'This "portable guide" - succinct but never superficial, precise but never pedantic, may well be the one indispensable book on the European Avant-Garde movements. Bru's concluding speculations on the future of the avant-garde and its various theorists is especially welcome. A brilliant study!'Marjorie Perloff, Stanford UniversityThe early twentieth-century avant-gardes (cubism, futurism, expressionism, Dadaism, constructivism and many other -isms) to a large extent define modern art and writing. Yet even today avant-garde works strike many as strange or difficult. How do we properly read a futurist painting or a Dada sound poem? What is the difference between cubist and constructivist architecture?What made the avant-gardes so vital as well to the arts of dance and theatre, film and music, photography and sculpture? This engaging and insightful introduction is designed to answer all these questions and more. It sketches the complex context in which the avant-gardes operated, taking readers on a journey throughout the whole of Europe, from London to Moscow, and back. Clearly written, this book aims to encourage all students of modernism and of the modern arts to appreciate the breath and richness of Europe's now classical avant-gardes.Sascha Bru teaches general and comparative literature at the University of Leuven. He is author or editor of over a dozen books on the European avant-gardes and modernisms.
