Paul Gauguin's Influence on the Soviet Avant-Garde

The French Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin, largely ignored during his lifetime, became a pivotal influence on the Russian and early Soviet avant-garde through the collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. Shchukin, an eccentric collector, acquired sixteen Gauguin paintings from the Tahitian period between 1903 and 1908, displaying them as an 'altarpiece' in his Moscow mansion. Morozov bought eight Gauguin works, including 'At the Cafe' (1888). Shchukin opened his home to the public, attracting young artists like Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, who adopted Gauguin's radical color and form. In 1909, they were expelled from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture for imitating Western modernists, leading to the formation of the 'Jack of Diamonds' group, which included Lyubov Popova, David and Wladimir Burliuk, and occasionally Kazimir Malevich. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, after traveling to North Africa in 1907, produced works so similar to Gauguin's that he faced plagiarism accusations from Ilya Repin. The article details how Gauguin's legacy, facilitated by Russian collectors, helped shape a distinctive avant-garde language in Russia.