A Legacy Regained. Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Russian Avant-Garde

Description

No history or historiography of 20th century Russian culture can be complete without copious reference to the Moscow critic and collector Nikolai Ivanovich Khardzhiev (1903-1996). Scholar, historian, bibliographer and archivist, Khardzhiev was custodian of the avant-garde at a time when artists and writers such as K.Malevich and V.Khlebnikov were beyond the pale of official Soviet culture. Countering the rigid criteria of political doctrine and artistic convention, Khardzhiev's promotion of the forbidden fruits of Russian Modernism was a courageous gesture and his voice - that of a prophet in the wilderness. Published by Palace Editions, St. Petersburg, in collaboration with the Khardzhiev-Chaga Cultural Foundation (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) and the Russian Avant-Garde Foundation (State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), «A Legacy Regained: Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Russian Avant-Garde» contains a substantial part of Khardzhiev's unique and complex collection. Apart from Khardzhiev's own essays on Khlebnikov, El Lissitzky, V.Maiakovsky, Malevich, M.Matiushin, V.Tatlin and other pioneers of 20th century arts and letters, the book includes major archival documents, many published here for the first time - such as Suprematist declarations by Lissitzky and Malevich, statements on Futurism by Goncharova and Larionov, and letters from Jakobson, Kruchenykh and O.Rozanova. The section of reminiscences about Khardzhiev by leading art and cultural historians is especially valuable for they shed light on a scholar, who, for all his passion and good humor, remained enigmatic and reclusive. An essential feature of the book is the rich illustrative material: here are thirty-three color and one hundred black and white photographs that include both key works of the avant-garde and lesser known paintings and drawings from the Khardzhiev collection. Many are reproduced here for the first time.