Birthday boys: Pavel Filonov & Elvis Presley
posted:
"The Banquet of Kings" oil on canvas, 1913, The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Pavel Filonov was a Russian artist who died in 1941 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). His work is in the Constructivist grain but it is so rich in ideas and personal/political imagery. Here's my take on this great and under-appreciated 20th century master:
"Pavel Filonov… where to begin? I discovered him when I went to St. Petersburg in April 1993 to organize an animation studio for a computer game company. Filonov: banned artist, probably crazy and impossible to work under. Painting big canvases with the smallest of brushes. He had one foot in the brilliant, bright Futuristic cosmos and the other in the vodka-swilling, horsecart-pulling, turnip-tending , "Thanks for your dacha comrade, here's your one-way ticket to the gulag" Russia of the early 20th century. There's an academic strain but a searing vision too. I love Filonov!"
links:
• a Russian site: very slow and very complete.
• The State Russian Museum
• Russianavantgarde.com
