Acmeism

Russian poetic movement established in St Petersburg in 1913, which flourished until the early 1920s and was associated with the journal Apollon. The leaders and theoreticians of this movement were Nikolay Gumilyov (1886-1921) and Sergey Gorodetsky (1884-1967), and the movement's poets included Anna Akhmatova (1888-1966) and Osip Mandel'shtam (1891-1938). In general terms Acmeism professed a conservatism and a dedication to 'world art' and its preservation in the turbulent period of the October Revolution of 1917, when other literary trends, such as Futurism, were denouncing the past. The primary links between this literary movement and art were forged through Gumilyov and his relationship with Natal'ya Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. Both artists made portraits of him as well as illustrating his poems.

See the Abbreviations for further details.