On July 16, 2025, the Institute of Russian Studies (Director: Prof. Woo-Ik Choi) delivered a special humanities lecture at Suwon Foreign Language High School under the theme “Kandinsky and His Friends: Dreaming of Revolution with a Brush.” The lecture was presented by Prof. Kyu-Yeon Cho (Department of Russian Language and Literature, Dankook University).

Prof. Cho emphasized that human creativity and paradigm shifts have historically been embodied through art, with great artists recognized as pioneers who challenged prevailing conventions and introduced new perspectives. In particular, he noted that the rise of French Impressionism in the late 19th century marked a decisive turning point in the history of painting, shifting the focus from “content-centered representation” to “form-centered distortion.” This transformation laid the foundation for the development of Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism, shaping the trajectory of modern art.

Tracing moments of innovation in Russian art history, Prof. Cho contextualized the development of Russian painting—from 19th-century Realism, represented by the Peredvizhniki (Itinerants), to the 20th-century avant-garde—within the broader evolution of European painting and its interaction with French Impressionism. The first part of the lecture compared Russian Realism with French Impressionism, examining technical features, creative principles, sociocultural backgrounds, and historical implications. The second part highlighted the works of Kandinsky, Malevich, and Chagall, analyzing how Russian avant-garde art both absorbed and diverged from Impressionist influences, thereby affirming its status as a revolutionary art movement within the history of European modernism.