Pavel Filonov

Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov (January 8, 1883 – December 3, 1941) was a Russian painter, art theoretician and a poet.

Filonov was born in Moscow on January 81883 (Gregorian calendar) or December 27, 1882 (old Russian style). He moved to Saint-Petersburg in 1897 where he took art lessons. In 1908 he entered St.Petersburg_Academy_of_arts, and was expelled from it in 1910.

In 1910..1914 took part in the art group Soyuz Molodezhi created by artists E_Guro and M_Matyushin. In 1912 he wrote his article The Canon and The Law where he formulated the prinicples of analytical realism or anti-cubism. He was faithful to these prinicples for the rest of his life.

In 1913..1915 we was close to Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov and other futurists. In autumn 1916 he was enlisted to World_War_1 and served on Rumanian front. Filonov took active participation in October Revolution and serves as the Chairman of Revolutional-War Committee of Dunay region

In 1919 he exibits on First free exhibit of artists of all trends in Hermitage. In 1923 he became a Professor of St.Petersburg_Academy_of_arts and a memeber of Institute for Artistic Culture (INKhUK). He organized large artistic school of Masters of Analitical Realism (more than seventy artists). Their work had a strong influence on suprematismand expressionism and through them influented the whole modern art

In 1929 there supposed to be open a large personal exhibition of Filonov in Russian Museum but the exhibition was forbidden by the Soviet governemnt. Since 1932 he was literally starving but still refusing to sell his works to private collectors. He wanted to give all his works to Russian Museum as a gift that will start a Museum of Analytical Realism. He died from hunger in December 3 1941 in sieged Leningrad

Most of Filonov's works were sved by his sister Evdokiya Nikolaevna Glebova. His works in government collections were either buried in archives or destoyed. Exhibitions of Filonov's work were forbidden. In 1967 there was a first allowed exhibition of Filonov's works in Novosibirsk. In 1988 they were allowed in Russian Museum. Most of the works of Filonov were given to the museum as a gift by Glebova.

• A Russian site devoted to Filonov

• Filonov in Russian Wikipedia