representations of perfected mechanical society’s highlights the revolutionary nature of their work as, “only futurist art is constructed on collective principles… Only futurist art is, at the present time, ‘the art of the proletariat’” as painter and sculptor Nathan Altman (1889–1970) once stated. Cubo-Futurist artists are unique in their independence and autonomy from other members of the group. Non-representational artists experimenting with Cubo-Futurism – such as Kandinsky, Larionov, Malevich, and Tatlin – adopted the distinctive ideals and theoretical background of the movement but followed their own aesthetic path, thus depicting the freedom these artists were given to express their own perceptions of a modernised world. Artists The following artists have been associated with Cubo-Futurism: Alexander Archipenko Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine Alexander Bogomazov David Burliuk Wladimir Burliuk Aleksandra Ekster Natalia Goncharova Ivan Kliun Mikhail Larionov Lyubov Popova Olga Rozanov Sonia Terk Vasyl Yermylov Alberto Magnelli Vadym Meller Aristarkh Lentulov Oleksandr Bogomazov Sculpture Sculpture was a smaller subsect of the Cubo-Futurist movement. Influenced by the work of Italian futurist sculptor and painter Umberto Boccioni, and Pablo Picasso’s cubist sculptures, Russian artists began experimenting with the combination of the two styles. Artists who experimented with Cubist and Futurist (or a combination of both) styles within their sculptures all expressed a dislike of traditional, classical artistic traditions, thus highlighting the characteristically Cubo-Futurist interest in transformation, innovation, and rejuvenation. Cubo-Futurist sculptors included Joseph Chaikov, Boris Korolev and Vera Mukhina, all of whom taught at the Soviet state art school in Moscow, Vkhutemas. Literature Poetry Poets that experimented with Cubo-Futurist ideals pressed the importance of deconstructing the rules and meaning of poetry, systematically attacking the previously popular Russian classical and symbolist poets due to their propensity to examine metaphysical, esoteric ideas that did not resonate with the common populace. Cubo-Futurist artists had a passion for the democratisation of poetry through the use of chaotic, common language (and concepts) that allowed for freedom of expression and interpretation by the average person. Like artists of the same movement, these poets were interested in creating “totally new words and a new way of combining them,” transforming and recreating poetry into a literary form that depicted their ideas of a modernised future. Poets of the Cubo-Futurist movement saw writing as a “laboratory or workshop” to renew language and literature, dissecting words and generating neologisms in order to shift contemporary understandings of poetry in order to display their interest in revolution and modernity.