In the XX century there came a time when all art turned to the forefront. And if you ask what features distinguished Russian painting of that period from that in other countries, then we can say with confidence: all the artists were carried away by avant-garde, which in French means “advanced squad”.
History knows many examples of how, at the most crucial moments, when a change of epochs sets in, creative personalities begin to create radical movements designed to consider events under a different prism. However, the XX century has become a significant event in this regard.
The beginning of the avant-garde
The first steps of the representatives of Russian avant-garde took place in 1907, when the Blue Rose art association was created, where recognized masters of neo-primitivism and symbolism gathered.
These artistic styles paved the way to a fundamentally new direction in art - the avant-garde. The first vivid artistic representatives of this trend were Kazimir Malevich, Larionov and Goncharov, whose works are stored in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
What features distinguished Russian painting of the XX century? It was here that the term “avant-garde” first appeared - it was presented to the world by Benoit, ironically describing the work of artists from the creative association “Jack of Diamonds”, which in 1910 presented the first technologically innovative paintings to the attention of the audience at the exhibition “Union of Artists”. Since then, it has become customary to believe that all the new products in this field belong to the Russian masters of the brush.
Representatives of the Russian avant-garde
Features of Russian painting of the 20th century. such that the emerging avant-garde was an extensive concept, while on its basis more and more stylistic trends arose.
So, for example, many Russian artists in their work pursued the traditions of European modernism: Cubism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Rayonism, Fauvism and Futurism. The most prominent representatives of the domestic avant-garde movement were Kandinsky and Malevich. They stood at the origins of the emergence of this multifaceted artistic phenomenon and became the "culprits" of the birth of his brainchild - abstractionism.
Abstract art is a pointless art, where the artist uses only his associative perception of reality for the image, bypassing the canons of classical painting. The main artistic element of the style is the color, which helps craftsmen endow the paintings with emotions.
The first to venture into such an experiment was Kandinsky. His global idea was to convey to mankind that on the canvas you can depict music, that it has its own color and has a separate form.
From abstractionism to suprematism
Russian painting underwent active changes throughout the early 20th century.
After in 1909, Kandinsky first presented his first abstract work to critics, he met Kazimir Malevich, who, although he was a big fan of everything new, nevertheless continued to be influenced by impressionism. From this moment, the artist’s works begin to undergo metamorphoses, which by 1913 showed him as a representative of cubofuturism.
Over time, Malevich once again pointed out what features distinguished Russian painting of the 20th century - he became the founder of a new stylistic direction, called Suprematism. A distinctive feature of this direction was that rectangular figures were laid in the compositional basis of the work. In fact, Suprematism is another kind of abstractionism, since it has similar features:
- pointlessness;
- lack of volume;
- geometricity (any non - voluminous geometric figures may be present , but the rectangle is the central part of the picture);
- asymmetry.
Malevich believed that Suprematism is a new plane of art, which is accessible to the understanding of a new type of artists who managed to survive the prejudices of the past. What features distinguished Russian painting in those days? According to the representatives of Suprematism, this is an opportunity to comprehend the highest level of art, to know the dynamics and statics of space by minimizing space.