Italian Futurism and Russia

The highly creative group of Futurists which flourished in Russia from 1912 onwards, remained comparatively little-known in Western Europe even though Moscow and St. Petersburg were not culturally isolated in the early years of the century. Only one Russian Futurist illustration was published in the Italian journal Lacerba, a print by Mikhail Larionov reproduced without explanation in April 1915. Although given a new title, Soldier's Venus, it was one of a series of Venuses that he had made in different styles three years before (Fig. 1).