Envision a new artistic language in stride with a changed world: this ambition was shared by many artists across Europe in the early 20th century. In the context of the Russian Revolution of 1917, artists proclaimed that a revolutionary society demanded forms of art liberated from the past. Rejecting traditional painting’s loyalty to recognizable subject matter, they instead promoted nonrepresentational art, exhilarated by its potential to free viewers from the material realm while connecting to radical politics and imagining a more perfect future. In Holland, a group called De Stijl championed abstraction as a model for cultivating the values of universality and connectedness. “If we cannot free ourselves, we can free our vision,” declared the artist Piet Mondrian. “Art must move not only parallel with human progress but must advance ahead of it.”
Collection 1880s–1940s
512
Abstraction and Utopia
512
Abstraction and Utopia
- MoMA, Floor 5, 512 The David Geffen Wing
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Alexandra Exter Construction 1922-23 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
Sherrie Levine Untitled (After Malevich and Schiele), from the 1917 exhibition, Nature Morte Gallery, New York 1984 -
El Lissitzky Proun 19D 1920 or 1921 -
Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying 1915 (dated on reverse 1914) -
Kazimir Malevich Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack - Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension 1915 -
Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition: White on White 1918 -
Piet Mondrian Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 1914 -
Piet Mondrian Composition with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, and Gray 1921 -
Piet Mondrian Tableau I: Lozenge with Four Lines and Gray 1926 -
Liubov Popova Painterly Architectonic 1917 -
Jean Pougny (Ivan Puni) Flight of Forms 1919 -
Aleksandr Rodchenko Non-Objective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black) 1918 -
Georges Vantongerloo Construction of Volume Relations 1921 -
Vasyl Yermilov Composition Number 3 1923
Artists
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El Lissitzky
Russian, 1890–194176 exhibitions, 135 works online -
Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872–1944106 exhibitions, 30 works online -
Kazimir Malevich
Russian, born Ukraine. 1878–193566 exhibitions, 62 works online -
Vasyl Yermilov
Ukrainian, 1894–19688 exhibitions, 7 works online -
Sherrie Levine
American, born 194727 exhibitions, 108 works online - There are 11 artists in this collection gallery online.
Installation images
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