Auction 99 Part 1 Avant-Garde Art and Russian Literature from the Rachel and Joseph Brindt Collection

"Filonov", Exhibition Catalogue (for an Exhibition That Did Not Take Place) – Leningrad, 1930

Opening: $300
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Филонов [Filonov], exhibition catalogue. Leningrad (St. Petersburg): Издание Государственного Русского Музея, 1930. Russian.
Catalogue of a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artistic work of Pavel Filonov. The catalogue includes 15 reproductions of Filonov's works, alongside explanatory text by art critic Sergei Isakov.
The exhibition was planned for 1929-1930 at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad, where Filonov's works were hung on the museum walls for an entire year in anticipation. Despite this preparation, the exhibition faced repeated delays. After three postponements, the Soviet authorities ultimately banned the exhibition from opening entirely, suppressing the public display of Filonov's avant-garde work.


41, [2] pages. 17.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Minor stains. Cover detached; open tears to edges of cover and spine.


Pavel Filonov (Па́вел Никола́евич Фило́нов; 1883-1941) was a Russian avant-garde artist and illustrator. He developed and formulated the principles of "Analytical Realism" in art, according to which objects should be described from their inner essence, as opposed to just their external representation, based on breaking down the object into small details and rebuilding it to reveal its inner soul.
He was close to the poets and artists of the avant-garde movement Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov and was involved in the avant-garde artistic movement "Union of Youth" (Союз молодёжи). Due to his artistic style, Filonov was came to be considered an "enemy of the working class" and was persecuted by the authorities.
After his death from starvation during the siege of Leningrad, his sister donated his works to the Museum in Leningrad. Filonov's works were banned from display for many years, and only in 1967 were they first exhibited in an exhibition held at the Art Gallery in Novosibirsk.



Pavel Filonov (1883-1941)
Pavel Filonov (1883-1941)