The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863-1922 (1962)

This is the first book to examine the Russian contribution to what we now call the modern movement in art and architecture. It reveals an activity and achievement which have hitherto been almost unknown and unrecognized, but which are now shown to be of the greatest importance. The author has tracked down periodicals, exhibition catalogues, and other documents which are now very rare, and out of them has reconstructed the record of her period.

She has supported this with illustrations drawn from all the important Western collections of Russian art and also from the far more important collections in Russian museums which have never been seen in the West. Artists like Malevich, Tatlin, Rodchenko, who have hitherto been only names to most of us, are now given their full stature as artists and personalities. They are also seen as powerful formative influences on the continental movements between the wars, particularly the Bauhaus.

The story is exciting as well as important. From the purely aesthetic point of view, it tells of historic experiments and discoveries. But its greatest interest, perhaps, is in its account of an attempt to integrate art with life and society—an attempt that was pursued with passionate idealism through the revolutionary years which gave the movement’s protagonists such a unique opportunity. In its short-lived heyday, music, drama, poetry, and all the industrial arts were embraced in an experiment which attacked at the root the problems which still concern the artist today.

Condition: Dust-wrapper tape-repaired with one small segment missing to bottom edge of its front panel. Previous owner’s signature on front endpaper.