Craft: Velimir Khlebnikov

Velimir Khlebnikov (Велими́р Хле́бников, 1885-1922) was a Russian “beyond category” artist who produced poems, fiction, drawings, Futurist statements, proposals for a universal language, and odd hybrids of mathematical theory and creative writing. 

Khlebnikov was born in eastern Russia, studied math and science at the University in Kazan, and was part of a group of Russian Cubo-Futurists which included the poet Elena Guro, the painter Kazimir Malevich, and the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. 

Part of the Cubo-Futurists’ ethos was to shock and provoke the middle class. They put on theater productions ; made handmade magazines with wallpaper pages, burlap covers, and strange typography; and performed dances with stylized, geometric costumes and abstract backdrops.