St. Petersburg and Russian Avant-Guard

The State Russian Museum and the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library joined forces to create a digital collection "St. Petersburg and Russian Avant-Garde", dedicated to the G-20 summit in Russia.

The logo of the G20 member countries’ leaders summit, presided for the first time in history by the Russian Federation, was not accidentally made in the avant-garde style. This was favored by the venue of the leading forum for international cooperation. The city of St. Petersburg is the home of the "vanguard" of culture, science, architecture and painting. It was there that the avant-garde movement in art, which combines different views, forms new approaches and propels forward, was conceived, blossomed and gained international fame.

The collection includes basic research works on the history of Russian avant-garde, albums and catalogs which treat of this artistic phenomenon, the works of some of its representatives. On particular interest in the collection are materials that characterize the spirit of the age. Among them - the newsreel, which captured Petrograd in the first quarter of the 20th century, rare postcards with samples of the decoration of mass celebrations in the avant-garde style, autobiographical text by V. V. Kandinsky, published in 1918.

In addition to the collections of the State Russian Museum and the Presidential Library, the development of the collection has benefited from the St. Petersburg State Theatre Library, the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russian, the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, the Tretyakov Gallery and private collections.