Russian avant-garde art was a defining movement of the early 20th century, flourishing from the 1910s to the 1930s.

The Russian Revolution spurred an artistic one. The old rules no longer reflected a changing world, and young artists rejected classical traditions in search of freedom. They saw lifelike landscapes and idealized beauty as tired illusions—and set out to overturn the art world.

Avant-garde movements experimented with form and color, breaking decisively with realism. Leading figures included Kazimir Malevich (Suprematism), Wassily Kandinsky (abstraction), Mikhail Larionov (Rayonism), Pavel Filonov, Olga Rozanova (color painting), and Natalia Goncharova.

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