Een revolutie gaat aan gekijf ten onder : de Stijl en de "Russische kwestie", najaar 1919 : een briefwisseling tussen Theo van Doesburg, Chris Beekman, Robert van 't Hoff, J.J.P. Oud en Antony Kok, met inleiding en annotaties

Contains fulltext : 27565.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Correspondence (38 letters, annotated) between several artists of the avant-gardist 'De Stijl'-grouping concerning the 'Russian question' (i.e. the controverse on sending a request to Parliament for free postal communication with artists in the Soviet Union). In literature on 'De Stijl', the insubordinate behaviour of Theo van Doesburg, who was accused of having delayed the circulation of this petition, is often mentioned as cause of controverse. The original letters however, reveal the artists were not quarreling over the 'Russian question' as such, but all the more on differences in political engagement, exhibition policy and other avant-gardist strategies, in combination with minor personal annoyances. The Introduction to the letters discusses the background of the growing controverse: the rise and wane of the enthusiasm about the Russian Revolution (and especially about Lunacharsky's Commissariat of Enlightenment); the attempts of joining together progressive artists and intellectuals in an international league; the problems of communicating with avant-gardist artists abroad and especially in Russsia; the question whether or not to participate in expositions of other-minded organizations. To the corresponding artists, this last question may have been the most important one. The complex of intertwined quarrels resulted in splitting up 'De Stijl'.XLIV, 56 p