A new episode of the podcast "Russian Avant-Garde: Past, Present, Future" continues the conversation with art historian and curator Ivan Chechot. This time, the topic of the discussion is "Expressionism as German Avant-Garde."
The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term, not the self-designation of the movement; it only appeared in the 1960s. Nevertheless, it is accepted worldwide. Can it be said that Expressionism is the avant-garde in German?
Expressionism became not only a distinctly German movement; it can be found in other countries as well. This is also the case with Russian art of the 1910s-1920s, which over the last quarter-century has been examined precisely from this point of view, with attempts to find Expressionism within it.
In addition to purely stylistic, formal features, scholars note a particular morbidity, a psychological fracture in the art, as well as an interest in the dark sides of the human psyche.
All of this is discussed in the episode "Expressionism as German Avant-Garde."