The article describes how Vasilii Kandinsky combined the "logical" and the "illogical" in his approach to the theory and practice of painting, especially during the period of his Improvisations and Compositions. To this end, attention is paid both to the exact sciences and to the esoteric or "Other", including Theosophy and its immediate effect on Kandinsky's tract, "On the Spiritual in Art". Particular reference is made to the Theosophist and music teacher, Aleksandra Zakhar'ina-Unkovskaia, and, specifically, to the influence of her interpretations of music, colour and number on Kandinsky's aesthetic development.

The selection of critical texts, excerpted and translated below, illustrates the reception and assessment of Cezanne in Russia, especially during the 1910s-1930s. References are made both to the responses of radical artists and to the more rigorous ideological attitudes towards Cezanne and French modernism in general during the time of Socialist Realism. The selection also encompasses post-Soviet accounts tinged with structuralism and Post-Modernism, culminating in Elena Murina's highly influential analyses and appreciations.

Khudozhnik miróvogo rastsveta: Pavel Filonov, 2nd ed. By Gleb Yu. Ershov. St. Petersburg: Izdatel΄stvo Evropeiskogo Universiteta v St. Petersburg, 2020. 293 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Illustrations. $47.00, paper. - Volume 81 Issue 2

The article focuses on the aerodynamic experiments of Petr Vasil’evich Miturich (1887–1956), in particular his so-called letun, a project comparable to Vladimir Tatlin’s Letatlin, but less familiar. Miturich became interested in flight during the First World War, elaborating his first flying apparatus in 1918 before constructing a prototype and undertaking a test flight on 27 December 1921—which might be described as an example of Russian Aero-Constructivism (by analogy with Italian Aeropittura). Miturich’s basic deduction was that modern man must travel not by horse and cart, but with the aid of a new, ecological apparatus—the undulator—a mechanism which, thanks to its undulatory movements, would move like a fish or snake. The article delineates the general context of Miturich’s experiments, for example, his acquaintance with the ideas of Tatlin and Velemir Khlebnikov (in 1924 Miturich married the artist, Vera Khlebnikova, Velemir’s sister) as well as the inventions of Igor’ Sikorsky, Fridrikh Tsander, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and other scientists who contributed to the “First Universal Exhibition of Projects and Models of Interplanetary Apparatuses, Devices and Historical Materials” held in Moscow in 1927.

The authors discuss the Orthodox icon which Pavel Filonov (1883–1941) painted in 1908 or 1909 for his sister, Ekaterina, placing it within the broader context of his oeuvre, his family and his understanding of ‘religiosity’. Making reference to Filonov’s system of Analytical Art and to what he called ‘madness’, the authors focus on the particular technical devices which he used in the icon and on the podlinnik (or primer) from which he copied the main elements. Reference is also made to other religious motifs in Filonov’s art such as the Magi, Flight into Egypt and Crucifixion.

The authors comment on the genesis and evolution of the Artefact, an artistic concept and object developed by Moscow artists Frantsisko Infante and Nonna Goriunova. Divided into three sections, the article treats of basic concepts which inspire the artists to create their Artefacts, especially snow as an esthetic force and a natural ambience in which the artists install, photograph and then demolish the Artefacts (snow being a metaphor for absence or "nothing"), the notion of infinity vs. the falseness of geometric imposition and the Artefact as a symbol of this conflict - and the perception and notion of the state of "between" as in twilight, a condition which the artists explore in their latest series of artifacts called "Towards Night".

Born at the twilight of imperial Russia, Igor Stravinsky inevitably partook of its cultural conventions and rituals, moving closely with particular individuals, associations and vogues in what Alexandre Benois called ‘that hysterical and spiritually tormented time’.1 Among Stravinsky’s many connections in St Petersburg, for example, was the group of artists, writers and musicians known as the World of Art (Mir iskusstva) which, undoubtedly, played a formative role in his musical career.2 True, some observers are hesitant to accept the proximity, finding that ‘there is no real evidence that [Stravinsky] paid attention to the journal [Mir iskusstva] at that time or hankered after any particular association with its authors’.3 On the other hand, Stravinsky’s long friendship and professional liaison with the leaders of the World of Art (Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Sergei Diaghilev, Nicholas Roerich), his intense collaboration with Roerich on The Rite of Spring at Talashkino (the estate of Princess Maria Tenisheva, primary financier of the World of Art journal)4 and his close alliance with the Ballets Russes – which, in many ways, was the extension of the aesthetic platform of the World of Art – would seem to furnish evidence that Stravinsky did, indeed, appreciate the cultural consistency of the World of Art.

In October, 1978, The British Library, London, organized a fascinating exhibition of Russian illustrated books from the Cubo-Futurist era, displaying copies of legendary publications such as Mirskontsa (World Backwards) (1912), Vozropshchem (Let's Grumble) (1913) and Pomada (Pomade) (\913). To prepare an exhibition of this kind is not an easy task, since the Russian futurist booklets and brochures were published in minuscule editions, were not popular purchases at the time and, during the anti-formalist campaigns of the 1930s-1950s, were often destroyed. Furthermore, over recent years these publications have sometimes been broken up by unscrupulous dealers and their lithographic illustrations sold separately. Compton was responsible for the arrangement of this exhibition and her book is an extension of, and commentary on, that venture. Both the exhibition and the book are opportune, inasmuch as the illustrated book, Russian or otherwise, of the late 19th and the early 20th century, is now attracting unprecedented attention, academic and financial. The World Backwards is an exceptional book about an exceptional subject, and it makes a key contribution to the still limited knowledge of the Russian innovative artists of the period. In five chapters, Compton discusses the Russian futurists as poets, painters, book illustrators and stage designers. In particular, she discusses the composition and function ofthefuturist book in Russia in the climactic period of 1912-14, although she also makes reference to later, less familiar editions. After a solid introductory description of the general ideas and trends of nontraditional literary and artistic circles, Compton focuses attention on the combined efforts of the Burliuk brothers, Filonov, Goncharova, Guro, Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh, Larionov, Malevich, etc., analyzing specificexamples of the futurist book. Of great importance is Chapter 5 where the author relates the calligraphic and illustrative designs of these books to paintings of the time, comparing, for example, Larionov's graphic and painted Rayonism (or, to use Compton's more literal translation, Rayism), Malevich's cubo-futurist drawings to his paintings and other parallels of this kind. Her book is not so much a source of new information as an accurate. compendium of hitherto scattered data, systematized and cataloged for both scholarly and general consumption, and providing, so to say, a visual counterpart to Markov's pioneering book Russian Futurism of 1968. Indeed, The World Backwards is one of the few publications on the Russian innovators that sifts fact from fiction, corrects the traditional mistakes now circulating through numerous gallery and auction catalogs, usually supplies precise descriptions of each booklet mentioned and complements the text with excellent color and monochrome reproductions. One of my few grounds for complaint is the lack of a historical prelude and perspective and of reference to the Russian illustrated editions of the late 19th century (e.g. by Ropet and Maliutin) and to the traditional principles of book design upheld by the World of Art group and the Circle of Lovers of Russian Fine Editions (Benois, Dobuzhinsky, Somov, etc.). It is unwise to separate the futurist publications from their more refined, more conservative counterparts, however important the differences, for both were components of Russia's 'Silver Age'. Inevitably, I wish the book were larger, more comprehensive and that addenda had included a complete listing of Russian futurist books. Perhaps Compton will heed my desire and apply her expertise to a catalogue raisonne? The exhibition Liberated Color and Form was devoted to the Russian innovative visual artists such as Exter, Malevich, Popova and Rodchenko. The Introduction and compilation of the catalog are by Nakov and, as usual with his writings, the text is at once factographic and interpretative. Essentially, Nakov provides an overview of the formal development of these artists, examining the genesis and development of the Russian con-

The article treats of the early land-art or Artifacts ( often incorporating snow and ice) produced by Moscow artists Frantsisko Infante and Nonna Goriunova, especially with regard to the notions of landscape, reflectivity, play, infinity, and fluidity or limbo.