Russian avant-garde

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский) (July 19 [O.S. July 7] 1893 – April 14, 1930) was a Russian poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.

Michael Vasilyevich Matjuschin (Russian: Михаил Васильевич Матюшин; * 1861 in Novgorod; † 14 October 1934 in Leningrad) was a Russian painter and composer, leading member of the Russian avant-garde. From 1876 to 1881 he received training in the conservatory in Moscow and worked from 1882 to 1913 as a violinist in the yard orchestra of Saint Petersburg. Meanwhile, he studied art at a private art school together with his life companion Jelena Guro and paints in this time a series of landscapes. Matjuschin ranks among a founder Futurism in the art. He attained a life-long friendship with artist Kasimir Malevich; in 1913 Malevich and Matjuschin, along with two further artist colleagues, writes the opera Victory over the Sun, whose set was designed my Malevich supposedly inspiring him to the development of Suprematism. Matjuschin writes the music to this opera to the works of poet Velimir Chlebnikov. From 1921 to 1923 he worked in the museum for artistic culture and belonged to the museum executive committee, whose department for scientific study of the organic art he led starting from 1923

Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (Russian: Александр Михайлович Родченко, 5 December [O.S. 23 November] 1891 – December 3, 1956) was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova.

Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."



Pavel Nikolayevich Filonov (Russian: Па́вел Никола́евич Фило́нов) (January 8, 1883–December 3, 1941) was a Russian avant-garde painter, art theorist, and a poet.
Filonov was born in Moscow on January 8, 1883 (Gregorian calendar) or December 27, 1882 (Julian calendar). In 1897, he moved to St. Petersburg where he took art lessons. In 1908, he entered St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, from which he was expelled in 1910.

In 1910–1914, he took part in the arts group Soyuz Molodyozhi created by artists Elena Guro and Mikhail Matyushin. In 1912, he wrote the article The Canon and the Law, in which he formulated the principles of analytical realism, or "anti-Cubism". According to Filonov, Cubism represents objects using elements of their surface geometry but "analytical realists" should represent objects using elements of their inner soul. He was faithful to these principles for the remainder of his life.
A Peasant Family (The Holy Family), 1914, oil on canvas, 159x128 cm, Russian Museum.

During the years 1913 to 1915, Filonov was close to Vladimir Mayakovsky, Velimir Khlebnikov, and other futurists. In the autumn of 1916, he enlisted for service in World War I and served on the Romanian front. Filonov participated actively in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and served as the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Committee of Dunay region.

Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; August 3 [O.S. July 22] 1890, Moscow - November 28, 1974, id.) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923-1933), placed Melnikov on the front end of 1920s avant-garde architecture. Although associated with the Constructivists, Melnikov was an independent artist, not bound by the rules of a particular style or artistic group. In 1930s, Melnikov refused to conform with the rising stalinist architecture, withdrew from practice and worked as a portrait painter and teacher until the end of his life.