"Sans retour". Russian Émigré Artists in Interwar Prague

In the interwar period, Prague became one of the important centers of immigration from the former Russian empire, mostly thanks to the receptive stance of the fledgling republic and its political representation. This dissertation, dedicated to the visual art scene of "Russian Prague", does not confine itself to only consider artists who found themselves in exile in Czechoslovakia. Rather, it focuses on the position of Prague within the larger network of contacts of the Russian diaspora as such, and surveys relations of the local exile community with other émigré centers, especially Paris. By engaging perspectives of institutional frameworks, acquisition practices and strategies, as well as their political motivations, this study takes the Russian art collection of the Karásek Gallery, state purchases of Russian art, the Archive and Collection of Slavonic Art at the Slavonic Institute, the Scythian group and the permanent art exhibition of the Russian Cultural-Historical Museum as symptomatic examples that reveal the shifting boundaries of the notion of "Russian art outside Russia." It also brings the artistic production of the interwar period into conversation with that of the art traditions of pre-revolutionary Russia. All the described phenomena are characterized by rich international contacts and a..