Lars Kleberg, Aleksei Semenko (eds.): Aksenov and the Environs (2012) [Russian, English]

“Ivan Aleksandrovich Aksenov (1883-1935), critic, poet, and translator, was an outstanding representative of the Russian avant-garde art.

In the 1920s, Aksenov was close to the constructivists and worked in the theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold, also serving as the dean of its directors’ school. Aksenov’s analysis of the problems of mis-en-scène, more geometrical than ideological, influenced a new generation of directors, headed by Sergei Eisenstein.

For different reasons, Ivan Aksenov’s life and works have remained unknown outside a small circle of initiated readers. During the Soviet era, he was soon marginalized because of his engineer’s view of art and his anti-ideological position. Later, specialised scholars ignored him, finding it too difficult to grasp his versatile personality, which was both original and representative of the multi-faceted Russian avant-garde movement.

This book of essays by authors from nine different countries sheds light on the writer’s extraordinary contribution to Russian culture.”

Contributions by Lars Kleberg, John Bowlt, Nicoletta Misler, and Janne Risum are in English.

Publisher Södertörns högskola, Huddinge, 2012
Södertörn Academic Studies 52
ISBN 9186069543, 9789186069544
242 pages
via DiVA Academic Archive

Aksenov at Russian Wikipedia

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Louise O’Konor: Viking Eggeling, 1880-1925: Artist and Film-maker: Life and Work (1971)

Louise O’Konor’s book is the first biography of Viking Eggeling, a Swedish avant-garde artist and filmmaker connected to dada, constructivism and abstract art and one of the pioneers of absolute film and visual music. The book is a result of 12 years of research in public and private archives in Europe and in the USA, and is a significant contribution to the history of dada and early abstract, animated film.

Translated by Catherine G. Sundström and Anne Bibby
Publisher Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, 1971
299 pages
via DiVA Academic Archive

PDF (165 MB, updated on 2013-12-8)
Watch Eggeling’s Diagonale Symphonie (1924) on UbuWeb

Mikkel Bolt: The Suicide of the Avant-Garde (2009) [Danish]

“A book – essay, cultural intervention, and potential debate-cooker – whose aim is to outline the historical avant-garde’s road to extinction and to ponder on the loss of grander political ambitions in innovative art today.” (Jesper Olsson)

En kritisk analyse – med udgangspunkt i surrealismen, George Bataille (Acéphale), Situationistisk Internationale og mellemkrigstidens europæiske kommunistpartier – af avantgardens selvforståelse. Mikkel Bolt undersøger også, hvordan idéen om revolution tager sig ud aktuelt.

Avantgardens selvmord
Publisher 28/6, Copenhagen, 2009
ISBN 9788792529039
109 pages
via forlaget286

Reviews: Jesper Olsson (Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2010-2011, EN), Bendik Wold (K&K, 2010, DK).

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