Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1364923
6 "Krasnaya Polyana," according to sources, "was the house whither all the beau monde of Russo-Ukrainian futurism and neo-primitivism went. Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov, Pasternak and Aseev, the Burliuk brothers, Mane-Kats." Kosarev remembered how, "the house was large, wooden, standing as if over a yard. After passing the gates, a wide staircase led up to the terrace where, on a usual day, the entire family and guests would gather for breakfast, lunch, dinner and endless tea-drinking. e wallpaper was decorated with exotic parrots some of which had been torn off. Apparently, paint from such parrots was used as cosmetic powder." Maria, at the time of the drawing 'Tree of Life' and 'Carousel' had already exhibited at the Union of Youth exhibition in St Petersburg with Larionov, Goncharova and Malevich between 1912 and 1914. After her honeymoon she, according to Kyiv art historian, Dmytro Horbachov, "revived her interest in Folk Art, the decorations of wedding trunks, folk icons, cloth and materials. In her Krasnaya Polyana watercolours she places the flowers of folk ornament into scenes of rural life. Everything is drawn impulsively, like an adult with a child's soul." Both 'Tree of Life' and 'Carousel' are oft-reproduced icons of the period whilst Venus, the third watercolour of the series, is a variation of a theme from the 1910's and was commissioned from Sinyakova by Dmytro Horbachov, who organised her personal exhibition at the Kyiv Writers Union in 1969. Kosarev's illustration to Khlebnikov's the 'Wood Demon', drawn at Krasnaya Polyana in 1918, provides context. e fragile poet was, according to Maria, "in love with us by turns, but it was frivolous love for, if he fell in love, it didn't last Painted trunk, Cherkass Region, beginning 19th century Krasnaya Polyana today - the home of futurism