WORLD OF CUBISM

CUBISM: THE FOUNDERS OF  RUSSIAN ABSTRACT ART: BIOGRAPHIES AND ARTWORKS

DID THE RUSSIAN PAINTERS INVENT ABSTRACT ART AND CUBISM LONG TIME BEFORE PICASSO AND BRAQUES?

By Professor Alexander Boguslavsky

 

Cubism (a name suggested by Henri Matisse in 1909) is a non-objective approach to painting developed originally in France by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque around 1906. The early, "pre-Cubist" period (to 1906) is characterized by emphasizing the process of construction, of creating a pictorial rhythm, and converting the represented forms into the essential geometric shapes: the cube, the sphere, the cylinder, and the cone. Between 1909 and 1911, the analysis of human forms and still lifes (hence the name -- Analytical Cubism) led to the creation of a new stylistic system which allowed the artists to transpose the three-dimensional subjects into the flat images on the surface of the canvas. An object, seen from various points of view, could be reconstructed using particular separate "views" which overlapped and intersected. The result of such a reconstruction was a summation of separate temporal moments on the canvas. Picasso called this reorganized form the "sum of destructions," that is, the sum of the fragmentations. Since color supposedly interfered in purely intellectual perception of the form, the Cubist palette was restricted to a narrow, almost monochromatic scale, dominated by grays and browns. A new phase in the development of the style, called Synthetic Cubism, began around 1912. In the center of the painters' attention was now the construction, not the analysis of the represented object -- in other words, creation instead of recreation. Color regained its decorative function and was no longer restricted to the naturalistic description of the form. Compositions were still static and centered, but they lost their depth and became almost abstract, although the subject was still visible in synthetic, simplified forms. The construction requirements brought about the introduction of new textures and new materials (cf. paper collages). Cubism lasted till 1920s and had a profound effect on the art of the avant-garde. Russian painters were introduced to Cubism through the works bought and displayed by wealthy patrons like Shchukin and Morozov. As they did with many other movements, the Russians interpreted and transformed Cubism in their own unique way. In particular, the Russian Cubists carried even further the abstract potential of the style. Some of the most outstanding Cubist works came from the brush of Malevich, Popova, and Udal'tsova. In Two Figures (1913-14), Liubov' Popova beautifully demonstrates the artistic possibilities of a Cubist reconstruction and, at the same time, her talent to transcend simple imitation. The painting might have been influenced by Umberto Boccioni's 1912 Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture (published in Moscow in 1914), in which he suggested "a translation in plaster, bronze, glass, wood, or any other material of those atmospheric planes which bind and intersect things" (Costakis 352). [B.B., C.B., and A.B.]

 

CUBISM

The Dawn of Cubism and The Birth of Abstract Art in Russia

 

Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (1886-1918)

 

Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova was born in 1886 in Melenki, a small town near Vladimir. Unlike Liubov' Popova and many other avant-garde artists, she did not travel to Italy or France to get inspired by the most recent developments in Western painting. Therefore, her overall progress as an avant-garde artist is even more remarkable. She began her art education in 1904, attending art studios of K. Bol'shakov and K. Yuon in Moscow and studying for a short time at the Stroganov School of Applied Art. After moving to St. Petersburg, she went to private school of E.N. Zvantseva and in 1911 became one of the most active members of the Union of Youth, an organization that organized and sponsored art exhibitions, public lectures and discussions.

From 1911 to 1915, Rozanova experimented with Neo-Primitivism, Cubo-Futurism. Her early works show greater influence of the Italian Futurism than the French Cubism. Rozanova's paintings of this period consist of strong straight lines, frequently combined with triangular and circular shapes. The straight lines and triangles are pointing in various directions; their angles are often turned towards the center of the picture. This combination makes the composition strong and dramatic. The triangles are made of slashing lines that invade the picture from the sides, trying to reach the center.

 

 

In 1912, Rozanova started a close friendship with the outstanding Russian Futurist poets Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh. They were writing "transrational" (zaumnaia) poetry to create a new universal poetic language based on the destruction of traditional grammar and the meanings of the words, the use of the neologisms, assonances, and illogical combinations of words and sounds. Rozanova became one of the first artists of the Russian avant-garde associated with the Futurist movement. In 1913, she started to design and illustrate books by her Futurist friends. This led to the creation of her own transrational poems, published in 1917 (in Kruchenykh's collection, Valos) and in 1919, posthumously, in the 4th issue of the journal Iskusstvo. Among many booklets Rozanova illustrated were A Forestly Rapid (Bukh lesinnyi), Explodity (Vzorval'), Let's Grumble (Vozropshchem), A Duck's Nest of Bad Words (Utinoe gnezdyshko durnykh slov) (all in 1913), Te li le (1914), Transrational Pook (Zaumnaia gniga), War (Voina), and Universal War (Vselenskaia voina) (all in 1916). Te li le "represents Rozanova's attempt to interlace verbal and pictorial elements. By using her own handwriting for the text, Rozanova not only fused the words with the design, but she also presented the text in a manner intended to convey mood and emotion" (The Avant-garde in Russia, 242). The Universal War is illustrated with twelve abstract collages. The collages consist of brightly colored polygonal shapes, arranged in geometric patterns. The irregular jagged shapes recall those in Rozanova's earlier abstract compositions. "The search for new connections between the word and the pictorial image became one of the most important impulses of her development" (Israel Museum).

 

 

 

In 1916 Rozanova married Kruchenykh and the same year she joined the "Supremus" group, headed by Malevich. Perhaps influenced by Malevich's suprematist experiments, Rozanova created some abstract compositions which further developed the dynamic element of her earlier works. They show flat, polygonal regions in bright colors. However, Rozanova's "suprematist" style differed from Malevich's -- it was not only more decorative, but it was not based on the philosophical, mystical ideas (after Sarabianov). In Varvara Stepanova's words, "Malevich constructed his works on the [basis of--A.B.] composition of the square while Rozanova constructed hers on the basis of color" (Yablonskaia, 83). In 1917-18, Rozanova created a number of non-objective color compositions, which she called "colorpainting" (cvetopis'). These compositions were a completely new stage in the development of the Russian avant-garde art; unfortunately, after Rozanova's death, they did not find any continuators in Russia. Only after the WW II, similar color experiments appeared in the American color-field paintings of the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the works of Barnett Newman. A good example of this type of painting is Rozanova's most famous oil, Untitled (Green Stripe), which features a rough cream-colored canvas surface cut by broad perpendicular green stripe.

After the revolution, Rozanova, thanks to her early ties to the Stroganov School, devoted her energies to the organization of industrial art in the country. She was involved with IZO Narkompros (Arts Department of the People's Commisariat of Education) and the Proletcult. Through personal persuasion and by travelling to various locations, she organized Free Art Studios (Svomas) in several provincial cities. Before she died, Rozanova drew up a plan to reorganize the museum of industrial art in Moscow. Her efforts to combine art and industrial production were soon continued and expanded by the Constructivists. When she was diagnosed ill, she was actually engaged in putting up banners and slogans for the anniversary celebration of the October Revolution. Olga Rozanova died of diphtheria a week before this event. A few weeks later, she had a posthumous exhibition, which included 250 paintings, ranging in style from Impressionism through Neo-primitivism, Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism. Although Rozanova died young, she was able to experiment widely and reach non-objectivity following her own, individual path. In the meantime, she created many remarkable paintings. Among the best known are Still Life with Scrolls (1911), The Harbor [Port] (1912), Still Life: Vase (1912), The Pub (1913), Portrait of a Woman in a Green Dress (1913), The City (1913), Writing Desk (1914), Geography (1914-15), Workbox (1915), The Metronome (1915), Non-Objective Composition (1916), Suprematism (1916), Color Composition (1917), and Untitled (Green Stripe) (1917-1918). Equally remarkable is a series of painting of playing cards, later used as one-tone illustrations for Transrational Pook: the boldly-colored Simultaneous Representation of a King of Hearts and a King of Diamonds, The Queen of Spades, The King of Clubs, and The Jack of Hearts(all 1915). [M. P-T. and A.B.]

CUBISM

 Vasilii Kandinskii (1866-1944)

Vasilii Kandinskii was a painter, a printmaker, a stage designer, a decorative artist, and a theorist. In 1886 he began to study law and economics at the University of Moscow. Three years later he took part in an ethnographiccal expedition to the Vologda province and wrote an article about folk art; this experience was to influence his early art, which would be highly decorative and would feature bright colors applied on the dark background. This effective technique can be seen in such paintings as Song of the Volga (1906), Couple Riding (1906), and Colorful Life (1907), devoted to the life of Old Russia. After traveling to St. Petersburg and Paris, in 1893 he was appointed to the Department of Law at the University of Moscow. In 1896, at the age of thirty, he gave up his successful career as a lawyer and economist to become a painter. he moved to Munich and one year later entered Anton Azbe's painting school. In 1900 he became a student at the Munich Academy and studied under Franz von Stuck.

 

 

 

At that time, he was in contact with St. Petersburg World of Art group. Between 1900 and 1908 exhibited regularly with the Moscow Association of Artists and was very active in the Munich art world. In 1901 founded the Phalanx (dissolved in 1904) and began teaching at a private art school in Munich. Later, Kandinskii traveled through Europe (1903-6). He was affected by the expressive possibilities of Bavarian glass painting, icon painting, and Russian folk art. In 1909 the artist started his famous Improvisations and co-founded the group Neue Kunstlervereinigung. A year later he joined the Jack of Diamonds group and contributed to its first two exhibitions. In 1911 established the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group, which included him, Muenter, Marc, and Kulbin. He participated in its exhibitions and contributed to its Almanac. The publication of the Almanac was one of the most important events in twentieth-century art. The artists of the Blue Rider believed in a birth of a new spiritual epoch and were engaged in the creation of symbols for their own time. There were fourteen major articles in the Almanac, interspersed with notes, quotes, and illustrations. Kandinskii published his concept of "inner necessity." He revised it in 1912, in his famous essay On the Spiritual in Art, Especially in Painting (originally written in German). For Kandinskii art was a portrayal of spiritual values. All art builds from the spiritual and intellectual life of the twentieth century. While each art form appears to be different externally, their internal properties serve the same inner purpose, of moving and refining the human soul. This belief in the secret correspondence of all the arts would become a cornerstone of his artistic convictions and a foundation of his painting. The article marked Kandinskii's transition from objective to non-objective art. In 1914 the artist returned to Moscow and three years later married Nina Andreevskaia. He was active as a teacher, museum worker, writer, and lecturer. He was responsible for designing the pedagogical program for the Institute of Artistic Culture (Inkhuk) for 1920, which included Suprematism, Tatlin's "Culture of Materials" and Kandinskii's own theories. The program was opposed by the future Constructivists and Kandinskii had to wait for its implementation till his years at the Bauhaus. In 1921 he was actively involved in the organization of Rakhn (Russian Academy of Aesthetics). At the end of the same year, Kandinskii went to Germany to teach at the Bauhaus, where he was to stay till its closure by the Nazis in 1933. Participated in the Erste Russische Kunstausstellung in Berlin (1922). In 1924, together with Feininger, Iavlenskii, and Klee, established the Blue Four. Moved to Paris in 1933 and remained active as a painter till his death. (After The Avant-Garde in Russia). In an excellent book on Kandinskii, Hajo Duechting divides the artist's creative development into six periods:

 

• Beginnings: "Mother Moscow" 1866-1896.

Kandinskii was deeply affected by Monet's Haystacks and Wagner's Lohengrin. Disturbed by The discovery of radioactivity, he believed that art was no longer a means of confronting unbearable tension and disharmony, but rather the exact opposite: it was the only way to adopt a more far-sighted position in the world of contradictions and inconsistency.

• Metamorphosis: Munich 1896-1911.

In Germany, Kandinskii developed his idea of the correspondence between a work of art and the viewer, and called it "Klang" (sound or resonance). He wrote: "Color is the power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with the strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 CUBISM

"In the same period of artistic development, he began to divide his paintings into three categories: "Impressions" (which still show some representational elements), "Improvisations" (which convey spontaneous emotional reactions), and "Compositions" (which are the ultimate works of art, created only after a long period of preparations and preliminaries. Characteristically, throughout his life he completed only 10 "Compositions"). Both, Blue Mountain of (1908) and Improvisation 6 (African) of 1909 are quite characteristic of Kandinskii's Munich-Murnau period. The earlier painting includes the motif of riders, particularly important and characteristic for the artist. The bright dabs of paint are applied thickly over the black background, giving the painting an almost three-dimensional character; the rendering of the figures actually resembles embroidery. In the second painting, even though we can still recognize two rudimentary figures, we can no longer be sure what the figures are doing. The subject is completely subjugated to the vivid, almost violent color, reminiscent of the Fauves. The forms are more important as carriers of the colors than carriers of information about the scene.

Breakthrough to the Abstract: The Blue Rider 1911-1914.

On the Spiritual in Art included Kandinskii's ideas about the purpose of art. He believed that the nightmare of materialism oppressed the soul of modern man. All the arts, not just painting, were in a state of spiritual renewal and were beginning to come closer to their objective by turning to the abstract, the elemental. But this spiritual renewal could only grow from a complete synthesis of all arts. Until this epoch-making moment arrived, every art form would have to devote itself to an examination of its individual elements. As an example of this, Kandinskii dealt with the psychological effects of color -- one of the fundamental chapters in his theory of art. He formulated a new harmonic theory of tones of color that maintain their tension by means of warm and cold or light and dark contrasts. The new conception of color and form would ultimately result in pure painting: " . . . a mingling of color and form each with its separate existence, but each blended into a common life which is called a picture by the force of the inner need [necessity -- A.B.]."

In a series of small steps Kandinskii had discovered a new concept in painting. He had carefully removed the representational elements from his compositions and transferred the subject matter conveyed by these elements to the "distinctive contours" of color and form. In 1910 he had already described the new subject matter of his paintings in the catalogue for the second Society exhibition: "The expression of mystery by means of mystery. Is that not the content? Is that not the conscious or unconscious purpose of the compulsive urge to create?"

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  • Russian Intermezzo 1914-1921.

   

  Stylistically, Kandinskii was again coming closer to his early works. Perhaps he wanted to present a hopeful, joyful view of the future, a sort of paradise on Earth such as was promised by the new revolutionary forces. The artist alternated between a tired, abstract idiom, post-Impressionist landscapes, and naive-romantic fantasy pictures. In Kandinskii's work during this period, the turbulent, glaring world of form and color gives way to cool, rational composition based on the stricter analysis of form. He emphatically disassociated himself from his Constructivist critics (especially Puni): "Just because an artist uses 'abstract' methods, it does not mean that he is an 'abstract' artist. It doesn't even mean that he is an artist. Just as there are enough dead triangles (be they white or green), there are just as many dead roosters, dead horses or dead guitars. One can just as easily be a 'realist academic' as an 'abstract academic'. A form without content is not a hand, just an empty glove full of air."

   

  • Point and Line to Plane: The Bauhaus 1922-1933.

  Teaching at the Bauhaus, Kandinskii used the program elaborated for Inkhuk, with certain modifications. In his color theory he stressed the polarity of yellow and blue, black and white, and green and red. Alongside the familiar symbolic classification of colors and their subdivision into "four main tones" -- warm-cold and light-dark, Kandinskii concentrated more on the physical basis of the classification of colors and, above all, explored the color triad of yellow-blue-red. But his teachings about form were essentially new, starting with an analysis of individual elements such as point, line and plane, and examining their relationships to each other. In connection with the growing Constructivist and Suprematist influences at the Bauhaus, individual geometrical elements increasingly entered the foreground of Kandinskii's work. The passionate colors of the Munich and Moscow paintings gave way to to a cool, occasionally disharmonious use of color. The circle -- a symbol of perfect form and a cosmic symbol at the same time -- was the focal point of his paintings of this period. Kandinskii's concept of synthesis remained too closely attached to the romantic idea of a "total work of art" to fit in with the increasingly functional orientation of the Bauhaus. The most conspicuous transformation in the late paintings of Kandinskii was the use of most subtly differentiated nuances of color. He seems to have left at the Bauhaus all the constructivist color theories, based on primary and secondary colors. He started using combinations of colors never before seen in the world of art; most of them had a delicate filigree effect and were reminiscent of the Slavic folk art. The colors were applied thinly, sometimes transparently, so that they produced an added blending effect. He also used sand to achieve a different texture. As if this new use of color was not enough, Kandinskii dissolved the basic geometric forms into an unbelievable variety of shapes, among which biomorphic ones predominated. These new forms were inspired by a variety of sources, from invertebrate sea creatures, microorganisms and zoological prototypes, to the embryological forms. The paintings of this period are hot-headed, seething, primaeval, as if some distant sun were trying to set life flowing again with protoplasm in a pond. In order to divorce himself from "abstract" Surrealism, Kandinskii redefined the idea of "concrete" art for his own purposes: "Abstract art places a new world, which on the surface has nothing to do with 'reality,' next to the 'real' world. Deeper down, it is subject to the common laws of the 'cosmic world.' And so a 'new world of art' is juxtaposed to the 'world of nature.' This 'world of art' is just as real, just as concrete. For this reason I prefer to call so-called 'abstract' art 'concrete' art." Kandinskii introduced a completely new conception of painting that he bequeathed to us in a variety of modes which were often received with hostility. It is a model of art that is non-representational, but understandable in substance. Very different artists and artistic trends have branched out from this model. But the resources of Kandinskii's ideas and theories have not yet been exhausted. (Adapted from Duechting). [K.T. and A.B.]

   

 

 

 

 

CUBISM

Liubov' Sergeevna Popova (1889-1924)

"Representation of reality -- without artistic deformation and transformation -- cannot be the subject of painting."
(From Popova's essay in the Catalogue to the 10th State Exhibition: Non-Objective Creation and Suprematism, Moscow 1919).

 

Liubov' Sergeevna Popova was one of the most talented, prolific, and influential women artists of the Russian avant-garde. She was born in the village of Ivanovskoe in Moscow province, in a family of a wealthy and cultured merchant. After attending the private high schools of Yaltinskaia and Arsen'eva, she began to take art lessons with Zhukovskii and Yuon in Moscow. In 1910, Popova went to Italy and became acquainted with the works of Giotto and Pintoriccio. The rest of that year and in 1911, the artist traveled to St. Petersburg, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Pereslavl, and Kiev and discovered the work of Vrubel and icon painting. In 1912, she set up a studio in Moscow with N. Udal'tsova, her friend from Arsen'eva's school, and both women worked in Tatlin's studio The Tower, where Popova met her life-long friend Vesnin. The same year she traveled to Paris and studied Cubism with Le Fauconnier and Metzinger. After returning to Moscow in 1913, she became interested in Futurism. A year later, just before the war, she went to France and Italy again. In 1915 developed her own variant of non-objective art based on a dynamic combination of principles of icon painting (flatness, linearity) and avant-garde ideas.

In 1916, Popova started calling her compositions "Painterly Architectonics." She became a member of "Supremus," organized by K. Malevich. Two years later, she married Boris von Eding, a Russian art historian, and gave birth to a son. Together with Vesnin, she started teaching at Svomas (Free Art Studios) and later (after 1920) taught at Vkhutemas (Higher Art-Technical Studios). During a trip to Rostov on the Don in 1919, Eding caught typhus and died. Though infected and suffering from typhoid fever, Popova returned to Moscow and recovered from the illness. In 1920, she worked at Inkhuk (Institute of Artistic Culture), a center of Constructivist theories. Over time, the construction elements in Popova's painting increased, progressing from Painterly Architectonics of 1916 to Painterly Constructions of 1920 and Painterly Force Constructions of 1921. Painterly Architectonics show Popova's interest in the presentation of surface planes with an energy of inner tension, as the colored masses, lines and volumes all interrelate to create a formal unity. Initially they took the form of fairly static compositions comprising overlapping planar forms, but very soon they acquired a startling dynamism as Popova tilted the planes at angles and made them slice into each other. Painterly Constructions further developed the idea of intersecting planes, but gave the compositions a feeling of greater freedom and fluidity. Finally, her Spatial Force Constructions were supposed to be preparatory experiments towards concrete material constructions (After Yablonskaia, 103-104).