L’école artistique de Vitebsk (1897-1923). Eveil et rayonnement autour de Pen, Chagall et Malevitch

Le Foll, Claire (2002) L’école artistique de Vitebsk (1897-1923). Eveil et rayonnement autour de Pen, Chagall et Malevitch , France, Republic of, FR. Éditions L'Harmattan, 280pp.

Abstract

This work represents the first attempt to give a synthetical picture of the history of the Vitebsk Art School as the whole. It is based on archival and artistic material and presents all the aspects of this unique art school on the Byelorussian territory.

The book begins with a detailed description of the historical background and artistic context of creation of an Art studio by Iouri Pen. This chapter includes information about the situation of Jews in the Russian empire and the city of Vitebsk.

The second part of the book is dedicated to the “revolutionary period” of the Vitebsk Art School. From 1918 to 1923, Marc Chagall, Vera Ermolaeva and Kazimir Malevitch transformed the modest art studio of Pen in a Free Artistic Workshop, where professors and pupils had the possibility to discover and practice the most recent and innovative tendencies of Art: cubism, futurism, expressionism, suprematism. The author inquires all the spheres of activities of the art school: teaching, exhibitions, conferences, “prop arts”, or propaganda, publications, decorations for official holidays, theater and ballet, etc.

Finally, the third chapter deals with the question of Jewish Art. It inscribes the Vitebsk Art School in the larger context of the Jewish Art Renaissance in Russia at the turn of the Century. The Vitebsk Art School represents indeed a fascinating case study for this complex problem. The experience of Vitebsk Art School is helpful to apprehend Jewish Art, when trying to define the place it occupied in the general debates about Jewish Art and in the emergence of a Modern Jewish Art in Russia.

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Contributors

Author: Claire Le Foll

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