Modernism in Europe - Current and Coming - Los Angeles County Museum of Art's "Central European Avant-Gardes, Exchange and Transformation, 1910-1930" exhibition - Brief Article

Magazine Antiques, April, 2002 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

The decades between 1910 and 1930 were tumultuous not only politically but also in the worlds of art and design. However, before the reconfiguration of Europe in the 1980s documents and objects pertaining to artistic movements in many countries were inaccessible to many scholars. Now an exhibition on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art examines the artistic climate of Central Europe during this very intriguing and fertile period. The exhibition in entitled Central European Avant-Gardes, Exchange and Transformation, 1910-1930 and is on view until June 2. There are approximately three hundred objects, including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and decorative arts objects.

Central Europe, extending from the Balkans to the Baltic along the Danube and Oder Rivers, encompasses cultures of Slavic, Germanic, Magyar, and Gaelic origins. The exhibition examines the contributions of members of the avant-garde in Belgrade, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Cracow, Dessau, Ljubljana, Lodz, Poznan, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, Weimar, and Zagreb. In the early twentieth century before World War I, individuals moved freely between these cities and other artistic centers in Europe, stimulating cultural exchanges among artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals. Exhibitions were particularly important during this period, as they provided forums where artists from different cities not only saw each other's work, but also met each other. Alliances were formed and movements such as international constructivism were founded. Schools such as the Bauhaus eventually drew their faculty from all over Europe.

The present exhibition seeks to underscore the interdisciplinary nature of the arts in this period. Thus works by artists of the Czech Devetsil group, who were active in the 1920s and very interested in jazz, are accompanied by recorded jazz written by Jaroslav Jezek.

The catalogue of the exhibition, by Timothy O. Benson, contains essays by twelve international scholars. It is available by telephoning 800-288-2129.