- 397
Robert Rafaelovich Falk
Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 USD
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Description
- Robert Rafaelovich Falk
- Still Life with Bust and African Sculpture, 1931
signed R. Falk (lower left)
- oil on canvas
- 35 1/2 by 27 3/4 in.
- 90 by 70.5 cm
Provenance
Collection of A.A. Obukhov, Moscow
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Moscow, Central House of Artists, Moscow Artists, 1920s-1930s, 1991
Bonn, Ludwig Museum im Deutscherrenhaus, Städtische Museen Koblenz, Treffpunkt Paris!, 2003
Bonn, Ludwig Museum im Deutscherrenhaus, Städtische Museen Koblenz, Treffpunkt Paris!, 2003
Literature
Central House of Artists, Moscow Artists, 1920s-1930s, Bonn, 1991, p. 114
Ludwig Museum im Deutscherrenhaus, Städtische Museen Koblenz, Treffpunkt Paris! Russlands Künstler zwichen Cezannismus und Lyrisher Abstraktion, Bonn, 2003, p. 123, illustrated
A.V. Tolstoi, Artists of Russian Emigration, Moscow, 2005, p. 304, illustrated
D.V. Sarabianov and Y.V. Didenko, Paintings of Robert Falk, A Complete Catalogue of Works, Moscow: Gallery Elizium, 2006, no. 774, pp. 552, 863, illustrated
Ludwig Museum im Deutscherrenhaus, Städtische Museen Koblenz, Treffpunkt Paris! Russlands Künstler zwichen Cezannismus und Lyrisher Abstraktion, Bonn, 2003, p. 123, illustrated
A.V. Tolstoi, Artists of Russian Emigration, Moscow, 2005, p. 304, illustrated
D.V. Sarabianov and Y.V. Didenko, Paintings of Robert Falk, A Complete Catalogue of Works, Moscow: Gallery Elizium, 2006, no. 774, pp. 552, 863, illustrated
Catalogue Note
"I demand on my rights to be wholly myself," Robert Falk exclaimed, "suffering is always subjective. I want to have the right to my own personal song" (Journal on Russian Art, 1923 ). While Falk was a founding member of the avant-garde group Jack of Diamonds, his work always adhered to his own unique vision. While artists such as Larionov and Malevich abandoned the group for its increasing reliance on Western models, Falk persisted, becoming one of the group's leading figures.
He was interested in furthering Russian Neo-primitivism, experimenting with Fauvism, Cubism and Cézannism. For Falk, also known as the Russian Cézanne, the French master was the ultimate realist, an artist of the most fundamental truths, underrated by critics who prized objective realism. The present still life exemplifies the artist's interest in Cézannism, recalling many of Cézanne's pivotal works, including Still Life with Plaster Cast. Here, Falk replaces the plaster cast with an African sculpture, thereby linking his work to later Primitivists like Pablo Picasso, who painted similar forms, considering them unspoiled by the complexity of modern civilization. Falk often depicted African sculptures in his still life compositions, and he painted this sculpture at least once more in 1931.
About his own process, Falk once told the writer Ilya Ehrenberg, "I think about many things before I sit down to work, I think about the [subject] I will be painting, about the epoch, landscape, political events, poetry, stories my grandmother told me, the contents of yesterday's newspaper." Ehrenberg concluded that if Impressionists painted the world as they saw it, then Falk painted the world the way he ruminated on it. Indeed, his paintings reveal an active mind at work.
He was interested in furthering Russian Neo-primitivism, experimenting with Fauvism, Cubism and Cézannism. For Falk, also known as the Russian Cézanne, the French master was the ultimate realist, an artist of the most fundamental truths, underrated by critics who prized objective realism. The present still life exemplifies the artist's interest in Cézannism, recalling many of Cézanne's pivotal works, including Still Life with Plaster Cast. Here, Falk replaces the plaster cast with an African sculpture, thereby linking his work to later Primitivists like Pablo Picasso, who painted similar forms, considering them unspoiled by the complexity of modern civilization. Falk often depicted African sculptures in his still life compositions, and he painted this sculpture at least once more in 1931.
About his own process, Falk once told the writer Ilya Ehrenberg, "I think about many things before I sit down to work, I think about the [subject] I will be painting, about the epoch, landscape, political events, poetry, stories my grandmother told me, the contents of yesterday's newspaper." Ehrenberg concluded that if Impressionists painted the world as they saw it, then Falk painted the world the way he ruminated on it. Indeed, his paintings reveal an active mind at work.