 visitors, and positive press reviews led to its prolon-
gation until the end of the year.
The exchange of contemporary art exhibitions between Russia and Ger-
many continued with the 1-aia Vseobshchaia Germanskaia Khudozhestven-
naia Vystavka (First General German Art Exhibition) at the Historical Mu-
seum in Moscow, in 1924, which was organized by Otto Nagel and Eric
_________________

8
Erste russische Kunstausstellung (First Russian Art Exhibition), exh. cat., Berlin, Inter-
nat. Arbeiterhilfe, 1922, p. 2.
9
Ibid., pp. 11-12.
10
W. Lapschin, Die Erste Ausstellung russischer Kunst 1922 in Berlin (The First Exhibi-
tion of Russian Art 1922 in Berlin), “Kunst und Literatur”, vol. 33, no. 4 (July-August 1985),
pp. 552-575; H. Richter, 1. Russische Kunstausstellung, Berlin 1922 (First Russian Art Exhi-
bition, Berlin 1922), in Stationen der Moderne: Kataloge epochaler Kunstausstellungen in
Deutschland 1910-1962 (Stations of Modernity: Catalogues of Groundbreaking Art Exhi-
bitions in Germany 1910-1962), ed. E. Roters, Cologne, König, 1988, Kommentarband (Com-
mentary Volume), pp. 115-118.
142 Isabel Wünsche

Johansson under the auspices of the IAH. The show included a broad range of
roughly 500 works, mostly graphic, by 126 German artists, representing thir-
teen organizations, among them the Berlin Secession, the November Group,
Der Sturm, the Dadaists, the Bauhaus, and the Red Group. The exhibition
was subsequently also shown in Saratov and Leningrad.11 A good number of
works, among them Otto Nagel’s Jubilar (1924) and Heinrich Vogeler’s
Internationale Rote Hilfe (International Red Help, 1924), were bought by the
Russian state; the State Museum of New Western Art included them in its
1925 exhibition Nemetskoe Iskusstvo Poslednego Piatidesiatiletiia (German
Art of the Last Fifty Years).
After the November Revolution, a number of new artists’ groups were
founded in Germany, among them the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Work Council
for Art), the Novembergruppe (November Group), and the Internationale
Vereinigung der Expressionisten, Futuristen, Kubisten und Konstruktivisten
(International Association of Expressionists, Futurists, Cubists, and Con-
structivists). These new organizations viewed themselves as artistically ac-
tive, progressive forces capable of taking into their own hands the design of
a new society by artistic means. The Work Council for Art was an association
of architects, painters, sculptors, and art writers under the leadership of
Bruno Taut; established as a response to the formation of workers’ and sol-
diers’ councils in Germany in 1918, it existed until 1921.12 During a time
when it was almost impossible for architects or artists to gain commissions
for buildings or art works, members of the Council began work on a
blueprint for a new society to be erected in Germany. The Council strove to
directly influence cultural politics and the reorganization of the artistic and
cultural institutions in Germany following the First World War and the
Revolution and closely collaborated with the Deutscher Werkbund (German
Work Federation) and the November Group.
The November Group was founded in December 1918 as “an association
of radical fine artists – painters, sculptors and architects”.13 In a circular dated

_________________

11
S. Pyschnowskaja, Deutsche Kunstausstellung in Moskau und ihre Organisatoren (Ger-
man Art Exhibitions in Moscow and its Organizers), in Berlin – Moskau 1900-1950, exh. cat.,
Munich-New York, Prestel, 1995, pp. 187-191.
12
Arbeitsrat für Kunst, Berlin 1918-21. Ausstellung und Dokumentation (Work Council of
Art, Berlin 1918-21: Exhibition and Documentation), exh. cat., West Berlin, Art Academy,
1980; Arbeitsrat für Kunst, Berlin 1918-21 (Work Council of Art, Berlin 1918-21), exh. cat.,
Düsseldorf, Ed. Marzona, 1987.
13
Satzungen der Novembergruppe (Statues of the November Group), in H. Kliemann, Die
Novembergruppe, Berlin, Gebr. Mann, 1969, p. 57.
The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art Scene of the 1920s 143

December 13, 1918, Max Pechstein, César Klein, Georg Tappert, Heinrich
Richter-Berlin, and Moriz Melzer – all of whom had been active in the New
Secession and were also members of the Work Council of Art – called on
their fellow artists to take action:
The future of art and the gravity of the present moment compel us, the revolutionaries
of the spirit (Expressionists, Cubists, Futurists), to mutual agreement and alliance.
Therefore, we are directing an urgent summons to all artists who have broken with
old forms in art to declare their membership in the November Group. The estab-
lishment and realization of a broadly conceived program, to be carried out by trusted
associates in the various centers of art, should bring us the greatest possible blend of
the people and art. Renewed contact with like-minded people of all countries is our
duty. Our creative instinct united us years ago as brothers. As an initial sign that we
have joined together, a collective exhibition is being planned that is to be shown in all
14
of the larger cities of Germany and later Europe.

In contrast to the efforts of previous artists’ initiatives such as the Seces-

sion groups, their focus was not on serving as a meeting place or exhibition
society for artists sharing a particular aesthetic, but on politically and cre-
atively uniting the progressive forces in the arts and in architecture in order
to influence and shape contemporary political and cultural life and the recon-
struction of Germany after the war. They sought “influence upon and partici-
pation in architectural commissions, the restructuring of art schools and mu-
seums, the distribution of exhibition spaces, and the legislative process con-
cerning the arts”.15
The November Group was characterized by mutual collaboration be-
tween its members and an openness to a wide range of artistic ideas and styl-
istic methods of expression – a generosity of spirit that was rather unusual
for the majority of artists’ groups at the time.16 In their founding manifesto,
they explicitly addressed the expressionists, cubists, and futurists, but the
group also included Dadaists, constructivists, and later, representatives of the
New Objectivity. While the early years of the group’s existence were domin-

_________________

14
Novembergruppe, Rundschreiben vom 13. Dezember 1918 (Circular of December 13,
1918), in H. Kliemann, Die Novembergruppe, cit. p. 55.
15
Richtlinien der Novembergruppe [Guiding Principles of the November Group], in W.
Grohmann, Zehn Jahre Novembergruppe (Ten Years November Group), Berlin, Ottens,
1928), 11-12. See also: H. Kliemann, Die Novembergruppe, cit., p. 57.
16
I. Wünsche, Transgressing National Borders and Artistic Styles: The November Group
and the International Avant-Garde in Berlin during the Interwar Period, in Art/ Histories in
Transcultural Dynamics, Late 19th to Early 21st Centuries, Munich, Wilhelm Fink, 2017,
pp. 291-307.
144 Isabel Wünsche

ated by expressionist viewpoints, constructivism became the dominant artis-

tic movement in the 1920s. This programmatic pluralism, characterized by
some as “cubofuto-expressionism”, was not unproblematic for the group’s
self-definition, but it did provide the November Group with a generous
means for integration and adaptation throughout its existence. In addition to
a pronounced pluralism of styles, the active collaboration of painters, sculp-
tors, and architects was part of the group’s program from the very beginning.
In 1921, sections for literature and music were added, leading the November
Group, in the 1920s, to become one of the most important early forums for
new music and experimental film.17
The November Group held a few group exhibitions: two at the Kunstanti-
quariat Fraenkel & Co in Berlin in November 1919 and 1921 and a compre-
hensive show in the building of the Berlin Secession in 1925. The group do-
minated the Jury-Free Art Exhibition Berlin in 1929, a celebration of their
tenth anniversary, and held an exhibition at the New House of the Associa-
tion of Berlin Artists in 1931. Of great importance to their presence in Berlin
(and beyond) was their regular participation, between 1919 and 1932, in the
Große Berliner Kunstausstellung (Great Berlin Art Exhibition), held in the
Exhibition Building at Lehrter Bahnhof. Here they were given free rein to
organize their section in the assigned exhibition rooms. Although the Free
Secession still dominated the 1919 and 1921 exhibitions, with works by the
cubists (Braque, Derain, Gleizes, Gris, Picasso) and also by Wassily Kandin-
sky, Paul Klee, and Oskar Kokoschka in 1921, recognition of the November
Group as a platform for the international avant-garde gradually increased in
the early 1920s.
In 1922 and 1923, the Polish constructivist Henryk Berlewi, the Russian
artists Ksenia Boguslavskaya and Ivan Puni, and the Russian constructivist
El Lissitzky all exhibited in the November Group section at the Great Berlin
Art Exhibition. Puni presented his Synthetic Musician (the work is now a
trademark of the Berlinische Galerie, color plate), and El Lissitzky his
ground-breaking Proun Room. The group’s 1923 presentation also included
works by Theo van Doesburg and the Hungarian constructivists László Mo-
holy-Nagy and László Peri, as well as paintings by the Romanian artist
H.M. Maxy, who had studied with his countryman and November Group
member Arthur Segal. In 1925, the presentation included architectural works
by a group of architects from Prague, including Bohuslav Fuchs, František

_________________

17
I. Wünsche, The Novembergruppe Writes Absolute Film History, in Freedom: The Art
of the Novembergruppe 1918-1935, exh. cat., Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, 2018, pp. 168-175.
The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art Scene of the 1920s 145

Kerhart, Oldich Starý, Oldich Tyl, and Jan Víšek. One of the highlights of
the November Group’s presentations at the Great Berlin Art Exhibitions in
1927 was the personal exhibition of Kazimir Malevich.
Herwarth Walden played a crucial role in the dissemination of avant-
garde art throughout Europe.18 His magazine, “Der Sturm”, established in
1910 and modelled on the Italian literary magazine “La Voce” (Florence,
1908-1916), ran first weekly, then monthly starting in 1914, and became a
quarterly from 1924 to 1932. In the early years, it was devoted to the promo-
tion of expressionist literature and art and the cultural exchange between
Germany and France, but after the First World War, it became more polit-
ically engaged and included new artistic movements such as constructivism.
In the 1920s, Walden became an enthusiastic supporter of the Soviet Union;
he joined the communist party, participated in the celebrations of the tenth
anniversary of the October Revolution in Moscow in 1927, and was a co-
founder of the Bund der Freunde der Sowjetunion (Union of the Friends of
the Soviet Union) in 1928.19 The “Sturm” issue of March 1930 was a special
volume on the Sowjetunion, which consisted of thirteen short articles, in
which Walden reported from his travels in the new state, including his im-
pressions of various places in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia, and
the organization of socialist life.20 Walden finally left Germany and settled
in Moscow in 1932.
In 1912, Walden turned to the promotion of the visual arts with the open-
ing of his Sturm gallery on Potsdamer Straße in the heart of Berlin. Starting
with an exhibition of the Fauves and the Blue Rider, followed by the intro-
duction of the Italian futurists, French cubists and Orphists in Germany, the
gallery became the focus for Berlin’s modern art scene for a decade. From
the very beginning, Walden regularly exhibited works by Russian artists,
among them Archipenko, Chagall, and Kandinsky. Walden discovered his
special love for Russian art and culture in 1913 when he was introduced by
Guillaume Apollinaire to the work of Marc Chagall. He invited the artist to
_________________

18
G. Brühl, Herwarth Walden und “Der Sturm”, Cologne: DuMont, 1983.
19
M. Godé, Von der ‘autonomen Kunst’ zum Kommunismus: Zur Entwicklung der expres-
sionistischen Zeitschrift Der Sturm (1910-1932) (From Autonomous Art to Communism: On
the Development of the Expressionist Magazine The Storm, 1910-1932), in Intellektuellendis-
kurse in der Weimarer Republik: Zur politischen Kultur einer Gemengelage [Intellectual Dis-
courses in the Weimar Republic: On Political Culture in a Special Situation], ed. Manfred
Gangl and Gérard Raulet, Frankfurt Main, Peter Lang, 2007, pp. 185-195.
20
Der Sturm, Sonderheft Sowjet-Union (The Storm, Special Issue Soviet Union), Vol. 20,
No. 5-6 (March 1930). See also: G. Brühl, Herwarth Walden und “Der Sturm”, S. 66-85.
146 Isabel Wünsche

exhibit his works at the Erste Deutsche Herbstsalon (First German Autumn
Salon) and also featured his paintings along with works by Alfred Kubin in a
Sturm exhibition in spring 1914 and organized Chagall’s first comprehen-
sive one-man show in Germany in fall 1914. Chagall was also the first artist
to be featured in Walden’s Sturm Bilderbücher (Sturm Picture Books), his
nationality clearly noted: “Russian”.21
In November 1918, Walden exhibited, under the title “Russian Expres-
sionists,” works by Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov; in January-
February 1921, he featured works by Ivan Puni and Ksenia Boguslavskaya.
His comprehensive Gesamtschau on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of
the Sturm gallery in August 1921 included works by Archipenko, Boguslav-
skaya, Chagall, Goncharova, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Larionov, Puni, and
Marianne Werefkin. In 1927 and 1929, he presented marionettes and stage
designs by Aleksandra Ekster.
During the First World War, Walden, through his Swedish second wife,
Nell Walden, was active in Scandinavia and also in the Netherlands. After
the war, he expanded his gallery into a full-fledged cultural enterprise,
organizing Sturmabende – evening lectures and discussions on modern art –
and Die Sturmbühne, an expressionist theatre, as well as publishing books
and portfolios by leading artists, for example, Chagall and Oskar Koko-
schka.22 Although Walden was one of the most successful promoters of the
European avant-garde before 1914, his position as the leading spokesman of
the avant-garde weakened after the war, when expressionism, cubism, and
futurism where replaced by newer trends, and he was forced to find new
measures to revive his Sturm enterprise. Between 1919 and 1926, he closely
collaborated with the International Association of Expressionists, Futurists,
Cubists, and Constructivists, later shortened to Die Abstrakten (The Ab-
stractionists). This alliance provided him with the opportunity to open his
gallery to new artistic currents and to tie it into international avant-garde
networks.23

_________________

21
Marc Chagall ist Russe, Sturm Bilderbücher I: Marc Chagall (Sturm Picture Books I:
Marc Chagall, Berlin: Verlag Der Sturm, 1923, p. 19.
22
G. Brühl, Herwarth Walden, cit., pp. 66-76.
23
V.L. Lidtke, Abstract Art and Left-Wing Politics in the Weimar Republic, “Central Eu-
ropean History”, vol. 37, no. 1 (2004), pp. 49-90; I. Wünsche, “Der Sturm und Die Abstrakten
– Internationale Vereinigung der Expressionisten, Futuristen, Kubisten und Konstruktivisten
e.V.” [Der Sturm and Die Abstrakten – International Association of the Expressionists, Futu-
rists, Cubists, and Constructivists], in Der Sturm – Literatur, Musik, Graphik und die Verne-
tzung in der Zeit des Expressionismus (Der Sturm – Literature, Musik, Graphic Works and
The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art Scene of the 1920s 147

The International Association was founded in June 1919 and held its first
general assembly at the Sturm gallery on October 27, 1919. Among the
founding members were Rudolf Blümner, Georg Muche, Hans Sittig, Her-
warth and Nell Walden, Jacoba van Heemskerck, and William Wauer. The
group became an officially registered association in December 1919, estab-
lishing its office at the headquarters of Der Sturm, Berlin W9, Potsdamer
Straße 134a. At its second general assembly, in May 1922, the group became
de facto a branch of the Sturm. This close connection between the Interna-
tional Association and Der Sturm was also visible in the election of foreign
representatives. The general assembly elected Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (Swe-
den), Ruggero Vasari (Italy), László Péri (Hungary), János Máttis-Teutsch
(Romania), Jacoba van Heemskerck (the Netherlands), Ksenia Boguslavskaya
(Russia), and Johannes Itten (Switzerland).24 In 1922, leading members of
the association, including Erich Buchholz, Oskar Fischer, László Moholy-
Nagy, László Peri, and Ivan Puni, decided to present their works regularly in
joint exhibitions in order to show “the commonality of their work” and to
strengthen the constructivist faction of Der Sturm.25 In 1925, membership in
the International Association was combined with a subscription to the Sturm
magazine, and Walden urged members to actively support his evening events
and lectures.
The group organized a spectacular special exhibition at the Great Berlin
Art Exhibition of 1926, which provided an overview of the artistic endeavors
of the international avant-garde.26 This special exhibition included works by
more than 60 artists, among them the French cubists Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris,
Fernand Léger, and Jean Metzinger; the Bauhaus masters Johannes Itten,
Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Georg Muche, and László Moholy-Nagy;
and artists such as Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, Robert and Sonia
Delaunay, Max Ernst, Emil Filla, Piet Mondrian, Enrico Prampolini, and
Kurt Schwitters. The exhibition was designed by the Bauhaus artists Heinrich
_________________

Networking in the Period of Expressionism), ed. Henriette Herwig and Andrea von Hülsen-
Esch, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 356-375.
24
Correspondence between the International Association and the District Court Berlin-
Mitte, Letter of May 10, 1922, LAB B Rep. 042, Nr. 8986.
25
H. Schröder-Kehler, Vom abstrakten zum politischen Konstruktivismus. Oskar Nerlinger
und die Berliner Gruppe ‘Die Abstrakten’ (1919-1933) (From Abstract to Political Construc-
tivism: Oskar Nerlinger and the Berlin Group “The Abstractionists”, 1919-1933), PhD thesis,
Heidelberg University, 1985, p. 25.
26
Führer durch die Ausstellung der Abstrakten. Große Berliner Kunstausstellung 1926
(Guide through the Exhibition of the Abstractionists), Berlin, Kunstarchiv Berlin, 1926.
148 Isabel Wünsche

Koch and Hinnerk Scheper and accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue,

the execution and typographical design of which was taken over by Oscar
Nerlinger. The exhibition constituted the climax of the existence of The Ab-
stractionists; it marked the gradual transition from expressionism, cubism
and futurism of pre-war modernism to Dadaism, constructivism, and pure
abstraction in the interwar period.
Strengthened by similar leftist stances and modernist views, Russian-
German cultural relations and artistic collaborations among artists in the
young Soviet Russia and the Weimar Republic were particularly strong in
the 1920s. Berlin was one of the most vibrant centers of interaction between
Russian modernist artists and the international avant-garde during the inter-
war period. A dynamic metropolis, fraught with political as well as social
tensions, the city’s social space inspired the artistic production of the avant-
garde and shaped cultural exchanges between east and west. The city also
provided a home to a large cultural and artistic diaspora that included the ar-
tists Alexander Archipenko, Henryk Berlewi, Ksenia Boguslavskaya, Naum
Gabo, László Moholy-Nagy, Ivan Puni, and Arthur Segal. The participation
of Russian avant-garde artists in the activities of the international avant-
garde in Berlin in the 1920s was facilitated by Herwarth Walden, with his
Sturm magazine and gallery, and artists’ groups such as the November Group
and the International Association of Expressionists, Futurists, Cubists, and
Constructivists.

!  ":       " -

 "  1920-

+.(" '/;-8.'+& -"+(:3%% 1917 +!  +..%% % +;-8.'+& -"+-

(:3%% 1918 +!  "-)*%%, "-(%* ./( #*7) 3"*/-+) !(; -0.-
.'%2 9)% -*/+ % '0(8/0-*72 .;$"& )"#!0 20!+#"./"**7)% *-
-!)%. +-")"**+" 0..'+" %.'0../+ 7(+ ,-"!./("*+ *")"3'+&
,0(%'" +*./*/%*+) )*.'%)  " + '*% " Neue Kunst In Russland
1914-1919 (++" .'0../+  +..%% 1914-1919), ,+ "--/ (8!"*
 .+"& 5/0-) 7./'2,  Die Erste Russische Kunstaustellung ("-+&
-0..'+& 20!+#"./"**+& 7./'" 1922) % '(:4(+  ,-"$"*/3%;2
Novembergruppe (+;-8.'+& -0,,7) % Internationale Vereinigung der
Expressionisten, Futuristen, Kubisten und Konstruktivisten ("#!0*-+!-
*+& ..+3%3%% 9'.,-"..%+*%./+, 10/0-%./+, '0%./+ % '+*./-0'/%-
%./+) * Große Berliner Kunstausstellungen (+(85%2 "-(%*.'%2 20-
!+#"./"**72 7./'2)  19202.
./+;6%& !+'(! -..)+/-%/ -0..'+-*")"3'%" +/*+5"*%; % 04./%"
The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art Scene of the 1920s 149

!$""& &$  .#+"# $! !  !-

  1920- *. "  $# $ "*#., #-
!* !*"+  ". " .#+"#+- ! Sturm, .!+-
" !$ *,  $! ""'' ," !"""#, %$#$-
!"#, $"#  "#!$#"#. , $# "$ -
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("#"#, #" "#!$("# #! . ," !""-
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"# $ &$, !, !&##!,  $*#.

Käthe Kollwitz, Helft Russland! (Help Russia!), 1921, poster for the Russia Committee of the
IAH, lithograph, poster, 66.7 x 47.7 cm, Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Cologne; Kreissparkasse
Cologne.
150 Isabel Wünsche

El Lissitzky, Cover of the Catalogue of the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung (First Russian
Art Exhibition) (Berlin 1922). — Cover of the Catalogue of the 1-aia Vseobshchaia German-
skaia Khudozhestvennaia Vystavka (First General German Art Exhibition) (Moscow 1924).

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematistisches Bild (Suprematist Painting), 1915 and introduction to

the special exhibition of works by Malevich, pages from the catalogue of the Great Berlin Art
Exhibition 1927.
The Russian Avant-garde and the Berlin Art Scene of the 1920s 151

Marc Chagall, Ich und das Dorf (I and the Village), 1911, illustration in Der Sturm, vol. 13,
no. 10 (October 5, 1922), p. 149. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019.



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