Dejan Sretenović: Red Horizon: The Avant-Garde and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1919–1932 (2021)

“Red Horizon is the first study to focus on the Yugoslav avant-gardes from the perspective of the history of left-wing political ideas. Bearing in mind that the Yugoslav avant-gardes were politically oriented towards the radical left, and considered the aesthetic revolution an integral part of the social revolution, the book explores the modes of manifestation of the ideas of Marxism and anarchism in the programmes and activities of the avant-gardes, ranging from Expressionism, through Zenitism, Dada, Hipnism, Constructivism to Surrealism. The policies of the Yugoslav avant-gardes are considered in the context of European avant-garde currents and ideational struggles on the left cultural front, as well as in the light of the development of Marxist aesthetics and the attitudes organised Communism assumed towards modern art. The book is structured in the form of a historical-theoretical narrative, starting from the interpretation of the avant-garde and Communism as the two great epic narratives of the 20th century, and telling of the rebellions, dreams, conflicts, victories and defeats of those who wanted to radically change the society and art of their epoch.”

Publisher kuda.org, Novi Sad, 2021
Red Publications series
Translated by Katarina Radović
ISBN 9788688567244
228 pages

Publisher

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View: Parade of the Avant-Garde: An Anthology of View magazine, 1940-1947 (1991)

“As surrealism struggled to sustain its spark in the 1940s, View–the avant-garde magazine edited by poet Charles Henri Ford–attracted many of the most vital writers and artists of the period. A feast of riches, this illustrated anthology spanning the years 1940-1947 includes prose by Max Ernst, Henry Miller, André Breton, Mina Loy, Gabrièle Buffet and William Carlos Williams; essays on Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Federico Garcia Lorca, Yves Tanguy and Pavel Tchelitchew; and poems by e.e. cummings, Wallace Stevens and Lawrence Durrell, to name a few. As this roster suggests, View’s scope went beyond surrealism, embracing many émigré talents who clustered in New York and reproducing artwork by Picasso, Miro, Brancusi, Chagall.”

Foreword by Paul Bowles
Compiled by Catrina Neiman and Paul Nathan
Introduction by Catrina Neiman
Publisher Thunder’s Mouth Press, New York, 1991
ISBN 1560250135, 9781560250135
xvi+287 pages

Reviews: Perry Meisel (New York Times, 1992), Publishers Weekly (1991).

WorldCat

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Karen Kurczynski: The Art and Politics of Asger Jorn: The Avant-Garde Won’t Give Up (2014)

“Danish artist Asger Jorn has long been recognized for his founding contributions to the Cobra and Situationist International movements – yet art historical scholarship on Jorn has been sparse, particularly in English. This study offers a synthetic account of the essential phases of this artist’s career. It addresses his works in various media alongside his extensive writings and his collaborations with various artists’ groups from the 1940s through the mid-1960s. Situating Jorn’s work in an international, post-Second World War context, Karen Kurczynski reframes our understanding of the 1950s, away from the Abstract-Expressionist focus on individual expression, toward a more open-ended conception of art as a public engagement with contemporary culture and politics.”

Publisher Ashgate, 2014
ISBN 9781409431978, 1409431975
xiii+261 pages
via Situationist Library

Publisher
WorldCat

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