Rayonist works are characterized by their intersecting rays of light, distilling forms into rays and reducing three dimensions into two. In this particular work, the principles of Rayonism are clearly visible, creating an atmosphere or energy and dynamism.
Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was a key member of the avant-garde in Russia and a pioneer of abstraction. Together with Natalia Goncharova he founded Rayonism, a revolutionary art movement that was influential in the development of abstraction in Russia.
As the name “Raynoist” suggest, the new aesthetic took inspiration from the role of light in people’s visual experience of the world. Departing from the realistic depiction of objects, Rayonism was an expression of the rays of light that define how we see a particular form.
Larinov and Goncharova wrote the manifesto for the movement in 1912 and exhibited one of the first Rayonist works in the same year. According to the artists, Rayonism “is concerned with spatial forms which are obtained through the crossing of reflected rays from various objects.”
“In fact, we do not sense the object as such. We perceive a sum of rays proceeding from a source of light; these are reflected from the object and enter our field of vision,” Larinov and Goncharova wrote in the manifesto.
Rayonist works are characterized by their intersecting rays of light, distilling forms into rays and reducing three dimensions into two. In this particular work, the principles of Rayonism are clearly visible, creating an atmosphere or energy and dynamism.
The composition and signature are consistent with works by the artist.