À propos des motifs japonisants dans l’œuvre de Pavel Kouznetsov et celle des néo-primitivistes

“Japonisme” as an artistic movement became widespread in Russia since the end of the year 1880, that is, the beginning of modernism. The peculiarity of the Russian Japonisme lies primarily in the fact that it came to Russia not directly from the Far East, but with Western European modernism. The latter stimulated the Russian artists’ interest in not only foreign, but also indigenous Eastern art forms, that is, Russian primitive arts, which helped the Russian artists to develop their individual style of primitivism. This article examines the problems faced during the transition from symbolism to primitivism in Russian art and focuses on the relationship between Japonisme and post-impressionism, which significantly influenced Russian artists at that time. In 1912, Pavel Kuznetsov painted “Still Life with Japanese prints,” which shows the direct influence of Gauguin’s work with the same name and also exemplifies the influence of Japonisme. Certain works of Russian neoprimitivists show a form of Japonisme similar to that in the works of the French group “Les Nabis.” On the basis of synthetism evolved by Gauguin and the “Nabis”, who were strongly influenced by Japanese art, Kuznetsov and the Russian neoprimitivists introduced into their art the principles of fauvism, cubism, and Russian primitive arts and managed to create a peculiarly Russian version of synthetism.