In the years before and after the October Revolution of 1917, familiar painting styles and subjects were transformed as Russian artists searched for ways to reflect the radical transformations of their society. Artists shifted from portraying physical objects to using brilliant color, lyrical intensity, and dramatic abstractions to more accurately express their inner vision. Although they were rejected during the Stalinist period and later banned by the state, during the early years after the Revolution these avant-garde works were distributed to far-flung regional museums where they remained stored away until the recent breakup of the former Soviet Union. The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota is pleased to be one of only five venues in the United States to present a selection of this daring modern painting in the exhibition Painting Revolution: Kandinsky, Malevich, and the Russian Avant-Garde, on view from January 28 through April 8, 2000.

A creative explosion was taking place in Russia in the early part of the 20th century. As artists and intellectuals rejected the country's autocratic past, a lively interplay of ideas ensued in all artistic disciplines–film, costume and set design, photography, music, graphic design, architecture, and visual arts. This artistic renaissance occurred not only within Russia but also throughout Europe, where new artistic approaches like cubism, fauvism, and expressionism were replacing realism, taking the art world by storm. At the same time that they embraced the ideas of Europe, Russian painters also looked for inspiration from their own artistic, cultural, and folk traditions. It was from this fertile ground that the Russian avant-garde flourished.

One of the lasting and profound experiments of this Russian avant-garde was the creation of a new language of abstraction–one of pure geometric form with a minimum of colors. It was Wassily Kandinsky who is acknowledged, with American painter Arthur Dove, as the very first to create totally abstract works of art. In 1915, the foremost proponent and theorist of this movement toward abstraction, Kazimir Malevich, called his abstract art "suprematism," implying the supremacy of this new art over art of the past. Today Kandinsky and Malevich are widely regarded as among the foremost pioneers of modern art.

The means by which these daring visual experiments were collected, distributed, and ultimately preserved is a story that is as compelling as the works themselves. Initially the artists in this exhibition were supported by the revolutionary government, which bought thousands of their works and distributed them to museums throughout Russia. Their motive was to bring art, and particularly art that represented revolution, to the masses. This was without precedent, creating what may be the first public collections of contemporary art.

This unparalleled window of artistic creation was slammed shut shortly after Stalin took power, when in 1932, he outlawed the work of the Russian avant-garde. Orders were given to all museums to destroy these "degenerate vestiges of capitalism." Artists who did not comply found their studios destroyed, faced imprisonment, or simply disappeared. Yet, against these great odds, a huge repository of this treasured work has survived. Recent political changes in Russia have allowed this art to emerge after being hidden for more than fifty years by courageous museum curators, private collectors, and artists.

Painting Revolution showcases the fervor and brilliance of the Russian experiment through rarely seen figurative and abstract works by 32 artists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Liubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, and Vladimir Tatlin. The exhibition celebrates a rich artistic legacy by assembling 86 works, many seen in the United States for the first time. Together they reveal the extraordinary vitality of early 20th century Russian painting and the contribution of these artists to international modernism.

Painting Revolution: Kandinsky, Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde is organized and circulated in the United States by the Foundation for International Arts and Education, Bethesda Maryland, in conjunction with The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, and ROSIZO, of the Russian Ministry of Culture, Moscow.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a Federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership and a lifetime of learning, supports the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota. Additional operating support is provided by the General Mills Foundation; Target Stores, Dayton's, and Mervyn's California from the Target Foundation; the Minnesota State Arts Board; the Colleagues of the Weisman Art Museum; and the University of Minnesota.