Wünsche I. The Organic School of the Russian Avant-Garde: Nature's Creative Principles

Routledge, 2015. — 243 p.The artists of the Organic School of the Russian avant-garde found inspiration as well as a model for artistic growth in the creative principles of nature. Isabel Wünsche analyzes the artistic influences, intellectual foundations, and scientific publications that shaped the formation of these artists, the majority of whom were based in St. Petersburg. Particular emphasis is given to the holistic worldviews and organic approaches prevalent among artists of the pre-revolutionary avant-garde, specifically Jan Ciągliński, Nikolai Kulbin, and Elena Guro, as well as the emergence of the concept of Organic Culture as developed by Mikhail Matiushin, practiced at the State Institute of Artistic Culture, and taught at the reformed Art Academy in the 1920s. Discussions of faktura and creative intuition explore the biocentric approaches that dominated the work of Pavel Filonov, Kazimir Malevich, Voldemar Matvejs, Olga Rozanova, and Vladimir Tatlin. The artistic approaches of the Organic School of the Russian avant-garde were further promoted and developed by Vladimir Sterligov and his followers between 1960 and 1990. The study examines the cultural potential as well as the utopian dimension of the artists’ approaches to creativity and their ambitious visions for the role of art in promoting human psychophysiological development and shaping post-revolutionary culture.List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface
Notes
Introduction
The Russian Avant-Garde
Biocentrism, Organicism, and the Modernist Discourse
Research on the Organic School
St. Petersburg and the Union of Youth
Notes
Nature as the Artist’s Model
Organic Principles as the Foundation for a New Art
The Nature-Centric Worldviews of the St. Petersburg Avant-Garde
From Nature Philosophy to Psychophysiological Parallelism
Evolutionary Thought as a Model for Artistic Development
Cosmic Consciousness and the Language of the Future
Notes
The Pioneers of the Organic School
Jan Ciaglinski: Integrative Seeing in Impressionism
Nikolai Kulbin: Artistic Creation and Psychophysics
Elena Guro: From Anti-Urbanism to Organicism
Notes
Mikhail Matiushin and the Emergence of the Organic School
Impressionist Approaches to Art and Music
Root Sculptures and Crystal Paintings
Matiushin’s Concept of Universal Space
Extended Viewing and the Studio of Spatial Realism
ZORVED and the Department of Organic Culture
Organic Culture in Architecture and Design
Notes
Further Organic Principles in the Russian Avant-Garde
Faktura: The Living Fabric of Nature
Voldemārs Matvejs: From “Free Creation” to Faktura
Pavel Filonov: Faktura and “Madeness” in Analytical Art
Vladimir Tatlin: Toward Organic Constructivism
Creative Intuition: Organic Perception of the World
From Henri Bergson’s L’Evolution créatice to Nikolai Lossky’s Intuitivism
Olga Rozanova: From the Intuitive Principle to Abstract Creation
Later that month, he related to Matiushin:
Notes
The Heritage of the Organic School—Vladimir Sterligov and the Leningrad Art Scene of 1960–90
From the Square to the Cup and Cupola
Painting as a Spiritual experience and Moral Purification
The Communal Spirit of the “Invisible Institute”
Notes
Conclusion
Nature’s Creative Principles
The Artist’s Calling
The Utopian Stance of the Organic School
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index