1912–1928
Paper, water colour, black pencil
19 õ 12,3
In the years immediately after 1910, Filonov drew close to the circle of Russian Futurists and was a friend of the poet Khlebnikov. He wrote a poem in the Futurist spirit entitled Chant of Universal Flowering (1915). At this time the artist frequently made use of themes which were popular at the time: the peasantry and life in the city. However, within the context of the general experiments then going on, Filonov’s works turned out differently.
Whereas the works of artists like Malevich and Larionov the city and country were two different worlds, Filonov strived to find a correlation between the living, natural way of life and the city. These themes were related to his search for a new artistic language. In the early stages of his experiments, the master used the traditions of folk art and primitivism.
The subject of a city dray cart driver, who is transporting diverse loads, appears repeatedly in Filonov’s work, especially in his graphic art. In his works we see an interest in primitivism, but the artist considered the principal thing to be the relationship between the man and the horse – these two natural organisms in the city space which seems to try to swallow up everything alive and natural. The horse’s face and the face of the man merge into a sort of unified image which is in opposition to the city.
