Blue Rose

The Blue Rose was a short-lived Symbolist artist association in Moscow, active from 1906 to 1908 and named after the exhibition it held in 1906 - a name itself drawn from Novalis's symbol of the unattainable blue flower. Inspired by the dreamlike paintings of Viktor Borisov-Musatov, its members - Pavel Kuznetsov, Nikolai Sapunov, Sergei Sudeikin, Martiros Saryan and others - pursued a vaporous, tonal art in which colour, not line, builds the picture. The group's exhibitions and the patronage of the collector Nikolai Ryabushinsky made it a center of Russian Symbolism before its artists dispersed into stage design, decorative work and later styles. Mayakovsky wrote in 1907 that 'the artists are in love with the music of color and line.'

Defining characteristics

• Colour used as a tonal medium to build rhythm, with shape and contour dissolved
• Misty, vaporous atmospheres in silvery blue, green and lilac
• Lyrical, dreamlike subjects: idylls, flowers, water and phantom-like figures
• Decorative, mural-like flatness over deep perspective

Key figures

• Pavel Kuznetsov (1878-1968) — Leading painter of the group's vaporous, symbolist idylls
• Nikolai Sapunov (1880-1912) — Painter and stage designer of the circle
• Sergei Sudeikin (1882-1946) — Painter and theatrical designer of the group
• Viktor Borisov-Musatov (1870-1905) — The group's inspiration; his dreamlike idylls set the model

Example works

• The Pool — Viktor Borisov-Musatov (1902)

Sources

• Blue Rose - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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