Velimir Khlebnikov called Pavel Filonov “a wonderful, afflicted artist, the little-known singer of urban suffering.” The city is the most direct and realistic space of the artist’s world. Unlike the intrepid urban utopias of the Futurists, however, the motif of the town implies urban suffering in Filonov’s art. The heroes of his canvases are the hapless and morose inhabitants of the city slums and the working-class districts. The theme of the degradation or degeneration of the personality under the onslaught of the aggressive and anti-humanistic metropolis sounds here with precision and asperity.

Filonov Pavel

Filonov, Pavel Nikolaevich
1882/83, Moscow -1941, Leningrad
Painter, graphic artist, theatrical designer, poet. Studied at painting studios in St Petersburg (1897-1901), Lev Dmitriyev-Kavkazsky''s studio (1913-08), School of Drawing, Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1893-1901) and under Vasily Savinsky and Jan Ciaglinskj at the Higher School of Art, Imperial Academy of Arts (1908-10). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1910). Founding member of the Union of Youth (1910). Founded the Made Pictures studio of painters and draughtsmen and published its manifesto (1914; second version published in 1923). Helped to design the sets and costumes for a production of Vladimir Mayakovsky: A Tragedy (1913). Wrote the poem Chant of Universal Flowering (1914-15). Headed the Department of General Ideology at the Museum of Artistic Culture (1923). Helped to write the statute of the Institute of Artistic Culture. Formed the Masters of Analytical Art (1923).