Rayonist Sausages and Mackerel

This 1912 painting comes from a pivotal moment in Mikhail Larionov's career, just as he was developing Rayonism—the first truly abstract art movement to emerge from Russia. Created the same year he founded the radical Donkey's Tail group, this work shows Larionov breaking away from the Neo-primitive style he'd been exploring and moving toward the revolutionary approach he would formally announce in 1913. The choice of subject matter—sausages and mackerel—reflects the Russian avant-garde's fascination with everyday objects and folk art traditions, elevating humble foodstuffs to high art. Notice how the title emphasizes 'Rayonist,' indicating Larionov's deliberate experimentation with depicting light rays emanating from objects. This was his attempt to capture the essence of modern scientific understanding—showing not objects themselves but the colored rays of light reflecting off them, intersecting in space. The painting sits at the crossroads between recognizable subject matter and pure abstraction, where fragments of reality dissolve into geometric planes and luminous color bands. Larionov was at the height of his influence in the Moscow avant-garde at this time, mentoring artists like Tatlin and staging provocative exhibitions that brought Matisse, Braque, and other European modernists to Russian audiences.