Between Spring and Summer looks at the multigenerational Soviet conceptual art movement during an age of unprecedented change. Eleven American and Soviet scholars build upon the work of a senior generation of Soviet artists - Ilya Kabakof, Andrei Monastyrsky and Komar and Melamid - to examine a new generation of artists whose work draws sustenance from its critical engagement with everyday Soviet life. Loosely related to the work of American and European neoconceptual artists of the 1980s, Soviet conceptualism gains its distinctive character both from its imaginative response to the poverty of material conditions (the absence of disposable commodities and everyday products) and its dialectic with Western ideals of production and promotion. In looking at the work of 27 artists, architects, and artists' collectives, the essayists writing in Between Spring and Summer provoke questions about the nature of collaborative artistic action and ideological formation in an environment of cultural isolation and changing artistic values in the age of glasnost and perestroika. The Essays: Provisional Reading: Notes for an Exhibition, David A. Ross. No. 6/1 Sretensky Boulevard, Richard Lourie. U-Turn of the U-Topian, Margarita Tupitsyn. On Emptiness, Ilya Kabakov. The Third Zone: Soviet Postmodern, Elisabeth Sussman. On Conceptual Art in Russia, Joseph Bakshtein. East-West Exchange: Ecstasy of (Mis)Communication, Victor Tupitsyn. Scenes from the Future: Komar & Melamid, Peter Wollen. Concepts and Reality, Alexander Rappaport. Metamorphoses of Speech Vision, Mikhail Ryklin. The Image of Reagan in Soviet Literature, Dmitri Prigov.

Building upon 20 years of groundbreaking exhibitions of Russian avant-garde art--including "The Great Utopia: Russian and Soviet Art 1915-1932" (1992) and "Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism" (2003), among others--the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents this blockbuster show, which demonstrates that Russia's contributions to world art history extends far beyond the early twentieth century. Like the exhibition, this catalogue explores the vast and complex phenomenon embodied by the word "Russia" through the lens of the masterworks of Russian art from the twelfth century to today, as well as art from the world-class collections amassed by Russian tsars and merchants from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. The remarkable and interconnected history of Russian art and Russia's most important collections over nine centuries includes icons, portraiture in both painting and sculpture, social realist works since the nineteenth century, landscapes from all periods, pioneering abstraction, and experimental contemporary art. Librarian of Congress and renowned historian of Russia James Billington contributes the introductory essay, providing a context for the more specialized selections by Robert Rosenblum, Evgenia Petrova, Lidia Iovleva, Mikhail Allenov, Alexander Borovsky, Alexander Kostenevich, Valerie Hillings and others. The book's design subtly evokes the six major periods covered--Medieval Russia (twelfth to seventeenth centuries), the epoch of Peter and Catherine (the eighteenth century), the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century, the 1930s-1960s, and the 1970s to present. This scope makes "Russia " one of the most comprehensive sources on the history of Russian art ever to be published in English. The companion publication, "Russia Catalogue of the Exhibition," provides expanded and detailed, curatorial information for each work in the exhibition.

This collection of essays and works to accompany the exhibition hosted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Avant-Garde in Russia, 1910-1930--on view from July 8- September 28, 1980. The exhibition subsequently travelled to Hirshhorn Museum, ending at the Smithsonian Institution in 1981. The exhibition and catalogue seek to survey the avant-garde art movement in Russia, both before and immediately following the Revolution of 1917. The catalogue contains numerous essays from artists and intellectuals from the time period, and provides a timeline of relevant events from the past century.

George M. Young offers an examination of the controversial school of thought that emerged in Russia during the 19th and early 20th century. Cosmism proposed a vision of the future where humans could live forever, the dead could be reanimated, and humanity would set their sights to live amongst the stars. The book offers some insight to the philosophical background that the exhibitions touch upon or respond to.

This edition of the e-flux journal, created by Anton Vidokle, contains conversations with various artists on the topic of Russian Cosmism. Including conversations with: Anton Vidokle, Hito Steyerl, Elena Shaposhnikova, Arseny Zhilyaev, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Boris Groys, Marina Simakova, Bart De Baere, and Esther Zonsheim.

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, Eastern Europe saw a new era begin, and the widespread changes that followed extended into the world of art. Art and Democracy in Post-Communist Europe examines the art created in light of the profound political, social, economic, and cultural transformations that occurred in the former Eastern Bloc after the Cold War ended. Assessing the function of art in post-communist Europe, Piotr Piotrowski describes the changing nature of art as it went from being molded by the cultural imperatives of the communist state and a tool of political propaganda to autonomous work protesting against the ruling powers. Piotrowski discusses communist memory, the critique of nationalism, issues of gender, and the representation of historic trauma in contemporary museology, particularly in the recent founding of contemporary art museums in Bucharest, Tallinn, and Warsaw. He reveals the anarchistic motifs that had a rich tradition in Eastern European art and the recent emergence of a utopian vision and provides close readings of many artists--including Ilya Kavakov and Krzysztof Wodiczko--as well as Marina Abramovic's work that responded to the atrocities of the Balkans. A cogent investigation of the artistic reorientation of Eastern Europe, this book fills a major gap in contemporary artistic and political discourse.

Briefly describes Malevich's life and career, shows sixteen of his major paintings, and includes comments on their composition.

 In this comprehensive study of the artistic culture of the region between the Iron Curtain and the former Soviet Union, Piotr Piotrowski chronicles the relationship between avant-garde art production and post-World War II politics in such Iron Curtain nations as Bulgaria, the  Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia. Featuring more than 200 images, most by artists largely unfamiliar to an English-speaking audience, In the Shadow of Yalta is a fascinating portrait of the inspiring art made in a region--and at a time--of critical importance in modern Europe.

This collection of primary documents provides context for Eastern and Central European art movements. Many of these critical essays and manifestos were suppressed making this book one of the most comprehensive collections of translated primary source texts on Eastern and Central European art and theory.

This volume investigates Russian culture at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with scholars from Britain, Sweden, Russia, and the United States exploring aspects of culture with regard to one overarching question: What is the impact of the Soviet discourse on contemporary culture. This question comes at a time when Russia is concerned with integrating itself into European arts and culture while enhancing its uniqueness through references to its Soviet past. Thus, contributions investigate the phenomenon of post-Soviet culture and try to define the relationship of contemporary art to the past.

An issue of the Zimmerli Art Museum journal that hosts essays from the Russian Art department and overviews of collections hosted by the museum from July 2006 to July 2008.

The invisible, the trace, the almost-there British-born Tacita Dean's 16 mm films create remarkable drama from astonishingly little visual presence. In addition to an ambient soundtrack, we hear the workings of the projector, we become aware of the mechanics of the film moving through the gate, we focus on processing irregularities--accidental or intentional. Published alongside her recent exhibition at Miami Art Central, this volume gathers key films together with Dean's poetic narratives, which become discrete works in themselves when juxtaposed with the still images. In this way, "Film Works" reveals another facet of Dean's output, rather than functioning entirely as a catalogue of works. The films included, which date from the 1990s to the present, are accompanied by essays by art historian and theorist, Briony Fer, and Miami Art Central Chief Curator, Rina Carvajal. Represented by Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, Dean received the 2006 Hugo Boss Prize.

Jonas Mekas, one of the driving forces behind New York's alternative film culture from the 1950s through the 1980s, made for an unlikely counterculture hero: a Lithuanian emigr and fervent nationalist from an agrarian family, he had not grown up with either capitalist commercialism or the postwar rebellion against it. By focusing on his sensitivity to political struggle, however, leading film commentators here offer fascinating insights into Mekas's career as a writer, filmdistributor, and film-maker, while exploring the history of independent cinema in New York since World War II. This collection of essays, interviews, and photographs addresses such topics as Mekas's column in the Village Voice, his foundation and editorship of Film Culture, his role in the establishment of Anthology Film Archives and The Film-Makers Co-op (the major distribution center for independent film), his interaction with other artists, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and finally the critical assessment of his own films, from Guns of the Trees and The Brig in the sixties to the diary films that followed Walden. The contributors to this volume are Paul Arthur, Vyt Bakaitis, Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Rudy Burckhardt, David Curtis, Richard Foreman, Tom Gunning, Bob Harris, J. Hoberman, David E. James, Marjorie Keller, Peter Kubelka, George Kuchar, Richard Leacock, Barbara Moore, Peter Moore, Scott Nygren, John Pruitt, Lauren Rabinovitz, Michael Renov, Jeffrey K. Ruoff, and Maureen Turim.

A first hand account of the life, thoughts & feelings of a Displaced Person. A painful record of one person's experiences in a Nazi Forced Labor camp: five years in Displaced persons camps; & the first years as a young Lithuanian immigrant in New York City. "I was enormously moved by it."--Allen Ginsberg. "I believe in survivors' testimonies."--Elie Wiesel. Reviewed in LIBRARY JOURNAL & BOOK LIST. Publisher: Black Thistle Press, 491 Broadway, NY, NY, 10012.