Mikhail Larionov

Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was an avant-garde Russian painter. He entered The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1898 from where he was suspended about three times due to his radical outlook. Being educated in art school and in keeping with the period, his style was Impressionism from 1902. After a visit to Paris in 1906 it naturally change to Post-Impressionism and then developed into a Neo-primitive style which derived partly from Russian sign painting. Maturing his technique, Larionov created Rayonism in 1913, which was the first creation of near-abstract art in Russia. In 1915 he left Russia and worked with the ballet owner Sergei Diaghilev in Paris on the productions of the Ballets Russes. Larionov continued to live in France and obtained a citizenship there. He died in 1964 in Fontenay-aux-Roses.