Tuesday Art ATTACK- Mikhail Larionov “Set Design for Midnight Sun”

Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Larionov was born in Tiraspol of the Russian Empire in 1881. Larionov had radical views on art and while receiving his education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, he was suspended multiple times for his work and eventually expelled. He was an early star of the Russian abstract movement. Larionov helped found and named two influential radical art groups, the Jack of Diamonds(1909-11) and Donkey's Tail(1912-13). Larionov was inspired by the Futurist movement of the time but disagreed with some of its principles. Futurism glorified technology, machines, and Fascism. Larionov felt his art should be beyond just the abstraction of today. He founded the Rayonism movement which focused representing lines of reflected light. Larionov art career was derailed when he was injured in battle in the first World War. After his time fighting he began working in Paris with ballet owner Sergei Diaghilev designing sets and costumes until Diaghilev's death in 1929. For the last thirty years of his life he focused on his painting and legacy. He passed away in 1964. The painting above was created for the ballet "Midnight Sun" in 1918.