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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art Volume 12, 2012 - Issue 1
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Original Articles

The Evolution of Human Eyesight: Mikhail Matiushin's Organic Culture in Russian Avant-Garde Art

Isabel Wünsche
Pages 24-41 | Published online: 18 May 2015

  • Isabel Wünsche, Organic Visions and Biological Models in Russian Avant-Garde Art’, in Biocentrism and Modernism, ed. Oliver A.I. Botar and Isabel WÜnsche (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 127–52.
  • Christina Lodder, ‘Organic Construction: Harnessing an Alternative Technology’, in Russian Constructivism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 205–23.
  • Charlotte Douglas, ‘Evolution and the Biological Metaphor in Modern Russian Art, Art Journal 44, no. 2 (Summer 1984): 153–61.
  • John E. Bowlt and Rose-Carol Washton Long, The Life of Vasili Kandinsky in Russian Art: A Study of ‘On the Spiritual in Art’ (Newtonville, MA: Oriental Research Partners, 1980); Jeremy Howard, The Union of Youth: An Artists’ Society of the Russian Avant-Garde (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), 57, 86, 120–1, 156.
  • The first and second volume of the 1912 Union of Youth almanac included Chinese poetry, an article on Persian art by Varvara Bubnova, and illustrations of Chinese art and Persian and Indian miniatures. See also the publications of Vladimir Markov [Voldemars Matvejs], Iskusstvo ostrova paskhi [The Art of the Easter Islands] (St. Petersburg: Soiuz molodezhi, 1914) and Svirel kkitaya [The Chinese Flute] (St. Petersburg: Soiuz molodezhi, 1914).
  • Iu. V. Mezerin, Mikhail Matiushin 1861–1934 (St. Petersburg: Dom Matiushina, 2005). The most comprehensive publications on Matiushin and his circle are Heinrich Klotz, ed., Matjuschin und die Leningrader Avantgarde [Matiushin and the Leningrad Avant-Garde] (Karlsruhe: ZKM; Stuttgart and Munich: Oktogon, 1991); Isabel Wünsche, Kunst and Leben: Michail Matjuschin und die russische Avantgarde in St. Petersburg [Art and Life: Mikhail Matiushin and the Russian Avant-Garde in St. Petersburg] (Cologne: Böhlau, 2012).
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Tvorchestki put’ khudozhnika [An Artist's Creative Path], 1932–4, unpublished manuscript, copy of Nikolai Kostrov, 43, 53, 59.
  • Andrei Rubtsov, Zavety Tsiongliskogo [Ciąglński's Legacy] (St. Petersburg: Sirius, 1913).
  • Ibid.
  • Evgenia Petrova, ‘Music and Russian AvantGarde Art’, in Schönberg, Kandinsky, Blauer Reiter und die Russische Avantgarde [Schoenberg, Kandinsky, the Blue Rider, and the Russian Avant-Garde] (Vienna: Arnold Schoenberg Centre, 2000), 81–3.
  • N. Kulbin, ‘Free Music’, in The Blaue Reiter Almanac, ed. Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), 141.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Tvorchestki put’ khudozhnika, 114.
  • Ibid.
  • Alla Povelikhina, ‘S.P.B. Pesochnaia, 10’, Nashe Nasledie [Our Cultural Heritage], 2 (1989): 117–21.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Russkie kubo-futuristy: Vospominaniia, 1932–34’ [The Russian Cubo- Futurists: Memories, 1932–34], in K istorii russkogo avangarda [The Russian Avant-Garde], ed. Nikolaj Chardžiev (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1976), 139.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Opyt khudozhnika novoi mery’ [The Experience of an Artist of a New Dimension], in K istorii russkogo avangarda, 159–87.
  • Ibid., 76.
  • Ibid.
  • Mikhail Matiushin used excerpts from this book in his article, ‘O knige Metsanzhe-Gleza “Du Cubisme”’ [On the Book ‘Du Cubisme’ by Metzinger and Gleizes], Soiuz molodezhi [Union of Youth], 3 (March 1913): 25–34.
  • Charles H. Hinton, A New Era of Thought (London: 1888), cited in ibid., 30–1.
  • Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species appeared in a Russian translation in 1864 and his Descent of Man in 1871). On the Russian reception of Darwinism, see Loren R. Graham, Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 56–76; Daniel P. Todes, Darwin without Malthus: The Struggle for Existence in Russian Evolutionary Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989); Alexander Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture 1861–1917 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), 104–8; Darwin in Russian Thought (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988); and ‘Russia: Biological Sciences’, in The Comparative Reception of Darwinism, ed. Thomas F. Glick (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), 227–68.
  • Isabel Wünsche, Harmonie und Synthese: Die russische Moderne zwischen universellem Anspruch und nationaler kultureller Identität [Harmony and Synthesis: Russian Modernism between Universal Aspirations and National Cultural Identity] (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2008), 101–5.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Nauka v iskusstve’ [Science in Art], 1926, unpublished article, Department of Manuscripts at the Institute of Russian Literature (RO IRLI), F. 656, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 128.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Opyt khudozhnika novoi mery’, 169.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii. Spravochnik po tsvetu [The Laws Governing the Variability of Colour Combinations: A Handbook on Colour] (Moscow and Leningrad: Promizdat, 1932), 15.
  • G. Gel'mgol'ts [Hermann von Helmholtz], O Zrenii [On Seeing] (St. Petersburg: A.A. Porokhovshchikov, 1896); O Fiziologicheskikh Prichinakh Musikal'noi Garmonii [On the Physiological Principles of Musical Harmonies] (St. Petersburg: A.A. Porokhovshchikov, 1896); see also, P.P. Lazarev, Gel'mgol'ts [Helmholtz] (Leningrad, 1925).
  • Hermann von Helmholtz, ‘Die neueren Fortschritte in der Theorie des Sehens’ [The Latest Progress in the Theory of Sight] (1868), in Vorträge und Reden [Papers and Speeches], 4th ed. (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1896), vol. 1, 280–2. See also Hermann von Helmholtz, Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik [Handbook of Physiological Optics], 2nd ed. (Hamburg, Leipzig: Voss, 1896).
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 17.
  • See Johannes von Kries, ‘Über die Funktion der Netzhautstäbchen’ [On the Function of Rods in the Retina], in Abhandlungen zur Physiologie der Gesichtsempfindungen aus dem physiologischen Institut zu Freiburg i. Br. [Studies on the Physiology of Facial Sensations from the Physiological Institute at Freiburg i. Br.] (Hamburg and Leipzig: Voss, 1897), 1–39; ‘Über die Physiologie der Sinnesorgane’ [On the Physiology of the Sensory Organs], in Bericht über das Studienjahr 1897–98 [Report about the Academic Year 1897–98], ed. Heinrich Rosin (Freiburg: Universität Freiburg, 1898), 34–40; and Allgemeine Sinnesphysiologie [General Physiology of the Senses] (Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1923).
  • Johannes von Kries, ‘Über die Physiologie der Sinnesorgane’, 38.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 18.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Peizazh na vertikal'noe rasshirennoe smotrenie [Landscape in Vertical Extended Viewing], 1921–2, watercolour, 49.2 × 42.2cm, in the collection of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, 1-B-4151-p.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 17.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Ob organicheskoi kul'tury’ [On Organic Culture], in Vozvrat k prirode [Back to Nature] (Joensuu: Taidemuseo, 1996), 9.
  • ‘Otchet Raboty Provedennoi v Otdele Organicheskoi Kul'tury Issledovatel'skogo Instituta s 10/1923 g. do 10/1924 g.’ [Report about the Activities at the Department of Organic Culture for the Period 10/1923 to 10/1924] and ‘Otchet o deiatel'nosti Otdela Organicheskoi Kul'tury GINChUKa za 1923–24 g.’ [Report about the Activities at the Department of Organic Culture of the GINKhUK for 1923–24], (former) Leningrad State Archives of Literature and Art (LGALI), F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 31, L. 44–50.
  • In 1927, Malevich showed his and Matiushin's tables in Warsaw and Berlin, and perhaps even at the Bauhaus in Dessau. The tables were kept by Hugo Häring and eventually became part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. See Troels Andersen, ed., Malevich (Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1970), 134–6; Zabludivshiisia Tramvai: Art et Poesie Russes 1910–1930: Textes Choisis [The Lost Tram: Russian Art and Poetry 1910–1930: Selected Texts] (Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1979), 243–8.
  • ‘Otchet o Deiatel'nosti Otdela Organicheskoi Kul'tury za pervyi kvartal 1924–25 g.’ [Report about the Activities at the Department of Organic Culture for the First Quarter of 1924–25], LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 48, L. 18–19. See also Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 21.
  • ‘Otchet o Deiatel'nosti Otdela Organicheskoi Kul'tury za 1-i i 2-i kvartal 1924–25 g.’ [Report about the Activities at the Department of Organic Culture for the First and Second Quarter of 1924–25], LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 48, L. 18–21 and ‘Otchet o deiatel'nosti Otdela Organicheskoi Kul'tury za vtoroi kvartal 1925–26 g.’ [Report about the Activities at the Department of Organic Culture for the Second Quarter of 1925–26], LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 71, L. 13–14. See also Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 24.
  • LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 48, L. 18–19 and ‘Otchet o deiatel'nosti Otdela Organicheskoi Kul'tury za pervyi, vtoroi i tretii kvartal 1925–26 g.’ [Report about the Activities at the Department of Organic Culture for the First Quarter of 1925–26], LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 71, L. 10–17.
  • LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 48, L. 18–19.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 23.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Nauke v iskusstve’. See also Maria Ender, ‘O dopolnitel'noi forme’ [On Complementary Form], 1927, Russian State Archives of Literature and Art (RGALI), F. 2973, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 162.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Concerning Sound and Colour’, in Russian Avant-Garde 1910–1930: The G. Costakis Collection, ed. Anna Kafetsi (Athens: National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, 1995), 595–6.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Tvorcheskii put’ khudozhnika, 134 and Zakonomernost'izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 27.
  • LGALI, F. 244, Op. 1, Ed. khr. 71, L. 10–17.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 26.
  • Mikhail Matyushin, Zhivopisno-musykal'naia konstruktsiia [Painterly-Musical Construction], 1917–8, oil on wood, 51 × 63cm; and Zhivopisno- musykal'naia konstruktsiia [Painterly-Musical Construction], 1918, gouache on cardboard, 51.4 × 63.7cm; both George Gostakis collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki. There are also three charcoal drawings from 1921, each entitled Zvukoshum [Sound Noise], in the collection of the Museum Ludwig, Cologne.
  • Mikhail Matiushin, ‘Nauka v iskusstve’. See also Isabel Wünsche, ‘Seeing Sound—Hearing Colour: The Synaesthetic Experience in Russian AvantGarde Art’, in Music and Modernism, ed. Charlotte de Mille (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), 95–120.
  • Matiushin, ‘Concerning Sound and Colour’, 595–6.
  • P.P. Lazarev, lonnaia teoriia vozbuzhdeniia [Ionic Theory of Excitation] (Moscow and Petrograd: Gos. Izd., 1923). Lazarev's theory became the foundation for the development of physiology and psychology in the Soviet Union.
  • P.P. Lazarev, lonnaia teoriia vozbuzhdeniia, 38. See also Mikhaill Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 20.
  • P.P. Lazarev, lonnaia teoriia vozbuzhdeniia, 68. See also Mikhail Matiushin, Zakonomernost’ izmeniaemosti tsvetovykh sochetanii, 26.

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