Voldemārs Matvejs

Voldemārs Matvejs (1877–1914) was a Latvian artist and art theorist. Despite dying in 1914, he was to have a significant impact on the development of Soviet art. Nikolay Punin remarked: "If he had not died so early he would have been the first among us: he knew what was necessary for art better than the others: he saw and understood better than the rest."^[1] He was one of the founders of the Union of Youth in 1908.

Voldemārs Matvejs c. 1912

He had a particular interest in African art and his writing in this area has been compared with that of Carl Einstein.^[1]

Faktura

Main article: Faktura

Matvejs was the art theorist who pioneered the concept of Faktura.^[2]

Gallery

• 
  Red Roofs, Visby (ca. 1909)
• 
  Ancient Times (ca. 1910)
• 
  Yellow Square (1911)
• 
  View of Paris (1912)
• 
  Red and Black (1913)

References

1. Howard, Jeremy; Bužinska, Irena; Strother, Z. S. (2016). Vladimir Markov and Russian Primitivism: A Charter for the Avant-Garde. Routledge. ISBN 9781317001034.
2. Henryk Berlewi (1924). "Mechano Faktura" (PDF). Der Sturm. Year 15 (3): 155–159.