An exhibition showcasing Russian avant-garde artists has opened in Baku’s Heydar Aliyev Center
Titled “Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1930. Part 3,” the exhibition includes artifacts sourced from the first and second exhibitions of the avant-garde in Moscow in 2016 and 2017 and traces the history of the Russian avant-garde from its formation in the 1900s to the movement’s crisis in 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism.
The exhibition offers insight into the main styles and techniques of the movement, with artworks from unique avant-garde collections from regional museums across 17 cities in Russia. The exhibition features 60 works from both internationally recognized avant-garde classics — Kazemir Malevich, Vasily Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexandra Exter, Marc Chagall — as well as lesser known names, including Viktor Bart, Alexei Grishchenko, Alexei Morgunov, Sergei Romanovich, Pavel Mansurov and many others who have made a significant contribution to the history of avant-garde art.
It isn’t a coincidence for the exhibition to travel to Baku: it is a nod to the history of the city and its inhabitants. Back in 1920, Velimir Khlebnikov, a famous Russian poet and playwright found himself in Baku, where he joined Baku-based Persian Red Army as a lecturer and continued to write. Khlebnikov was one of the most significant figures of the Russian avant-garde and a central part of the Russian Futurist movement.
Some of the art exhibited at Heydar Aliyev Center is shown for the first time, and the fate of the artists was frequently a tragic one, with many dying in Stalin’s camps or during the second world war. The exhibition is curated by Andrei Sarabyanov, an art historian with published works on Russian avant-garde, and is organized in coordination with the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre of Russia and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
Here, we share some images from the opening event.
![Leyla Aliyeva and guests at the opening of Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center](https://baku-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/11.jpg)
Leyla Aliyeva and guests at the opening of Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center
![Inside Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center](https://baku-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/12.jpg)
Inside Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center
![](https://baku-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/20.jpg)
Guests at the opening of Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center
![Inside Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center](https://baku-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/19.jpg)
Inside Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center
![Inside Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center](https://baku-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/34.jpg)
Inside Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1030. Part 3 at the Heydar Aliyev Center
Upon Request: The Rusian Avant-Garde Collection of the Regional Museums, 1900-1930. Part 3 will be on view at the Heydar Aliyev Center until May 5