Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
while 'WWW' is a commentary on the alienation caused by modern technology.
Most famously, 'Menya Zovut Shnur' (My Name is Shnur) and its accompanying
animated video are a harsh critique of authority.
Nowadays, Leningrad is widely played on Russian radio, thanks in part to filler
noise that covers up the most vulgar lyrics. But that doesn't mean the spunky,
punky band is going mainstream. Leningrad continues to act in ways that are
unexpected, uncouth and outrageous; and the fans wouldn't have it any other
way.
Avant-Garde
From about 1905 Russian art became a maelstrom of groups, styles and 'isms', as it
absorbed decades of European change in a few years. It finally gave birth to its own
avant-garde futurist movements.
Mikhail Larionov and Natalya Goncharova were the centre of a Cézanne-influen-
ced group known as the Knave of Diamonds. This husband-wife team went on to de-
velop neo-primitivism, based on popular arts and primitive icons. They worked
closely with Sergei Diaghilev, the founder of Ballets Russes, designing costumes and
sets for the ballet company that brought together some of the era's greatest dancers,
composers and artists.
The most radical members of the Knave of Diamonds
formed a group known as Donkey's Tail, which exhibited
the influences of cubism and futurism. Larionov and Gon-
charova were key members of this group, as well as Marc
Chagall and Kazimir Malevich.
Best Artist
House- Mu-
seums in St
Petersburg
In 1915 Malevich announced the arrival of suprematism.
His abstract geometrical shapes (with the black square rep-
resenting the ultimate 'zero form') freed artists from having
to depict the material world and made art a doorway to
higher realities. See one of his four
Black Square
paintings,
Rimsky-Korsakov
(Smolny & Vosstan-
iya)
