Orange County Register

I recently received an amazing book, “Moscow & St. Petersburg 1900-1920: Art, Life & Culture of the Russian Silver Age.” The author is John E. Bowlt, a professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Southern California.

“Moscow & St. Petersburg” (Vendome Press) is a fantastically illustrated, well-written, comprehensive volume on an influential era most Americans don’t even think about. But if you look at art, theater, classical music and literature since the turn of the 20th century, there’s no denying the importance of the Ruskies.

Bowlt focuses on the Russian Symoblist movement, but expands beyond to include historical events, the new cultures emerging from Russia’s urban centers and other intellectual and aesthetic movements.

His approach is truly interdisciplinary, covering visual art, music, theater, dance and the literary arts. Artists discussed include Sergei Diaghilev, his world-famous Ballet Russes, Anna Aktmatova, Leon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Aleksandr Blok, Wassily Kandinksy, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Nicholas Roerich, Alexksandr Scriabin, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Igor Stravinsky and Mikhail Vrubel.

Lesser knowns such as painter Nikolai Kalmakov, and the free dance followers of Duncan and Dalcroze are also featured.

Bowlt has researched and written extensively on Russian art history of the late 19th and 20th centuries, and his expertise shows. His prose is deeply knowledgeable, yet accessible and never too cerebral.

Did I mention the illustrations? They are plentiful, rich and awe-inspiring. There are some incredible paintings, graphics and photographs in there, many which have never been published before.

“Moscow & St. Petersburg” sells for $50 hardcover and is, in my opinion, the art book of the year.

Image: ”Portrait of Vsevolod Meierkhold” (1916), oil on canvas by Boris Grigoriev.

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