c. 1914

Cubist Composition (Untitled)

Russian, 1892 - 1969

Born in Tiflis (Tbilisi), in present-day Georgia, and educated in Saint Petersburg, Kirill Zdanevich and his younger brother Ilya were active in the Russian avant-garde, exhibiting and collaborating with Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, and other influential artists. This drawing was made shortly after Kirill’s stay in Paris during the fall of 1913, when he visited the studios of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. The combination of intersecting geometric planes and a rhythmic acanthus leaf pattern demonstrates the artist’s assimilation of varying strains of modern painting and foreshadows the “everythingism” approach he developed upon returning to Russia.