Includes bibliographical references.

Preliminary material / Editors Avant-Garde and Criticism -- Criticism and Avant-Garde / Klaus Beekman and Jan de Vries -- Art Criticism and Avant-Garde: André Lhote’s Written Works / Jean-Roch Bouiller -- Architectural Criticism in de 8 en OPBOUW / Ben Rebel -- Theo van Doesburg and Writings on Film in De Stijl / Ansje van Beusekom -- The International Theatre Exhibition of 1922 and the Critics / Peter G.F. Eversmann -- The Making of a Reputation: the Case of Cobra / Nico Laan -- Avant-Garde Reviewing of New Book Releases A Case Study from The Netherlands / Hugo Verdaasdonk -- Mayakovsky as Literary Critic / Willem G. Weststeijn -- German Art in The Netherlands before and after World War II / Gregor Langfeld -- Banality in Art Criticism. Comments on the Reception of Art in the German Daily Press of the 1920s / Arie Hartog -- A Victorious Campaign for Dadaism? On the Press Coverage of the Dutch Dada Tour of 1923 / Hubert F. van den Berg -- The Inevitability of Argumentative Criticism Theo van Doesburg and the Constructive Review / Klaus Beekman -- On Intentionality and Avant-Garde Criticism / Ralf Grüttemeier -- Resistance to the Avant-Garde Criticism of the Avant-Garde in Dutch Literary Periodicals / Wiljan van den Akker and Gillis Dorleijn -- Dutch Contemporaries on Proust and the Historic Avant-Garde / Sabine van Wesemael -- The Writing Artists of the Magazine Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur (Chronicle of Art and Culture) in the Period 1935-1941 / Hestia Bavelaar.

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Avant-Garde and Criticism sheds new light on the complex aims, functions, practices and contexts of art-criticism in relation to the European avant-garde. Although many avant-garde works and the avant-gardes of various countries have been analyzed, considerably less attention has been given to the reviews in newspapers and journals on avant-garde literature, art, architecture and film. This volume of Avant-Garde Critical Studies will look at how art critics operated in a strategic way. The strategies of avant-garde criticism are diverse. Art critics, especially when they are artists themselves, attempt to manipulate the cultural climate in their favour. They use their position to legitimize avant-garde concepts and to conquer a place in the cultural field. But they are also markedly influenced by the context in which they operate. The position of fellow-critics and the ideological bias of the papers in which they publish can be as important as the political climate in which their criticism flourishes. The analysis of avant-garde art criticism can also make clear how strategies sometimes fail and involuntarily display non-avant-garde characteristics. On the other hand traditionalist criticism on the avant-garde offers new insights into its status and reception in a given time and place. This volume is of interest for scholars, teachers and students who are interested in the avant-garde of the interbellum-period and work in the field of literature, art, film and architecture.