Moscow & St. Petersburg 1900-1920: Art, Life & Culture
by John E. Bowlt
Vendome Press, $50
At the turn of the 20th century, against the background of the waning imperial power and rumblings of social and political unrest, Moscow and St. Petersburg experienced a sudden flowering of the visual, literary and performing arts. In this richly illustrated text, John E. Bowlt, professor of Slavic languages and literatures at USC College, explores Russia’s Silver Age, focusing not only on the best-known artists from this period – Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, Igor Stravinsky, Anna Pavlova and poet Anna Akhmatova – but also on the less familiar movements such as experimental theatre, free-form verse and Nikolai Kalmakov’s innovative painting.