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What if the avant-gardes weren’t as heroic as they claimed? This book also challenges the familiar tale of Surrealism’s rise and Paris’s dominance between 1918 and 1945. From Dada to Abstract Art and Surrealism, most avant-gardes resisted politics until the late 1930s, chasing autonomy, innovation,—and glory. You follow their journey, crises, and rivalries from Paris to Central Europe and the Americas. With a global, social, economic, and aesthetic lens, this book also traces the avant-gardes’ return to Paris amid fascist persecution and economic collapse—revealing how they ultimately turned to politics. Richly illustrated with artworks, maps and charts, it’s art history as you’ve never seen it: sharp, dynamic, and truly global.
Price: $173.00
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Avant-Garde Critical Studies
Publication Date:
22 June 2027
ISBN: 9789004720961
Format: Hardcover
"At the cutting edge of art"
[…]
"This global artistic geopolitics is fascinating, taking us on a journey through the abstract and surrealist epics across the Atlantic, with a stop along the way in Latin American indigenism. It's world (art) history—a multipolar, multidisciplinary vision (the art historian also analyzes the art market), rejecting any ‘monocentric’ interpretation and challenging the hegemony of Paris before 1945 and New York afterward. In art, no one holds a monopoly on progress."
- Sean J. Rose, « à la pointe de l’art. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel signe le second volume d'”une histoire transnationale” des avant-gardes artistiques de 1918 à 1945 », Livre-Hebdo, 5 May 2017, p. 45.
"Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel publishes the second volume of her remarkable series on the artistic avant-gardes."
[…]
"An erudite panorama"
[…]
"Deliberately challenging apparent certainties, The Artistic Avant-Gardes 1918–1945, a rich and essential reference work, reads like a tremendous epic."
- Frédérique Roussel, « L’art en mouvements perpétuels. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel publie le deuxième tome de sa remarquable série sur les avant-gardes artistiques vues sous les angles géopolitiques et sociologiques. Un panorama érudit d’une période (1918-1945) dominée par le surréalisme », Libération, 22 June 2017, p. 28-29
"This monumental work, devoted to the interwar period, is made highly enjoyable to read thanks to its lively style."
[…]
"An essential book for anyone wishing to approach museums and exhibitions with a fresh perspective."
- Nicolas Weill, Le Monde des livres, Friday 30 June 2017, p. 2.
"What a harvest! After recounting in a first volume—already rich and captivating—the avant-gardes between 1848 and 1918, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel enters the 20th century: a prosperous, turbulent period that is, in the end, not as well-known as we are often led to believe."
[…]
"The author highlights the richness of all these artistic melting pots and the prodigious vitality that animated them. Fascinating."
- Bernard Géniès, « L’avant-garde à l’assaut », L’Obs, 22-28 June 2017, p. 95.
"A useful and ambitious work"
[…]
"Delightful chapters on 'Dalinism' and the establishment of modernist abstraction in South America"
- Connaissance des Arts, September-October 2017, p. 164.
"This is the fundamental strength of the book: to go against hagiographic reconstructions, to deconstruct biographical and national myths in favor of a social and connected approach. The historian offers this alternative narrative in a consistently clear and fluid style, which allows readers to navigate the complexity of the analysis."
[…]
"To produce a work that reaches such a level of erudition and dedication to the discipline of history is a welcome achievement in times when advocates of the national narrative are more determined than ever to defend their ground."
- Maëlle Gélin, « Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Les avant-gardes artistiques 1918-1945. Une histoire transnationale », Lectures [En ligne], Les comptes rendus, 2 October 2017.
[…]
"This global artistic geopolitics is fascinating, taking us on a journey through the abstract and surrealist epics across the Atlantic, with a stop along the way in Latin American indigenism. It's world (art) history—a multipolar, multidisciplinary vision (the art historian also analyzes the art market), rejecting any ‘monocentric’ interpretation and challenging the hegemony of Paris before 1945 and New York afterward. In art, no one holds a monopoly on progress."
- Sean J. Rose, « à la pointe de l’art. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel signe le second volume d'”une histoire transnationale” des avant-gardes artistiques de 1918 à 1945 », Livre-Hebdo, 5 May 2017, p. 45.
"Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel publishes the second volume of her remarkable series on the artistic avant-gardes."
[…]
"An erudite panorama"
[…]
"Deliberately challenging apparent certainties, The Artistic Avant-Gardes 1918–1945, a rich and essential reference work, reads like a tremendous epic."
- Frédérique Roussel, « L’art en mouvements perpétuels. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel publie le deuxième tome de sa remarquable série sur les avant-gardes artistiques vues sous les angles géopolitiques et sociologiques. Un panorama érudit d’une période (1918-1945) dominée par le surréalisme », Libération, 22 June 2017, p. 28-29
"This monumental work, devoted to the interwar period, is made highly enjoyable to read thanks to its lively style."
[…]
"An essential book for anyone wishing to approach museums and exhibitions with a fresh perspective."
- Nicolas Weill, Le Monde des livres, Friday 30 June 2017, p. 2.
"What a harvest! After recounting in a first volume—already rich and captivating—the avant-gardes between 1848 and 1918, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel enters the 20th century: a prosperous, turbulent period that is, in the end, not as well-known as we are often led to believe."
[…]
"The author highlights the richness of all these artistic melting pots and the prodigious vitality that animated them. Fascinating."
- Bernard Géniès, « L’avant-garde à l’assaut », L’Obs, 22-28 June 2017, p. 95.
"A useful and ambitious work"
[…]
"Delightful chapters on 'Dalinism' and the establishment of modernist abstraction in South America"
- Connaissance des Arts, September-October 2017, p. 164.
"This is the fundamental strength of the book: to go against hagiographic reconstructions, to deconstruct biographical and national myths in favor of a social and connected approach. The historian offers this alternative narrative in a consistently clear and fluid style, which allows readers to navigate the complexity of the analysis."
[…]
"To produce a work that reaches such a level of erudition and dedication to the discipline of history is a welcome achievement in times when advocates of the national narrative are more determined than ever to defend their ground."
- Maëlle Gélin, « Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Les avant-gardes artistiques 1918-1945. Une histoire transnationale », Lectures [En ligne], Les comptes rendus, 2 October 2017.
Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel is Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Geneva. Her work bridges modern and contemporary art history, global and social history, and computational methods, offering new perspectives on visual culture and artistic globalization. Ph.D. (2005), Habilitation (2015), from 2007-2019 she was Associate Professor in Modern and Contemporary Art History at École normale supérieure, Paris.