Page:Knight (1975) Past, Future and the Problem of Communication in the Work of V V Khlebnikov.djvu/41

33 Picasso's work, of course, was largely a return to a primitivistic, magical conception of art. As Livshits and the Burlyuks pored over the mansunripts, Cubism and "Khlebnikovism" seemed to merge in their minds. They decided to call themselves "Hylea" and to organize as a definite group. Writes Livshits:

"none of us could imagine the new association without Khlebnikov's participation."

or the estate at Chernyanka, Livshits affirms:

"If Chernyanka's role is to be examined after the fact, it has to be described as the meeting-place of the coordinates from which the movement known as futurism was born in Russian poetry and art."

With Khlebnikov at Chernyanka had stayed another friend of the Burlyuks. The primitivist painter Larionov, Markov remarks, "was probably the artist whose work had the greatest influence on the primitivistic poetry of the Russian futurists, especially on that of Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh."

Markov points out that primitivism had been anticipated, in a certain sense, by the Symbolists' wide interest in Slavic mythology. More specifically, however, he dates the beginning of Russian primitivism as December 1909, when in Moscow there was held the third exhibition of the "Golden Fleece", combining fauvist painting with specimens of Russian folk—art: icons, lace, woodcuts and so on. Soon a primitivist enthusiasm had swept through all the arts in Russia, expressing itself in painting, music and poetry. Unfortunately, we know nothing of any discussions Khlebnikov may have had with Larionov during their stay together at Chernyanka. But his presence may well have added to the primitivistic inspiration already provided