A creative energy and overwhelming desire for innovation made Russian art of the early decades of the 20th century one of the richest and most unique cultural manifestations of the period of the early avant-garde movements. The exhibition The Russian Avantgardes, which was been jointly shown at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Fundación Caja Madrid between 14 February and 14 May 2006, was accompanied by a course consisting of nine lectures. These focused on the aesthetic ideas developed during this unique period in the history of modern art.

Tomás Llorens, curator of the exhibition Russian Avantgardes, gave the first lecture, intended as an introduction to the whole series. The subsequent lectures were given by other experts provided a survey of the artistic culture which preceded and followed the October Revolution and will focus in particular on the most important issues within this process of historical development. They look at the transformations in art from Cubo-futurism and the new appreciation of primitive art which lay at the origins of the Russian avantgarde, to the redefinition of the entire nature of art in this great cultural experiment which involved a wide variety of organisations and trends during the period of the rise of Constructivism.