Untitled

Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov (Tiraspol, Besarabia, May 22nd, 1881; Fontenau-aux-Roses, near Paris, May 10th, 1964) in 1898 started attending lessons at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, where he met Natalia Goncharova, his lifelong companion. He started experimenting with Impressionism before 1905. In 1906 he traveled with Sergei Diaghilev to Paris as representatives of the Russian Section for the Salon d’ Automne. From 1907 to 1909 he was associated with the journal Golden Fleece and took an active part in the organization of three exhibitions (under the supervision of the journal) which took place between 1908 and 1909 in Moscow and in which French Impressionist painters were presented along with Russian artists. In 1910, he organized, with Aristarkh Lentulov and Goncharova, the “Jack of Diamonds” group and its first exhibition (Moscow, 1910-1911). He broke up the group in 1911 and in 1912 he organized the Donkey’s Tail exhibition in Moscow. On December 8th, 1911, he had a one-day, one-man show at the Society of Free Aesthetics in Moscow. During the period 1912 -1913 he started working upon Rayonist paintings and he illustrated publications of futurist poets. In 1913 he published his manifesto Rayonists and Futurists: A Manifesto, signed by ten other painters. That same year he organized the Target exhibition in Moscow, where Rayonism was publicly introduced and participated with Goncharova in the production of the experimental film Drama in the Futurists’ Cabaret No.13. In 1914 he organized the Exhibition No.4 in Moscow and participated in a joint show with Goncharova at the “Paul Guillaume” gallery in Paris. Prior to the First World War he returned to Moscow and was conscripted. However due to concussion he was discharged in 1915. That same year he exhibited a series of reliefs in the Exhibition: The Year 1915 in Moscow and left with Goncharova and went to Switzerland in June, where Larionov became the chief artistic advisor for the Diaghilev Ballet. In 1917 he settled in Paris and continued working as a designer for Diaghilev until 1929. He illustrated books and continued painting until the 1950s.