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Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyze the graphic and poetic strategies of the work of Olga Rozanova (1886–1918), a representative of the first Russian avant-garde movement in the early 20th century, and to propose a new interpretation of her poetic and visual texts based on an understanding of her unique “zaum” style. To conduct a conceptual analysis, the article focuses on Rozanova’s most well-known poems, such as “Spain”, “The Horsewoman”, and “The Album”, which have already been extensively analyzed and are accessible to contemporary critics and readers. However, as the analysis showed, many aspects of Rozanova’s poetic texts were misinterpreted or interpreted too freely, without taking into account the specific features and internal intentions of the poetic text. In order to gain a more accurate and nuanced understanding of Rozanova’s poems, they were first correlated with the events of the approximate time of their composition and compared with the artist’s paintings, elaborating the same motifs, images, and symbols as the poetic texts. A brief history of critical assessments and previous interpretations by art historians and philologists has been reconstructed for each of the selected poems. A detailed poetic analysis shows that the figurative, expressive, and ideological layers of Rozanova’s poems more often than not lack the usual and expected connotations (for example, the Spanish song and dance motifs in “Spain” or the image of the horsewoman-fate in the poem “The Horsewoman”). In the process of comprehending the “zaumic” details of Rozanova’s text, it was established that the poet did not follow banal poetic analogies, but instead brought her own perspectives to each poetic text, achieving an individual vision and subjecting her figurative, thematic, and symbolic aspects to poetic reflection. As a result of this analysis, O. Rozanova’s poetic texts are presented in a more meaningful and poetic form demonstrating the originality of the poet / painter.

About the author(s) :

Olga V. Bogdanova

Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy named after Fyodor Dostoevsky

(Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6007-7657

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 19.02.2026; date of publication: 31.10.2026

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