Mikhail Larionov and the Russian Avant-Garde

A revolutionary multi-media artist and flamboyant personality, Mikhail Larionov galvanized the art scene in the early twentieth century, striving for a truly Russian style of art to rival the avant-garde movement of Europe and setting the stage for Russian constructivism. With his life-long partner, Nataliya Goncharova, he led his generation in exploring mysticism and shamanism and created a counterculture that flourished in the cabarets of Moscow. The development of his career, however, has long eluded the grasp of historians, partly because Larionov, ever conscious of his role in art history, backdated many of his paintings, set designs, and graphic works. In this richly illustrated book, the first in-depth treatment of the life and oeuvre of Larionov, Anthony Parton reconstructs an important episode in the story of the Russian avant-garde. In vivid detail Parton traces the stylistic and chronological development of Larionovs career: from his years in Russia, where he began as an Impressionist painter and eventually organized the Moscow Futurists, to those in France, where, with Goncharova, he designed sets for the Ballets Russes and joined the School of Paris. At the same time he captures the rebellious nature of an artist devoted to demonstrating the spirit of the avant-garde - whether by hurling ice water at his lecture audiences to incite their rage, by incorporating vulgar graffiti into his paintings, or by setting a popular Muscovite trend for painting ones face. Inspired early in his career by the French Fauves and primitives, Larionov, in his attempt to create an authentically Russian art, borrowed images from shamanism and archaeology and devices from folk art, particularlywood-block prints and icons. His interest in cubism, futurism, and contemporary scientific ideas led to his creation of rayism, which played on the concept of a fourth dimension. In the performing arts, he experimented with movable scenery and choreographed lighting. Examining Larionovs artistic intentions in all these areas, Parton pays close attention to contextual factors as important determinants upon the artists work. He constructs a reliable chronology of Larionovs career, drawing on his personal writings and manifestos, on contemporary reviews, and on interviews with his friends and colleagues. Through this multi-faceted, highly nuanced investigation, Parton offers the most extensive and accurate treatment to date of an important yet long inscrutable artist.