Russian Dada 1914–1924
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
6 June – 22 October 2018
A month ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Russian Dada 1914–1924 exhibition at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid—my first art review outside the UK. Although the show felt extensive due to the sheer number of works on display (around 250), its breadth offered a remarkable and coherent overview of the Russian avant-garde during a decade of radical experimentation.
The exhibition, organised into three sections, brings together paintings, collages, illustrations, sculptures, publications, and film projections. It situates Russian Dada within the wider context of Dadaism, the early 20th-century European avant-garde movement that rejected logic, reason, and aesthetic norms in response to the trauma of World War I. Born in Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire, Dada favoured irrationality, nonsense, and open revolt against bourgeois culture. Interestingly, Vladimir Lenin himself was a frequent visitor to the same cabaret where the movement originated—an anecdote that adds unexpected resonance when encountering Russian works from this period.
Russian Dada flourished between World War I and Lenin’s death, and like their Dadaist peers, the artists embraced internationalism, eccentric performances, and pacifist demonstrations. The first section—my personal favourite—focuses on ‘alogical’ abstraction. Entering the space, visitors are greeted by playful, irreverent photographs of Russian artists, followed by black-and-white film projections that set the tone for the era’s experimental spirit. Among the standout works is Vladimir Tatlin’s Complex Corner-Relief (1915), which feels as bold today as it must have felt a century ago.
The Art Blueberry performing next to Vladimir Tatlin’s, “Complex Corner-Relief” (1915).
One of the highlights for me was encountering the designs for the stage curtain of the futurist opera Victory over the Sun, created by Kazimir Malevich in 1913. These works paved the way for his iconic Black Square (1915), which is not present in the exhibition, but the curtain designs and their geometric variations—featuring black and white squares—are equally striking and historically revealing.
Aleksei Morgunov’s testimony, displayed in the exhibition, captures the spirit of the moment:
“In 1914–15 Malevich and I decided that practically all forms of development of painterly principles… brought us logically to a blank canvas. Our task then was to create new forms with the character of elementary geometric shapes. One of such forms was a square.”
This drive toward radical reduction and abstraction culminated in Suprematism, which Malevich formally introduced with the help of collaborators Mikhail Matyushin and Aleksei Kruchenykh. Their manifesto urged the rejection of rational thought and Western societal structures. In Victory over the Sun, the characters attempt to abolish reason by capturing the sun and destroying time—a fitting metaphor for the era’s revolutionary ambitions.
Sofia Dymshits-Tolstaia’s recollection of arriving in Vitebsk captures this vividly:
“The city still glowed from Malevich’s decorations—circles, squares, dots, lines of different colours… I felt like I was in a bewitched city.”
The second section of the show spans 1917 to 1924, covering the Russian Revolution and the years that followed. Suprematism’s influence is evident everywhere.
This influence can be seen in works such as Morgunov’s unpublished cover design for The International of Art and El Lissitzky’s compelling piece The New Man (1920–23).
The exhibition’s final section examines Russia’s artistic exchanges with Paris and Berlin, two major centres of Dada activity. Works by Lissitzky in Berlin and by Sergei Sharshun and Ilia Zdanevich in Paris highlight the international circulation of ideas, aesthetics, and political aspirations during those turbulent years.
In the wake of the Great War, Dada arose from nihilism, while the Russian Revolution introduced a Marxist vision that aligned—at least in spirit—with Dada’s anti-establishment ethos. Russian artists extended Dada’s absurdity into mass culture, producing chance-based designs and provocative experiments that challenged the very definition of art. Their mission may have been to bring about the “death of art,” but in doing so they created some of the most bold, boundary-breaking works of the early 20th century.
Leave a Reply