Cubofuturism in painting: style features, artists, paintings

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Cubo-futurism is a direction in painting, the source of which was Russian bytyanism, it was also called Russian futurism. It was a Russian avant-garde art movement in the 1910s that emerged as an offshoot of European Futurism and Cubism.

Appearance

The term "cubo-futurism" was first used in 1913 by an art critic in relation to the poetry of members of the Giley group, which included such writers as Velimir Khlebnikov, Alexei Kruchenykh, David Burliuk and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Their raucous poetic recitals, public clowning, painted faces and ridiculous clothes imitated the actions of the Italians and earned them the name of Russian futurists. However, in a poetic work, only Mayakovsky's cubo-futurism can be compared with the Italians; for example, his poem "Along the echoes of the city", which describes various street noises, is reminiscent of Luigi Russolo's manifesto L'arte dei rumori (Milan, 1913).

However, the concept has become much more important in the visual arts, displacing the influence of French cubism and Italian futurism, and led to the emergence of a certain Russian style,which mixed the features of two European movements: fragmented forms merged with the representation of the movement.

Features

Russian Cubo-Futurism was characterized by the destruction of forms, changing contours, shifting or merging different points of view, crossing spatial planes, and contrasting color and texture.

Cubo-futurist artists emphasized the formal elements of their work, showing an interest in the relationship of color, form and line. Their goal was to reaffirm the true value of painting as an art form independent of storytelling. Among the most notable representatives of cubo-futurism in painting are the artists Lyubov Popova (“Traveling Woman”, 1915), Kazimir Malevich (“Aviator” and “Composition with Mona Lisa”, 1914), Olga Rozanova (“Playing Cards” series, 1912-15), Ivan Puni ("Baths", 1915)) and Ivan Klyun ("Ozonizer", 1914).

Merge with poetry

In Cubo-Futurism, painting and other arts, especially poetry, were closely intertwined through the friendship between poets and artists, their joint public performances (to scandalous but curious audiences) and collaborations for theater and ballet. It is noteworthy that the books of “transrational” poetry (“zaum”) by Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh were illustrated with lithographs by Larionov and Goncharova, Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin, Rozanova and Pavel Filonov. Cubofuturism, although brief, proved to be a vital stage in Russian art in its quest forbias and abstraction.

Representatives

Cubofuturism in painting was a passing but important stage in Russian avant-garde painting and poetry. Mikhail Larionov, Alexandra Exter, Olga Rozanova and Ivan Klyun also wrote in this manner. This served as a springboard for bias: Popova and Malevich switched to Suprematism, and the poets Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh to an “abstract” poetic language, in which meaning was denied and only sounds were important.

Burliuk was especially interested in the stylistic devices of Cubist painting and often wrote and lectured on this subject. As a result, several poets have attempted to discover analogies between Cubism and their own poetry. Particularly important in this respect was the work of Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh. Their 1913-14 poems ignored the rules of grammar and syntax, meter and rhyme; they omitted prepositions and punctuation marks, used half-words, neologisms, incorrect word formations and unexpected imagery.

For some, such as Livshits, who was simply trying to "cubicize a verbal mass", this approach was too radical. Others preferred to introduce more visual qualities. Kamensky, for example, divided his sheet of paper with diagonal lines and filled in the triangular sections with individual words, individual letters, numbers and signs, various fonts, imitating the geometric planes and letters of analytical cubism.

Examples

The term "cubo-futurism" in painting wassubsequently used by such an artist as Lyubov Popova, whose stylistic development was due to both cubism and futurism. Her "Portrait" (1914-1515) includes the words Cubo Futurismo as a conscious designation. More recent art historians have used the term to classify Russian avant-garde paintings and works in general, which synthesize influences from both cubism and futurism.

Popova's most important work in this respect is Seated Figure (1914-15), in which the depiction of the body is reminiscent of Léger and Metzinger. However, her use of cones and spirals and the dynamism of line and plane convey the influence of Futurism. Paintings by Natalia Goncharova belong to the same direction.

Principles

Famous Cubo-Futurist paintings by other artists include Malevich's The Aviator (1914) and Burliuk's Sailor of the Siberian Fleet (1912). The mosaic in the former is reminiscent of "Analytical Cubism" and the cylindrical treatment of the body suggests the work of Léger, but the clear trajectories of movement indicate the influence of Futurism. In the latter case, the head is depicted from different angles and integrated with the background through reflected arcs, a technique borrowed from Georges Braque, while the dynamics of the diagonals that break the image are clearly futuristic.

Development

Cubofuturism in painting was a multi-faceted concept that is not easy to define or categorize, it actually went far beyond simply adopting cubist and futuristic methodspainting.

Certain figures and major movements within the Russian avant-garde, such as the Rayonism of Mikhail Larionov, the Suprematist painting of Kazimir Malevich and the constructivism of Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko and others, have already been well researched.

The works and theories of Malevich and Tatlin are used mainly as a standard of comparison against which the works of other avant-garde artists are compared and contrasted.

The principles first laid down in cubo-futuristic figurative painting were developed in 1915 and 1916. In part, they reflected the influence of Malevich's Suprematism.

Influence

The term was subsequently adopted by artists and is now used by art historians to refer to works of Russian art from the period 1912-15 that combine aspects of both styles.

Modern critics have recognized the avant-garde as an affirmation of the poetic and pictorial values of the nature of language and canvas work through attention to the formal qualities of sound, color and line. The affinity between visual and verbal forms, exemplified by the publication of Russian futurist books, and the assertion of formal values in poetry and painting, have constituted much of contemporary art. However, the artists, having developed an abstract style of painting, were no longer cubo-futurists in the original sense.

Cubofuturism in painting, or, more precisely, the principles created by this trend, formed the basis of avant-garde activity until 1922. And not only inpainting area.

Thus, the term "cubo-futurism" is used not only to describe the formal influence of cubism and futurism on the language of artists, but also to define a much broader concept, covering both the formal development of cubism and futurism, and the transformation of these two movements in a completely new style.