Cubofuturism is a trend in painting, the source of which was Russian Bolshevism, it was also called Russian Futurism. This was the Russian avant-garde art movement in the 1910s, which arose as a branch 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 hoarse poetry recitals, public clowning, painted faces and funny clothes imitated the actions of Italians and earned them the name of Russian futurists. However, in the poetic work only Mayakovsky’s cubofuturism can be compared with Italians; for example, his poem “Along the Echo of the City,” which describes various street noises, recalls the manifesto of Luigi Russolo L'arte dei rumori (Milan, 1913).
Nevertheless, 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 that mixed the features of two European movements: fragmented forms, merged with the representation of the movement.
Features
Russian cubofuturism was characterized by the destruction of forms, the change of contours, the displacement or fusion of different points of view, the intersection of spatial planes and the contrast of color and texture.
Cubo-futurist artists emphasized the formal elements of their work, showing interest in the correlation of color, shape and line. Their goal was to confirm the true value of painting as a form of art, in no way dependent on the narrative. Among the most prominent 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 ("Ozonator", 1914).
Fusion with poetry
In cubofuturism, painting and other forms of art, especially poetry, were closely intertwined thanks to the friendship between poets and artists, their joint public performances (in front of a scandalous but curious audience) and cooperation for theater and ballet. It is noteworthy that the books of "transational" poetry ("mind") by Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh were illustrated by lithographs by Larionov and Goncharova, Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin, Rozanova and Pavel Filonov. Although cubofuturism was brief, it turned out to be a vital stage in Russian art in its quest for bias 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 techniques of Cubist painting and often wrote and lectured on this topic. As a result, several poets tried to discover analogies between cubism and their own poetry. Particularly important in this regard was the work of Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh. Their verses of 1913-14 ignored the rules of grammar and syntax, meter and rhyme; they omitted prepositions and punctuation marks, used half-word, neologisms, incorrect word formations and unexpected images.
For some, such as Livshits, who simply tried to “give a verbal mass to a cubic form,” 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 the triangular sections with separate words, separate letters, numbers and signs, various fonts, imitating geometric planes and letters of analytical cubism.
Examples
The term “cubo-futurism” in painting was subsequently 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. Later art historians used this term to classify paintings and works of the Russian avant-garde as a whole, in which the influences of both cubism and futurism are synthesized.
Popova's most important work in this regard is The Sitting Figure (1914-15), in which the image of the body resembles the work of Leger and Metzinger. However, its use of cones and spirals and the dynamism of the line and plane convey the influence of futurism. The same direction includes paintings by Natalia Goncharova.
Principles
Famous paintings of cubo-futurists, written by other artists, include Aviator Malevich (1914) and Sailor of the Siberian Fleet Burliuk (1912). The mosaic in the first is reminiscent of “Analytical Cubism”, and the cylindrical processing of the body involves the work of Leger, but the clear motion paths indicate the influence of futurism. In the latter case, the head is depicted from different points of view 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 multifaceted concept that was not easy to define or classify; it actually went far beyond the mere adoption of cubist and futuristic painting methods.
Certain figures and the main movements within the Russian avant-garde, such as the radiism of Mikhail Larionov, the Suprematist painting of Kazimir Malevich and the constructivism of Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko and others, are already well studied.
The works and theories of Malevich and Tatlin are mainly used as a standard of comparison, in relation to 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
Subsequently, this term was adopted by artists and is now used by art critics to refer to works of Russian art of the period 1912-15, which combine aspects of both styles.
Modern critics have recognized the avant-garde as a statement of the poetic and pictorial values of the nature of the language and work on canvas through attention to the formal qualities of sound, color and line. The affinity between visual and verbal forms, an example of which is the publication of Russian futuristic books, and the affirmation of formal values in poetry and painting made up most of modern 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 movement, formed the basis of avant-garde activity until 1922. And not only in the field of painting.
Thus, the term “cubofuturism” is used not only to describe the formal influence of cubism and futurism on the language of artists, but also to define a much wider concept, covering both the formal development of cubism and futurism, and the transformation of these two movements into a completely new style.