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Painted in 1915, during the First World War, this work is stylistically similar to two other compositions by Pavel Filonov – Untitled (1917) and Untitled (1919). The German War is also close in its artistic manner to the Cubo-Futurist canvases of Kazimir Malevich, Ivan Kliun, Lyubov Popova and Nadezhda Udaltsova.
The picture is painted in a restrained palette of grey-brown tones and offers an indication of the future contours of Pavel Filonov’s oeuvre. The artist’s paramount desire is to capture the dynamics and chaos of the wartime destruction. The forms splinter into fragments, only for them to reunite in new variations and crystals.