At the Crossroads of the Avant-Garde

Rediscovering a lost luminary of modernism and the Russian avant-garde
This kaleidoscopic biography offers readers a compelling microhistory of a revolutionary moment in art and politics through its portrait of an enigmatic but influential figure: Ivan Aksyonov authored the first book-length study about Pablo Picasso, translated Elizabethan drama, and was a literary adviser to Vsevolod Meyerhold, as well as a teacher of Sergei Eisenstein in Meyerhold's institute and an important critic, before dying in 1935. Lars Kleberg traces Aksyonov's influences, interlocutors, and creative output in multiple genres and media to bring a complicated and fascinating character back to life. Kleberg invites us to reconsider the avant-garde and to understand the political and artistic ferment of the revolutionary era and its aftermath in new, deeper ways.

Lars Kleberg is a professor emeritus of Russian at Sö dertö rn University. His books include Starfall: A Triptych (Northwestern University Press).
Charles Rougle was a professor of Russian language and literature in the Department of Slavic Languages at the State University of New York, Albany. His books include Red Cavalry: A Critical Companion (Northwestern University Press).