Monday Morning Inspiration

Pavel Filonov was a Russian avant-garde painter, poet and art theorist. Despite his military service and active participation in the Revolution of 1917, Filonov’s work was later declared illegal by the state and exhibitions were forbidden. Pavel Filonov died of starvation during the Nazi siege of Leningrad but his paintings were saved by his sister, which were stored in the Russian Museum for many years before finally being exhibited publicly in 1967.

When I first came across Filonov’s work, I was immediately struck by the graphic power of his distorted figures and abstracted compositions. He was a proponent of Analytical Realsim, which rejected the basic principles of Cubism for a more “spiritual” approach to painting. Although Filonov was not an illustrator, many of his paintings contain elements of narrative and his style would have translated well, in my opinion, given the opportunity. See more of Pavel Filonov’s work here.