From Library Journal
This catalog accompanies an upcoming traveling exhibition, originating at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, that will feature six women painters of the early 20th-century Russian avant-garde: Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Nadezhda Udaltsova. Organized by the curators of the exhibition, the catalog discusses these women, their painting, and their work in other art forms, including theater, textile design, and writing. The book features biographies of each woman in addition to essays that focus on the issue of gender in the arts of turn-of-the-century Russia. What results is a well-documented, well-illustrated book with color plates that includes a chronology of each artist and a collection of translated primary documents (artists! correspondence, extracts from diaries, and contemporary exhibition catalogs). A valuable resource for the study of women artists and the avant-garde in Russia; highly recommended for academic libraries and specialized art collections."Eric Linderman, Ida Rupp P.L., Port Clinton, OH Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
No serious overviews of modern art neglect the Russian avant-garde, but the group's women artists are rarely accorded in-depth study. To redress this imbalance, the Guggenheim Museum fashioned a traveling exhibition about six "Amazons" of the movement: Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Nadezhda Udaltsova, an important undertaking handsomely documented by Russian art expert Bowlt, Guggenheim curator Drutt, and their contributors. Their volume's reproductions, many never before published in the West, make it invaluable, but the essays, both biographical and topical (analyzing, for instance, the status of women artists in Russia), establish a vivid cultural context, while writings by the artists bring their voices into the mix. The synergy among the six is palpable, but each took a distinctive approach to bridging the divide between the figurative and the abstract. Gifted, sophisticated, and, as Charlotte Douglas writes, "vital and direct, hardworking, competitive, and uncompromising," the artists also spanned the shift from imperial Russia to the Soviet state, an upheaval mirrored in their energetic and searching creations. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A Guggenheim Museum Publication Early in the 20th century, a remarkable group of Russian artists ignited a revolution in the fine and applied arts. In recent years, many books have celebrated the achievements of this multifaceted avant-garde. But until now, none has focused exclusively on the achievements of women artists, who played a vital role in the movement. Accompanying an international traveling exhibition, this book profiles six key women of the Russian avant-garde. Richly illustrated with documentary photographs and color reproductions of more than 80 artworks, many of which have never before been seen in the West, Amazons of the Avant-Garde brings to life the disparate aesthetic visions of these revolutionary artists, all of whom were seeking, in the words of Olga Rozanova, "wholly new bases of artistic creation." 194 illustrations, 89 in full color, 8 x 10"

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This catalog accompanies an upcoming traveling exhibition, originating at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, that will feature six women painters of the early 20th-century Russian avant-garde: Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Nadezhda Udaltsova. Organized by the curators of the exhibition, the catalog discusses these women, their painting, and their work in other art forms, including theater, textile design, and writing. The book features biographies of each woman in addition to essays that focus on the issue of gender in the arts of turn-of-the-century Russia. What results is a well-documented, well-illustrated book with color plates that includes a chronology of each artist and a collection of translated primary documents (artists correspondence, extracts from diaries, and contemporary exhibition catalogs). A valuable resource for the study of women artists and the avant-garde in Russia; highly recommended for academic libraries and specialized art collections. Eric Linderman, Ida Rupp P.L., Port Clinton, OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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