Mikhail Matushin

Mikhail Matushin
Mikhail Vasilyevich Matushin (1861/Nizhny Novgorod - ☦ 14.10.1934/Leningrad) - painter and composer, leading member of the Russian avant-garde.

1871 – was admitted to the Department of Russian Musical Society free of charge where got the basics of general and music education.
1874 - moved to Moscow, entered the Conservatory where took the Violin course. As a result of the competition he became the «first violin» in the Court Orchestra in St. Petersburg (until April, 1913). Played in the Court Orchestra.
1894 – entered the Artists Encouragement Society School in St. Petersburg; finished it in 1898.
1900 – attended the World Exhibition in Paris where he got acquainted with the latest trends in art.
1903-1905 - worked in Ya.F. Tsionglinsky’s studio.


1906 - studied (until 1907) in E.V. Zvantseva’s school of painting and drawing, where L.Y. Bakst and M.V. Dobuzhinsky taught at that time.
1909-1910, November. Together with E. Guro initiated establishing of St.Petersburg Artists’ Society «Youth Union».
Summer 1913 – Matyushin’s dacha in Uusikirkko (Finland) housed the First Congress of the Russian Futurists. Together with K. Malevich, V. Khlebnikov, and A. Kruchenykh published «The Three» collection devoted to the memory of deceased Guro. Wrote music for the opera «Victory over the Sun».
1914 - published E. Guro’s book «Celestial camels» and together with the I.A. Puni - «Roaring Parnassus” book. Published his musical compositions - Suite «Don Quixote» for piano and violin, Suite «Autumn Dream» for violin and piano and «Guide to the study of demisemitones for the violin».
1918-1926 - taught at the Academy of Fine Arts, the Painting Faculty (Petrograd State Public Artistic Training Workshops). Organized his «space realism workshop» there.
1921 - Member of the Board of the State Museum of Artistic Culture (State Institute of Artistic Culture GINKhUK) in Petrograd. November 1, 1925 -1926 – Full Member of State Decorative Institute and Head of the Organic Culture Department. Worked in the experimental laboratory of physical-and-physiological foundations of fine arts (after the merger Institute of Artistic Culture with the State Institute of Art History). Together with a team of his disciples they created by May 1 in Leningrad a festive space-moving installation on the theme «Cultural Revolution and Incivility».
1932 - published «Colour Reference Handbook». Died in Leningrad, buried in Martyshkino near Peterhof.

Alla Povelikhina. Theory of World Unity and the Organic Direction in the 20th Century Russian Avant - Garde

Alla Povelikhina.GINKhUK (The State Institute of Art Culture)

Alla Povelikhina. Matyushin’s Anthropology: The ZOR-VED System in the Perception of Nature

Alla Povelikhina.Matyushin’s ‘’Total” Theater