RICHARD MURGATROYD enjoys a readable account of the life and meditations of one of the few Roman emperors with a good reputation
Progenitor of the Soviet avant garde
The activities of Vkhutemas — the pioneering art and technical studios in the Moscow of the 1920s — are brought thrillingly to life in a new book, says MICHAL BONCZA
CUTTING EDGE: (L to R) Georgy Krutikov, New City (Flying City) 1927-28; (top right) Nadezhda Kolpakova, Colour Solution for Architectural Volume, 1928–29 and Natalya Ganina, project for ‘agit-textile,’ 1920s
ALEX HALL asks whether intelligence, and stupidity, are the outcomes of poverty and wealth, and cultural norms
BRENT CUTLER is persuaded by a new account of the rise of Christianity, and the fall of the Roman empire
If non-human nature is devoid of value under the capitalist mode of production, this book presents the case for its reintegration, suggests HENRY BELL
The Bard takes issue with a BBC portrait of The Balkans, and sets the record straight
ANGUS REID urges you to visit Britain’s most remarkable - and mind-blowing - festival of contemporary music
MARIA DUARTE reviews Desperate Journey, Blue Moon, Pillion, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space 1920-1930
Edited by Anna Bokov
(Verlag Park Books, £35.45)
THIS magnificent book demonstrates how Vkhutemas’s dynamics, mission, personalities — and particularly its achievements in design, art and architecture — have stood the test of time, unlike any other educational project in modern history.
With an unprecedented wealth of detail, the book is an extraordinary work of scholarship from editor Ana Bokov.
In 1923 Lenin, in Our Revolution, posed the question: “What if the complete hopelessness of the situation, by stimulating the efforts of the workers and peasants tenfold, offered us the opportunity to create the fundamental requisites of civilisation in a different way from that of the west European countries?”
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The creative imagination is a weapon against barbarism, writes KENNY COYLE, who is a keynote speaker at the Manifesto Press conference, Art in the Age of Degenerative Capitalism, tomorrow at the Marx Memorial Library & Workers School in London
NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend
NICK WRIGHT delicately unpicks the eloquent writings on art of an intellectual pessimist who wears his Marxism lightly
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a compact volume that charts the art of propagating ideas across the 20th century