User:Ianmdonnelly/Jack of Diamonds (artists)

Jack of Diamonds { («Бубновый валет», Romanized: Bubnovyi Valet), also called Knave Of Diamonds, was a group of avant-garde artists originating from an exhibition held in Moscow from 1910. The group remained active until December 1917. }...It is noted for its members' adoption of some of the tendencies of Western Cubist and Fauvist artists which would form the basis of Neo-primitivism in Russian art. ...

Inception
...During this period of cultural and political change in Russia, the Jack of Diamonds was one of several groups of artists (including the Blue Rose and Donkey’s Tail) who contributed to an exchange of artistic practices between its members and their European contemporaries. With an awareness of artists and exhibitions in France and Germany at the time such as Gauguin and Matisse, the Jack of Diamonds artists synthesized themes of traditional Russian folk art with contemporary Western developments into what would come to be known as Neo-primitivism. Simplified forms, bold colors with thick outlines, and a strong presence facture characterize the paintings of the group, whose members’ experimentation with Cubist and Fauvist approaches to perspective and color separated them from the Realist and Symbolist painters of the era...

{ The Knave of Diamonds was an exhibition that opened in Moscow in December 1910, featuring French cubist paintings by Henri Le Fauconnier, André Lhote, Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger. Curated by Alexandre Mercereau, the exhibition included works of four Russian artists expelled from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture due to their "leftist tendencies". A stated objective of the exhibition was "to offer young Russian artists who find it extremely difficult to get accepted for exhibitions under the existing indolence and cliquishness of our artistic spheres, the chance to get onto the main road."

Subsequently, the title was adopted by a newly formed artistic society in Moscow. Soon thereafter, this group became the largest and one of the most significant exhibition societies of the early Russian avant-garde.

The name itself}, meaning "rascally outsider,"-in reference to the group's position-, {was coined by Mikhail Larionov, for the exhibition of 1910 because he liked the sound of it. A contemporary account included, "Organizers regard the title Knave of Diamonds as a symbol of young enthusiasm and passion, 'for the knave implies youth and the suit of diamonds represents seething blood.'"

Painters whose works were displayed in the first Jack of Diamonds exhibition, in addition to the French Cubists, } included Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc, August Macke, Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Kazimir Malevich (and later, Léopold Survage).}