📖 Cosmism in Russian Art

The majority of the paintings and drawings published in this catalogue of a Russian Museum exhibition date to the first few decades of the twentieth century, overlapping with the avant-garde; others were done in mid century, still others as late as the eighties. The style is basically representative in the works of such artists as Konstantin Yuon, Vasilii Chekrygin, Nicholas Roerich, Konstantin Rozhdestvenskii, Iosif Gurvich, Nicola Benois, Valery Kondratiev, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, and Alexander Labas. Mikhail Matiushin, Kandinskii, Malevich, Pavel Filonov, Nikolai Suetin, Natalia Goncharova, Ivan Kudriashev, and the Amaravella circle, on the other hand, aproached the theme in abstract forms. What unites all these varied artists is their endeavor to imagine other worlds in art. Quotations from the artists and a detailed introduction give some idea of the philosophies behind their art (e.g., Suprematism). On a visual and aesthetic level the works are often beautiful if eerie.