Alexandra Selivanova and Nadezhda Plungian. Meer Aizenshtadt. Organicity, Archaicism, Modernism

Year2024
LanguageRussian
Pages360
BindingHardcover

Garage publishing program

This book explores the work of sculptor Meer Aizenshtadt (1895–1961), a graduate of the Sculpture Faculty of VKhuTEIN who created original sculptural/architectural monumental projects.

It is aimed at specialists and general readers and is based on the motifs of the exhibition Meer Aizenshtadt: Toward a Synthesis of the 1930s, curated by Alexandra Selivanova, which took place at Na Shabolovke Gallery in 2019. The book contains essays by Alexandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungian, and Alexandra Shatskikh and also reminiscences by Aizenshtadt’s contemporaries and an interview with artist Zhenya Rzheznikova about how the artist’s method relates to contemporary art.

Most of the materials included are published for the first time. The authors reveal a large group of previously unknown sculptural works and also drawings, which are presented as one of the foundations of his artistic method. In considering the evolution of Aizenshtadt’s style from the 1920s to the 1950s, the book shows the artist’s oeuvre as an integral and important element in the history of Soviet art of the early twentieth century.

Meer Aizenshtad. Organicity, Archaism, Modernism is the first title in the new Garage series Avant-Garde Center Laboratory for the Study of Soviet Art. The series aims to gather and present the results of over ten years of work by the Avant-Garde Center. Each book will explore one of the center’s exhibitions and will include academic essays, historical texts and archive documents, works of art, and exhibition photographs.

Authors

Nadezhda Plungian has a Candidate of Art History degree and is an art historian, independent curator, critic, and author of books and articles on Soviet and contemporary art. From 2009 to 2019 she was a senior researcher at the State Institute for Art Studies, Moscow, and from 2017 to 2021 editor of the «Art» section on the site Colta.ru. Since 2017 she has been part New Moscow, the free association of historians of Soviet art. She was lead curator of the project Modernism Without Manifestos. The Roman Babichev Collection (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 2017–2018) and editor of the eponymous book series. She curated the exhibition Wandering Stars: Soviet Jewry in Prewar Art (2021) and was co-curator of the research-based exhibitions Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (2017), Soviet Antiquity (2018), and Beetles and Caterpillars. Insect Culture, 1920–1940s (2021) at Na Shabolovke Gallery. She was co-curator of the project VKhUTEMAS 100. The School of the Avant-Garde at the Museum of Moscow (2020) and co-author of the project The Feminist Pencil (2011, 2013). Since 2019 she has taught at the School of Historical Sciences of the Higher School of Economics. She lives and works in Moscow.

Alexandra Selivanova has a Candidate of Architecture degree and is a curator and the author of books and articles on Soviet architecture and art of the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2023 she has been a researcher at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Exhibitions include: The Avant-Garde and Aviation, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (2014); Ladovsky’s Experiment and Agit Trains, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2017); Factory of Happy People, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2018); Meer Aizenshtadt: Toward a Synthesis of the 1930s, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2019); and Gastev. How to Work, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2019). Together with Nadezhda Plungian she created a series of research-based exhibitions at Na Shabolovke Gallery: Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (2017), Soviet Antiquity (2018), and Beetles and Caterpillars. Insect Culture, 1920–1940s (2021). Together with Marina Krasnova she created the exhibitions Bulgakov vs. Mayakovsky (2016) and A Universal Response to Note-Takers (2018) for Na Shabolovke Gallery. She made a number of projects at the Museum of Moscow. She was the lead curator of the project VKhUTEMAS 100. The School of the Avant-Garde (2020) and co-curator of the exhibitions Moscow Thaw (with Evgenia Kikodze, 2016), Fabrics of Moscow (with Ksenia Guseva, 2019), and Electrification. The Centenary of the GOELRO Plan (with Katerina Telegina, 2021). Since 2021 she has been a member of the creative community MIR and co-curator of the museum Gasteva, 1 (Suzdal).