Reading Recommendations

Reading Recommendations

Happy New Year!

We would like to start the new year with some reading recommendations. Members of the Russian Art and Culture Group have been involved in many publications over the past year and we would like to draw your attention to four of them.

Enjoy reading and a successful 2024 for all our friends and members!

First, we would like to congratulate Roann Barris to her monographic publication Reclaiming and Redefining American Exhibitions of Russian Art. Many will remember when Roann presented her exciting material at our seventh workshop in September 2019. We are therefore all the more delighted that her findings are now accessible to everyone.

On 170 pages, illustrated with 16 reproductions, Roann examines the history of American exhibitions of Russian art in the twentieth century, presenting the complex interactions between museums and governments, and the different approaches of curators in the context of the Cold War.

Congratulations, Roann, on this wonderful book!

Louise Hardiman edited the rich volume on Courtly Gifts and Cultural Diplomacy: Art, Material Culture, and Russian-British Relations as the 24th volume of the series Russian History and Culture at Brill! It is available as hard cover print and as e-book.

In thirteen chapters divided into four thematic parts, this richly illustrated volume presents the diverse practices of giving and receiving gifts between the British and Russian Empires on almost 400 pages. Compelling case studies highlight the nuanced nature of British-Russian artistic diplomacy from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

The editor Louise Hardiman presented this wonderful publication together with Ekaterina Heath, Allison Leigh, and Cynthia Coleman Sparke in the NYU 19v. Seminar Series in September 2023. So, if you would like an introduction by the authors, just watch the recording online.

The next publication that we would like to recommend is already impressive in its scope. Picturing Russian Empire is an edited volume with 55 articles by renowned international art historians and cultural scientists; members of the Russian Art and Culture Group among them. It is published as paperback and e-book at Oxford University Press.

Valerie Kivelson, Sergei Kozlov, and Joan Neuberger compiled a collection covering more than a millennium of Russian and Soviet history, from medieval Rus until today. On around 550 pages, the 55 articles are divided upon six parts, each dedicated to a certain era (see Table of Contents). With the last four contributions, the editors react to the current political situation and Russia’s unlawful war in Ukraine.

The multifaceted approach of this publication provides an impressive overview of many different aspects of current historical research. Enjoy exploring it!

The special issue on “Framing Environments in Russia: Critical Reflections on Ecology, Culture and Power” of the Venice University journal Lagoonscapes: The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities offers a different perspective on sociopolitical structures in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

Roberta Sala and Nadia Caprioglio co-edited an interesting volume with ten perspectives on the perception of the environment in Russian and Soviet culture and society on 170 pages.

Best of all, this edition is an open-access work just waiting for you to download it.

Publication on the First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922 out now

Publication on the First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922 out now

The publication 100 Years On: Revisiting the First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922 is finally published! It is now available as hard cover print and as e-book.

The editors and active members of the Russian Art & Culture Group, professor Isabel Wünsche and Miriam Leimer, are grateful for the generous support by SHERA – the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture, Inc. – awarding this volume with the Publication Grant 2022.

On almost 300 pages with 180 reproductions of artworks, photographs, and historic documents the compiled volume is focusing on the Berlin First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922. Participants of last year’s International Conference in Berlin and other experts in the field provided intriguing material and new insights.

We definitely agree with the description of the publishing house Böhlau that “the combination of longer, thematic essays and short features, along with reproductions of newly identified works and a selection of unpublished archival materials make this book valuable to both a scholarly and a general readership.”

We highly recommend this intriguing publication and hope that you will enjoy it as much as we do!

Forthcoming Publication on the First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922

Forthcoming Publication on the First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922

The Russian Art & Culture Group would like to draw your attention to the forthcoming publication 100 Years On: Revisiting the First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922.

The editors and active members of the Russian Art & Culture Group, professor Isabel Wünsche and Miriam Leimer, compiled an interesting volume emphasizing on the Berlin First Russian Art Exhibition of 1922. Participants of last years International Conference in Berlin and other experts in the field provided intriguing material and insights.

We are looking forward to this book and already agree with the description of the publishing house Böhlau that “the combination of longer, thematic essays and short features, along with reproductions of newly identified works and a selection of unpublished archival materials make this book valuable to both a scholarly and a general readership.”

Of course, we will inform you once the volume is published in late 2022!

Congratulations, Dr. Borkhardt!

Congratulations, Dr. Borkhardt!

The Russian Art & Culture Group would like to congratulate Sebastian Borkhardt for the publication of his PhD thesis on Wassily Kandinsky!

In „Der Russe Kandinsky“. Zur Bedeutung der russischen Herkunft Vasilij Kandinskijs für seine Rezeption in Deutschland, 1912-1945 [“The Russian Kandinsky”: On the Significance of Vasilii Kandinskii’s Russian Origin for His Reception in Germany, 1912-1945.] Sebastian discusses how Kandinsky’s work was perceived and discussed in Germany during the artist’s stay there.

We are delighted that this well-researched work is now available for the German reader and thankful for this enrichment of the scholarship on Russian art in Germany.

So, Congratulations! once again and the best of luck for your future projects, Dr. Sebastian Borkhardt!

Congratulations, Dr. Malycheva!

Congratulations, Dr. Malycheva!

The Russian Art & Culture Group would like to congratulate Tanja Malycheva for the publication of her PhD thesis on Valentin Serov!

In Valentin Serov: Bildfindungsprozesse des russischen Künstlers im gesamteuropäischen Kontext [Valentin Serov: Image Genesis Processes of the Russian Artist in a Pan-European Context] Tanja discusses Serov’s voyages and their inspirational character.

We are delighted that her well-researched work is now available for the German reader and thankful for this enrichment of the scholarship on Russian art in Germany.

Her publication is generously supported by the Kroll Family Trust

So, Congratulations! once again and the best of luck for your future projects, Dr. Tanja Malycheva!