Folklorism and neoprimitivism of Russian avant-garde in the first decades of the XX century

The article analyzes the problem of exhibiting a tendency to resort to folklore primitivism typical of the works of Russian avant-garde painters in the first two decades of the 20 century. Cultural and artistic life in Russia of the period in question is also described in the article: artistic societies and unions, exhibition and sponsor activities contributed to the formation of new ideas and views on art. The author systematizes forms of resorting to folklore in different branches of Russian art, ranging from the Wanderers and the Mamontov Circle to abstract art. Besides, the author draws parallels and finds shared fields of Russian modernism and avant-garde and art of Western Europe. The author focuses the attention on Russian neoprimitivism which is studied through the examples of the founder of abstract art V. Kandinsky, the inventor of Russian neoprimitivism and rayism M. Larionov, the prominent representative of avant-garde N. Goncharova, the founder of suprematism K. Malevich, and the representative of naive painting Niko Pirosmani (N. Pirosmanashvili). The author characterizes genres and art techniques, which determine folklore motives and tendencies of Russian avant-garde, mainly, wall-painting, ranging from primitive cave drawing to fresco painting and icon painting; from barracks painting to graffiti; from cheap wood print introduced to professional art by M. Larionov to child's drawing. The article analyzes the pieces of art which reflect folklore, primitive and avant-garde tendencies; outlines the direction of further research of Russian avant-garde requiring arts criticism as well as culturological and philosophic comprehension.

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