French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Joyeux-Prunel, Les avant-gardes artistiques (1918-1945). Une histoire transnationale
Art and Visual Culture
Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel
Les avant-gardes artistiques (1918-1945). Une histoire transnationale
Collection Folio histoire (No. 263), Gallimard, 2017
1200 pages + 16 p. insert, 15 ill., illustrated cover, 108 x 178 mm
ISBN: 9782072722820
For anyone undertaking a transnational history of 20th-century pictorial avant-gardes, the period covered in this second volume, from 1918 to 1945, is the most perilous. For the author must grapple with the grand narrative dictated by the avant-gardes themselves.
Does everything begin with Dada? As early as 1910, new generations were already beginning to symbolically challenge Paris from new centers: Berlin, Munich, London, Brussels, Cologne, Moscow, New York. Dada, while certainly born in the charnel houses of war, sprang even more so from the history of artistic and literary modernity dating back to the 1850s.
Were the avant-gardes ideologically progressive? Their participants continuously negotiated between revolutionary rationales, national ambitions, and the desire to somehow maintain their visibility on the international stage.
Far from Paris being the sole capital, new groups determined to carve out a place for themselves within the current of modernism emerged regularly from one city to another—particularly in Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Moscow, but also in Amsterdam, Bucharest, Zagreb, Barcelona, and as far afield as São Paulo, Mexico City, and Japan.
Conversely, the interwar period was an era of the complete commodification of artistic innovation. Within avant-garde practices and debates, a recurring issue was paramount: what place should be given to the market, especially in the event of success?
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An article on this work can be read on nonfiction.fr:
The interwar period remains a central focus for scholars examining how modern art movements navigated nationalism, international exchange, and institutional recognition across multiple urban centers. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel examines how various groups negotiated their visibility on the global stage while engaging with the legacies of nineteenth-century modernity. The volume considers how artistic innovation intersected with commercial pressures, addressing the complex relationship between creative autonomy and the art market during times of profound political and social upheaval. Readers interested in transnational art history may find the volume relevant.
The study questions established narratives that position Paris as the sole capital of modernism by tracing the emergence of artistic groups in cities such as Berlin, Moscow, Prague, and beyond. Through this wide geographical scope, the work highlights the decentralized nature of avant-garde practices and the ongoing debates concerning revolutionary ideals, market integration, and international rivalry. The analysis provides an overview of how creative networks functioned across borders during one of the most politically sensitive eras of the twentieth century.