The Kazan Avant-garde of 1910–1930s: Regional and National Specific Features

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The article highlights the regional version of the Russian avant-garde, which developed in such an important artistic center of Russia as Kazan, the capital of a vast region with a multi-confessional and multi-ethnic population. The article reveals the origins of the phenomenon and the main stages of its development, due to such historical events as the creation and reorganization of the Kazan Art School, the First World War and the Civil War, the revolution of 1917. The author positions the art of Kazan as part of the all-Russian artistic process. The new state cultural policy began to guide its development during the revolutionary years. Avant-garde artists elaborated and directed it towards the promotion and widespread propaganda of avant-garde art. The author reveals the development of the avant-garde through the activities of the art associations of Kazan — “Sunflower”, “Vsadnik (Rider)”, “TatLEF”, “SULF”, through the work of leading artists — K. Chebotarev, A. Platunova, I. Nikitin, S. Fedotov, I. Pleshchinsky, N. Shikalov, F. Tagirov, B. Urmanche and others. The author singles out the features of the Kazan avant-garde, determined by national and religious factors: the two main peoples of the region are Russians and Tatars, who profess Orthodoxy and Islam. This determined the predominance of Russian artists at the fi rst stage, their passion for various styles of the European avant-garde, which were carried out in different types of art. Their interest in the art of the peoples of their region became an important source for experiments. The formation of a galaxy of artists-Tatars was a characteristic feature of the Kazan avant-garde after the mid-1920s. The abolition of the religious restrictions of Islam which did not allow the development of the Tatar fi ne arts was adopted after the revolution and facilitated this process. An important role was played by the purposeful activity of B. Urmanche, who attracted the Tatar youth to art education. In this environment, mainly graphic art and theatrical and decorative arts were evolved, and the main stylistic direction of the Tatar avant-garde was Constructivism.