Avant-garde
timeline
A concise chronology: from Alexandra Exter’s Kyiv period to the international return of Ukrainian modernism to the museum spotlight.
Exter: Kyiv, experiment, theatre
Cubism, Futurism and colour
Alexandra Exter’s work brought together Cubism, Futurism and different forms of abstraction. During the decade she took part in major avant-garde exhibitions.
The Kyiv studio
Exter opened her own studio in Kyiv. The source publication describes it as one of the centres of the city’s avant-garde culture and a place where a new artistic language was passed to the next generation.
“5 × 5 = 25”
Exter participated in the celebrated exhibition alongside Liubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Alexander Vesnin.
Move to France
She settled in France and continued to work in painting, scenography, book design, teaching and applied art.
An international legacy
Exter died in France. Her works are now held by major museums including MoMA in New York and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
Ukrainian modernism returns to the centre of attention
In the Eye of the Storm
A major exhibition opened in Madrid, presenting modernist art made in Ukraine during the first decades of the twentieth century.
Brussels
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium presented more than sixty works, many loaned by Ukrainian museums for safekeeping during the war.
London
The Royal Academy of Arts opened the UK stage of the project with more than 70 works, from painting and collage to theatre design.