Glass

Created in 1912, 'Glass' emerges from a pivotal moment in Mikhail Larionov's artistic evolution. This was the year he founded the radical Donkey's Tail group and was deeply engaged with Cubo-Futurist experimentation, just before he would pioneer Rayonism in 1913—Russia's first approach to abstract art. By 1912, Larionov had already moved through Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, absorbing influences from Russian sign painting and the Georgian primitivist Niko Pirosmani. He was at the height of his Moscow avant-garde leadership, staging groundbreaking exhibitions and mentoring artists like Tatlin, Chagall, and Malevich.

The choice of such an ordinary subject—a glass—reflects the period's fascination with everyday objects as vehicles for formal experimentation. In the spirit of Cubo-Futurism, Larionov would have been exploring how light refracts and fractures through transparent surfaces, anticipating the 'rayonist' theory he would soon articulate with his partner Natalia Goncharova. This work likely deconstructs the glass into intersecting planes and light rays, challenging traditional perspective. It represents Larionov's bold rejection of academic tradition—the same radical outlook that got him suspended three times from the Moscow School of Painting. As part of the Guggenheim's collection, this painting documents a crucial transition point in Russian modernism, when artists were pushing toward complete abstraction while still tethered to recognizable forms.