Art! Revolution!

Malevich and the Bolsheviks

Was the Russian avant-garde a victim or a vanguard of Stalinism? Their relationship to the Bolshevists has remained the subject of controversial discussion to this day. The historian Christian Semler on Malevich's cosmic yearnings and the connections between the artistic and social revolutions.

Everything and Nearly Nothing:
Malevich and His Effects

Malevich's "Black Square" is a modernist myth. Yet what influence did it have on the post-war generations of European and American artists? Ira Mazzoni has set about answering this question, introducing examples from the collection of the Deutsche Bank.


Russian Berlin in the Nineteen-Twenties

Nighttime! Tauentzien Street! Cocaine! Throughout the nineteen-twenties, it was often the Russians who enriched Berlin's avant-garde, proclaiming the town to be the center of modernism. Following his article on Malevich and Berlin, Roland Enke has now created a portrait of the Russian avant-garde in the German capital.

Deutsche Bank and the German-Russian Cultural Exchange

Since the nineteen-seventies, Deutsche Bank's business cooperation with its Russian partners has been accompanied by a bilateral cultural exchange. This was not always as self-evident as it is today: Oliver Koerner von Gustorf on the history of an approach.



In tandem with the exhibition Malevich – Suprematism in the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, our current edition’s main theme has adopted the motto “Art! Revolution!” What relationship did the artistic revolution of 1915 have to do with the October Revolution of 1917? In his essay “Malevich and the Bolsheviks,” the Berlin-based journalist Christian Semler examines the history of the controversial relationship between the Russian avant-garde and Bolshevism.+++ Images of nothingness, a sublime something, and an ominous everything: incontestably, Kasimir Malevich is one of the great pioneers of non-objective art. Yet what was his influence on European and American artists of the post-war generations? Ira Mazzoni has set about answering this question, introducing examples from the collection of the Deutsche Bank. +++“The Russians are circling around the Gedächtniskirche like flies.” – In the second part of his series on the Russian avant-garde in Berlin, Roland Enke regards the German capital of the nineteen-twenties as being entirely “under the sign of the square.”+++ Opening up to an understanding: Oliver Koerner von Gustorf on the German-Russian cultural exchange the Deutsche Bank has been tending to for over a quarter of a century. +++In this issue’s magazine: Socialist Realism, mass culture, and blond pioneers – an interview with the painter Norbert Bisky.+++ Last but not least: How suprematist is the logo of the Deutsche Bank? A portrait of the logo’s designer, Anton Stankowski, in our section “Art at Work.”