Page 45 - Studio International - July August 1973

Matyushin subsidized the book's publication and it A letter from P. Filonov to Let's begin with your group.
appeared in St Petersburg probably in 1914 (cover Don't believe in any ideological principle
and title-page undated): 1914 seems a logical date V. Sholpo 1929 existing in IZO. Base yourself on your own
since Filonov had already written and illustrated the
piece in 1913, since St Petersburg and not Petrograd intellect and on the master-researcher's
appears inside the cover and since the Catalogue of analytical intuition.
Filonov's unrealized exhibition of 1930 presents the Carry on working like a master and not like a
date without query (p. 33).
'K. Malevich: `Suprematizm' — X Gosudarstvennaya pupil.
vystavka. Bespredmetnoe tvorchestvo i suprematizm. First and foremost, this means that you won't
Katalog, Moscow, 1919, p. 20.
8Zhizn iskusstva, Petersburg, 1923, No. 20 (May). create trash (the whole career of today's IZO
8P. Filonov. Katalog proizvedenii nakhodyshchikhsya student is based on trash, i.e. 'Study' . . .
v Russkom muzee s obyasnitelnym tekstom S. Isakova, `Sketch' . . . 'Drawing' . . . 'Experiment' . . .).
Leningrad, 193o, p. 22.
100. Beskin: Formalizm v zhivopisi, Moscow, 1933, Go and 'make' a picture, a drawing or a work
P. 9. out of any material (tough, durable, capable of
11Jan Kriz : Pavel Nikolajevic Filonov, Prague, 1966. lasting a very long time) and in any combination
"See, for example, V. Alfonsov: Slova i kraski, of materials (which you carefully select and
Moscow/Leningrad, 1966, pp. 18o-186; G. Gor :
`Zamedlenie vremini' — Zvezda, Moscow, 1968, apply). You may find it impossible to learn
No. 4, pp. 176-191. In the West, apart from Kriz anything from the trash of your student work —
op. cit., the following have appeared: T. Andersen:
`Pavel Nikolajevic Filonov' — Signum, Copenhagen, witness to which is the whole IZO pedagogical
1963, No. 4, pp. 2o-31; T. Andersen: Moderne system: so start working persistently on the
russisk kunst, Copenhagen, 1967, pp. 36-48, `made' picture, work persistently on every
154-164; D. Burliuk: 'Filonov' op. cit., J. Kriz :
'Pawel Nikolajewitsch Filonow' — Alte und Moderne atom of the picture, on every brushstroke, on
Kunst, Vienna, 1968, No. 96, pp. 32-39; M. Lama: every centimetre and develop and complete the
`Filonov a jeho Madeness, the made object, the principle of work in this way. And so, thanks to the
— Vytvarné umeni, Prague,
1967, No. 3.
"In 1959 Filonov's sister gave most of the works in madeness and the connected ideology of resultant nervous analytical tension and the
her possession to the Russian Museum, Leningrad analytical art can be reduced to the following: persistent stimulus to achieve madeness, you
where they remain; other works are in the it presupposes the ability to comprehend any will, from your very first steps, begin to
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and, of course, in many
private collections both in the USSR and in the and every phenomenon in art, in all its contribute all you've got to the work.
West. interrelationships, by research and intense Only then will you begin to really study and
"For details of OBERIU including the republished analytical exertion. To this end you must begin learn, and it is precisely thanks to persistent
Declaration (in Russian) see: R. Milner-Gulland:
"'Left Art" in Leningrad: the OBERIU with a correct definition of what kind of active work that you will become a master from your
Declaration' — Oxford Slavonic Papers, Oxford, participant you are in the IZO field, why you're first day of work. Your work will prove this.
197o, New Series vol. 3, pp. 65-75; also see: G. working, what you get out of working with IZO You will begin to develop as a master, a
Gibian (editor and translator): Russia's Lost
Literature of the Absurd, Ithaca, 1971, pp. 1-38. and what the work you've made means to others. researcher, a human-being and an IZO worker,
"From OBERIU Declaration in R. Milner-Gulland, Furthermore, it presupposes the ability to and your work — every moment of which
op. cit., p. 7o. understand what has to be done and the ability involves the most intense labour and the most
"S. Isakov in P. Filonov. Katalog proizvedenii, op.
to 'make' (or, as fools say, 'create', 'paint') any persistent, analytical and intellectual tension —
cit., p. 20.
"B. Kushner: "Bozhestvennoe proizvedenie" ' — work you need with any material, so that the will reveal this.
Iskusstvo kommuny, Petrograd, 1919, No. 9, p. 1. artist and spectator are affected by its maximum Don't work according to a general conception
18A. Gan: Konstruktivizm, Tver, 1922, p. 18
"ibid., p. 1. professional and ideological value. — that's mere charlatanism — but start with the
30B. Zemenkov: Koryto umozaklyuchenii, Moscow, It presupposes the ability to get as much as particular and go on to the general according to
1920, p. 5. possible out of the work itself while you're the formula that 'the general conception is
21V. Markov: 'Printsipy novogo iskusstva' — Soyuz
molodezhi, St Petersburg, 1912, No. 2, p. 5. involved with it — out of the practical (potential) derived from the individual parts' developed 'to
22 O. Rozanova: 'Osnovy novogo tvorchestva i and many other interrelationships which emerge their maximum'.
prichiny ego neponimaniya' — Soyuz molodezhi, St while you're at work — i.e. the ability to enrich Whoever finds this difficult or will do so later
Petersburg, 1913, No. 3, p. 14.
" M. Bush and A. Zamoshkin: Put sovetskoi yourself intellectually while working. on, can begin with the general, but he must
zhivopisi, Moscow, p. 142. It presupposes the ability to have a correct develop and elaborate every particular, every
"J. Mit, op. cit., p. 15. goal in all situations, to find (sometimes part (every atom must be made to the highest
"L. Aragon: `Le Surréalisme et le devenir
révolutionnaire' — Le Surréalisme au service de la instantaneously) the answer to any question degree of perfection and intensity).
révolution, Paris, 1932. No. 3, p. 6. arising from the most varied ideological and Don't use big brushes, use small ones — and
"Matyushin called his system, 'See-Know' (Zorved). material interrelationships in IZO; it it's better if they're not bristle, but cow-hair or
For some details see: A. Rylov: Vospominaniya,
Moscow, 1954, PP. 185-186. presupposes the ability to determine the best cat-hair' of appropriate size and with a sharp,
"The words are Shterenberg's. Quoted from: E. and most correct means of effectiveness although flattened end.
Gollerbakh et al.: Istoriya iskusstv vsekh vremen i (sometimes instantaneously) and the ability to Paint with your hand on a stick (a maulstick).
narodov, Leningrad, 1929, book 5, p. 321.
"K. Petrov-Vodkin: Prostranstvo Evklida, Leningrad, carry on working and fighting for fulfilment Paint literally all you want to according to the
1932. Reprinted in: Khlynovsk. Prostranstvo with the utmost precision and effectiveness, master-researcher's formula: 'I can paint
Evklida. Samarkandiya, Leningrad, 1970, pp. 481, etc., etc. This is the science (the highest school) ("make") any form with any form and any
548.
30N. I. Kulbin (1868-1917), the 'Doctor of Russian of IZO, its strategies and tactics. colour with any colour', i.e. if I decide to paint,
Futurism', was a physician by profession, although This is the revolutionary ideology of IZO. let's say, a boot or the head of an old man, then,
he was also a painter and art theorist in his own This means curtains for all that ideological willing and able, I shall manage to paint them
right. The approach to art as an organic process can
be identified with much of his work; see, for sorcery and buffoonery peculiar to all existing as a master — so precisely that you won't be able
example, his essay 'Svobodnoe iskusstvo, kak IZO ideologies and signifies the beginning of a to distinguish the model from the picture. But
osnova zhizni' — Studiya Impressionistov, St new stage in IZO based on principles properly if, as a researcher, I wish to — either because of
Petersburg, 191o, pp. 3-14.
31Quoted from: L. Dyakonitsyn • Ideinye formulated in an experimental and scientific familiar or unfamiliar prerequisites or because
protivorechiya v estetike russkoi zhivopisi kontsa 19 — manner. of certain phenomena or processes evolving
nachala 20 vv., Perm., 1966, p. 181. First and foremost, it means revolution in the within the old man or the boot which compel
"V. Alfonsov, op. cit., p. 183.
"Letter from Yuliya Arapova to John Bowlt, 19 psyche of every IZO worker and revolution in and oblige me to paint my conception of what
March, 1973. every sphere of global art. I know, see and feel in relation to this person

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