ABSTRACT
Vladimir Markov almost certainly wrote 'Principles of the New Art' in early 1912 while continuing his studies at the Academy of Arts and becoming more actively involved in the activities of the Union of Youth. The source of chance beauty does not only lurk in indistinct, extraneous and purely external factors, but also in the innermost recesses of the human soul and in the unconscious movements of the artist's hand and thought. The principle of free creativity is based on this capacity of the human spirit. Art is a double-edged sword. It is a two-faced Janus. One face seems captivated by the coarse, absurd and feeble, while the other seems to shine with grace, refinement and delicate, painstaking finishes. The principle of free creativity affords its ardent and passionate protection to all those absurd manifestations of the human soul, to that apparently tasteless and vulgar face of art which is so persecuted in Europe.
