Pavel Kuznetsov artist biography. Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich. Kuznetsov feels stuffy in the world of his own mystical visions. It already seems to his contemporaries that his art is fading away, but, having survived a painful crisis, the artist is reborn in a completely new state.

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov(November 5(17), Saratov - February 21, Moscow), Russian painter.

Biography

In 1902, Kuznetsov, together with K. S. Petrov-Vodkin and P. S. Utkin, began painting the Saratov Church of the Kazan Mother of God. Being at the forefront of artistic thought of that time (participating in the activities of the “World of Art”), talented youth in the church tried to take liberties with the canons, which caused an explosion of public indignation and their paintings were destroyed.

In 1904, Kuznetsov was one of the organizers of the Scarlet Rose exhibition, and also took an active part in the formation of the Blue Rose art association, which was finally determined after the exhibition of the same name in 1907.

Theater works

He worked in the field of theatrical decoration. He established himself as an original theater artist (“Sakuntala” by Kalidasa at the Chamber Theater, 1914, staged by A. Ya. Tairov).

Exhibitions

• Paris (1906)
• "Blue Rose" (1907)
• Paris (1923)

Gallery

• Blue fountain (tempera, 1905, Tretyakov Gallery).
• Morning (tempera, 1905, Tretyakov Gallery).
• Birth (1906)
• Sleeping in a Shed (1911)
• Mirage in the steppe (tempera, 1912, Tretyakov Gallery)
• Evening in the steppe (tempera, 1912, Tretyakov Gallery)
• Sheep Shearing (1912)
• Rain on the Steppe (1912)
• Teahouse (1912)
• Still Life with Japanese Engraving (1912)
• Fortune telling (1912)
• Bird Market (1913)
• In the Buddhist Temple (1913)
• Fruit picking, Asian bazaar (sketches for the painting of the Kazan station, 1913-1914, unrealized)
• At the source (1919-1920)
• Uzbek (1920)
• Bird house (early 1920s),
• Mountain Bukhara (series of autolithographs, 1923)
• Turkestan (series of autolithographs, 1923)
• Parisian Comedians (1924-1925)
• Rest of the Shepherds (Secco, 1927, Russian Museum)
• Grape harvest (panel, 1928)
• Crimean collective farm (panel, 1928)
• Portrait of the sculptor A.T. Matveev (1928)
• Bridge over the Zangu River (1930)
• Mother (secco, 1930, Tretyakov Gallery)
• Sorting cotton (1931, Tretyakov Gallery)
• Processing of Artik tuff (1929, Tretyakov Gallery)
• Pushball (1931; Tretyakov Gallery)
• Shearing of rams (77.5 x 81.5, pastel, tempera, canvas, Russian Museum)

Heirs

P. Kuznetsov. Rest of shepherds. Tempera. 1927

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov artist

He is an amazing colorist...
V. E. Borisov-Musatov

Philosophers are also born among artists. Every era knows such creators. They differ from others in their special vision of the world, understanding it in the categories: Good and Evil, Life and Death, Love and Hate, Earth and Space. Each object in their works is endowed with a soul, a thought, and speaks not only with other objects, but also with a person. For them, a person is a particle of the eternal and endless universe.

One of these artist-philosophers is Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov. He was our contemporary. 48 years have passed since his death. Since birth - 147.
The artist was born into the family of an icon painter in Saratov. The city was a merchant city. Its provincial appearance is far from a fairy tale. But Pavel Kuznetsov himself created a fairy tale. He was born a dreamer and visionary. On moonlit nights I liked to go to the central city square. There were fountains built by a visiting Englishman. Their heavy bowls in the ghostly yellow-blue light seemed almost airy. Thin pearlescent streams flowed from the depths, and the sphinxes that adorned the fountains seemed to come to life. They turned their inscrutable faces towards the boy, and he ran away with a mixed feeling of delight and fear...
If the nights gave Pavel Kuznetsov communication with the mysterious, then hot summer days gave the diversity and multicolor of real life. She came to his city along with caravans of calm camels and nomads in outlandish clothes. She brought with her the colors and smells of the Volga steppes, and alien speech. A different flow of time, different rhythms. The unrestrained color was combined with the leisurely, slow movements of people.
Dreamy, poetic Pavel Kuznetsov became a painter.

In Saratov there was a Society of Lovers of Fine Arts and a Painting and Drawing Studio attached to it. This was very rare for the province of that time. Teachers V.V. Konovalov and G.P. Salvini-Baracci did not particularly torment students in their classes with endless studies. They took them to the Volga, into fields and forests. Nature, Kuznetsov recalled, “... raised... to the heights of creative excitement.”
As a nineteen-year-old boy, Pavel came to Moscow and entered the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. With great interest he visited the workshops of two major artists -
V. Serov and K. Korovin. The teachers were senior comrades. They exhibited their works together with the works of their students, and went with them to sketches.
He was interested in everything in the capital - new exhibitions, plays, poetry evenings, philosophical debates, lectures on art and music. Future painters also showed themselves in many ways.
Kuznetsov painted scenery at the Bolshoi Theater and staged amateur performances. While still at school, he accomplished a lot. He took part in several exhibitions and traveled to the North. In 1906 he went to Paris.
This city, always thirsty for something new, discovered Russian art. Russian operas and ballets were staged in its theaters; icons, portraits of the 18th century, and paintings by contemporaries were shown at the Salon. They were brought to the French capital by Kuznetsov. He studied Paris, and Paris studied young Muscovites, including him. Nine of the artist’s works attracted the interest of the French press. He was recognized and one of the few Russian artists elected as a member of the Autumn Salon.
Pavel Kuznetsov returned to his native school not as a student, but as a famous artist.
What paintings allowed us to talk about Kuznetsov as a master with his own vision of the world and handwriting?
This is a series of paintings about fountains. I remembered the Saratov night impressions. The artist called his paintings about fountains and babies symphonies: “Morning”, “Spring”, “Blue Fountain” and others.

They are different, but connected by one motif - Eternal Spring. There is no earth and sky, but only strange, always bowed bushes of flowering trees. They seem to hug fountains. Their cups are always full. In a solemn, slow rhythm, shadow figures move towards them.
The colors of earth and sky, air and water, flowing into each other, seek their color essence. In the meantime, it’s as if they’re shrouded in a smoky veil.
Trying to solve the question for himself: what are the origins of life, the artist constantly varied this theme. He painted one picture after another. But at some point he realized that he was repeating himself. To move forward, he needed to understand life itself, and not just its origins. The familiar environment of Moscow with its exhibitions, meetings, and disputes began to weigh on him. In 1908, the artist left for the Kyrgyz steppes. And I realized: the huge sky, vast spaces, people with their homes, camels and sheep - everything speaks of the eternity of life. “Sleeping in a Shed”, “Mirage in the Steppe”, “Sheep Shearing”... On the new canvases there are no longer the same figures of people dozing and waiting by the bowls of the fountains. Sheep shearing, cooking, contemplating steppe mirages, sleeping in and near the sheds - everything is solemnly slow. The wisdom of this life is in the unity of three worlds: man, nature and animals.
For Kuznetsov, the embodiment of earthly wisdom is a woman - the main character of his paintings. It is she who is the source and center of life. Women in Kuznetsov’s works have no age, one is similar to the other and is repeated in the other, like grass in the steppe, or leaves on a steppe acacia.

Life in the steppe is harmonious and open - the color in the paintings of Pavel Kuznetsov is harmonious and open. Blue, green, cyan, red, yellow alternate with each other, repeating one another. They sound like the instruments of a large orchestra.
The artist returned to Moscow, amazed her with his steppe canvases and soon went to Samarkand and Bukhara.
He finally understood: everything that he saw in the Kyrgyz steppes and here, “... was one culture, one whole, imbued with the calm, contemplative mystery of the East.”
With the outbreak of the First World War, I had to forget about the planned trip to Italy and again to Bukhara. Something else lay ahead - first work in a prosthetic workshop, then service in the military office and, finally, ensign school.
In these years, when “...we had to arm ourselves with patience and spiritual strength,” when the work was extremely exhausting, and one kind of artificial arms and legs could make you forget about the beauty of the world, Pavel Kuznetsov painted the most joyful, bright canvases - still lifes. At night, when the tired artist stood at the easel, memory generously gave away what he had once seen. It was as if a bright ray of sunlight was bursting into the workshop. Crystal and porcelain vases, oriental fabrics and fruits, jugs and trays, mirrors and flowers appear on the canvases. The beam touched every object, and melons and apples filled with juice appeared. The crystal flashed with the colors of the rainbow, and the fabrics with outlandish patterns.
But why did people leave his paintings? Why did he fill all the space on the canvases only with objects? They either converged, as if in a round dance, or calmly rested on outstretched fabrics, reached out to empty houses, were reflected in mirrors and in each other. The objects seemed to want to renounce people engaged in war and the destruction of their own kind. War is always unnatural to the cycle of life. It was unnatural to Pavel Kuznetsov’s philosophy of life, and he protested as best he could.
Immediately after the October Revolution, the artist plunged headlong into social work. He was one of those who actively wanted to create a new, proletarian culture. He worked in the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities, in the commissions for the nationalization of private collections, in the artistic council of the Tretyakov Gallery, and in the theater board.
Eleven years later, he returns to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, teaches, and runs a workshop. In his youth, he wrote together with his teachers. Now he works with students on the streets and squares of Moscow. On the day of the celebration of the first anniversary of the October Revolution, a giant panel depicting Stepan Razin and his associates appeared on the facade of the Maly Theater. It was a joint work of Professor Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov and his students.
Social and pedagogical work did not reduce the creative tension of the master. He returned to the past with his memory. And the East again became the past. His new canvases combine Kyrgyz and Bukhara impressions. Familiar scenes and images appeared.

But now the memories did not hold Pavel Kuznetsov as sharply as before. The pulse of new life beat too strongly for the artist not to feel it. The main meaning of this life was creation. And the painter conceived a series of paintings united by the theme of labor.
In 1923, Pavel Kuznetsov was sent to Paris with his exhibition. She had to refute the opinion of the West that art has been destroyed in Russia. Kuznetsov brought about two hundred works to France: paintings, graphics, theater. It was an impressive exhibition that drew admiring reviews.
What topics worried the artist after his return? First of all, the theme of creation. Work in fields and vineyards, on tobacco plantations. The work of shepherds, builders, oil workers. Almost until old age, Pavel Varfolomeevich traveled around the country alone and with his students. He visited Crimean and Caucasian collective farms, the construction of Yerevan and Baku oil fields, and the cotton fields of Central Asia. But, working on new canvases, the artist now strived for authenticity and accuracy of natural impressions.
In 1930 he painted a large painting “Mother”. The wisdom of a mature artist crystallized in her. The main theme of the picture is work. A tractor moves across a huge field, leaving behind furrows of plowed land. Almost the entire space of the picture is occupied by the figure of the mother. She feeds the baby. And here, for the umpteenth time, the artist affirms the idea: a woman is the source of life, of everything that exists on Earth.
From ghostly women at fountain bowls, from steppe Madonnas, he came to this image. Pavel Varfolomeevich lived for almost forty more years and painted many paintings. But “Mother” is one of the central ones in his work of the Soviet period.
On the threshold of old age, he mentally returned to his previous works. I thought about them, analyzed them, criticized them. He was especially picky about those that remained in the workshop. I reworked and rewrote many of them. Some were completely destroyed.
Fairytale fountains were the dawn of his creative life, the Kyrgyz steppes were its day. The master’s last canvases with intimate, laconic still lifes seemed to flow with the rays of the setting sun. Sliding across the ground for the last time, they disappeared beyond the horizon...

(1878-1968)

Nature endowed P. V. Kuznetsov with a brilliant artistic gift and inexhaustible energy of the soul. The feeling of admiration for life did not leave the artist until old age. Art was a form of existence for him.

Kuznetsov could become familiar with the fine arts craft as a child, in the workshop of his father, an icon painter. When the boy’s artistic inclinations were clearly defined, he entered the Painting and Drawing Studio at the Saratov Society of Lovers of Fine Arts, where he studied for several years (1891-96) under the guidance of V.V. Konovalov and G.P. Salvi-ni-Baracca.

An extremely important event in his life was a meeting with V. E. Borisov-Musatov, who had a strong and beneficial influence on Saratov artistic youth.
In 1897, Kuznetsov brilliantly passed the exams at the Moscow School of Painting and Painting. He studied well, standing out not only for the brightness of his talent, but also for his genuine passion for work. During these years, Kuznetsov was under the spell of the pictorial artistry of K. A. Korovin; no less profound was the disciplinary influence of V. A. Serov.

At the same time, a group of students rallied around Kuznetsov, who later became members of the famous creative community “Blue Rose”. From impressionism to symbolism - this is the main trend that determined Kuznetsov’s searches in the early period of his creativity. Having paid tribute to plein air painting, the young artist sought to find a language that could reflect not so much the impressions of the visible world, but rather the state of the soul.
On this path, painting came close to poetry and music, as if testing the limits of visual possibilities. Among the important accompanying circumstances is the participation of Kuznetsov and his friends in the design of symbolist performances and collaboration in symbolist magazines.

In 1902, Kuznetsov with two comrades - K. S. Petrov-Vodkin and P. S. Utkin - undertook the experiment of painting in the Saratov Church of the Kazan Mother of God. Young artists did not constrain themselves by observing the canons, giving full rein to their imagination. The risky experiment caused a storm of public indignation and accusations of blasphemy - the paintings were destroyed, but for the artists themselves this experience became an important step in the search for new pictorial expressiveness.

By the time he graduated from MUZHVZ (1904), Kuznetsov’s symbolist orientation was completely determined. The picturesque discoveries of Borisov-Musatov acquired particular significance. However, the balance of the abstract and the concrete, which marks the best Musatov works, is not characteristic of Kuznetsov’s symbolism. The flesh of the visible world melts in his paintings, his pictorial visions are almost surreal, woven from shadow images denoting subtle movements of the soul. Kuznetsov's favorite motif is a fountain; The artist was fascinated by the spectacle of the water cycle as a child, and now memories of this are resurrected on canvases that vary the theme of the eternal cycle of life.

Like Musatov, Kuznetsov prefers tempera, but uses its decorative capabilities in a very original way, as if with an eye to the techniques of impressionism. The whitened shades of color seem to strive to merge into one whole: barely colored light - and the picture seems shrouded in colored fog ("Morning", "Blue Fountain", both 1905; "Birth", 1906, etc.).

Kuznetsov gained fame early on. The artist was not yet thirty when his works were included in the famous exhibition of Russian art organized by S. P. Diaghilev in Paris (1906). The obvious success led to Kuznetsov’s election as a member of the Autumn Salon (not many Russian artists received such an honor).

One of the most important events in Russian artistic life at the beginning of the century was the exhibition “Blue Rose”, opened in Moscow in the spring of 1907. Being one of the initiators of this action, Kuznetsov also acted as the artistic leader of the entire movement, which has since been called “Goluborozovsky”. In the late 1900s. the artist experienced a creative crisis. The strangeness of his work sometimes became painful; it seemed that he had exhausted himself and was unable to live up to the expectations placed on him. All the more impressive was the revival of Kuznetsov, who turned to the East.

Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich (1878-1968)

Nature endowed P. V. Kuznetsov with a brilliant artistic gift and inexhaustible energy of the soul. The feeling of admiration for life did not leave the artist until old age. Art was a form of existence for him.

Kuznetsov could become familiar with the fine arts craft as a child, in the workshop of his father, an icon painter. When the boy’s artistic inclinations were clearly defined, he entered the Painting and Drawing Studio at the Saratov Society of Lovers of Fine Arts, where he studied for several years (1891-96) under the guidance of V.V. Konovalov and G.P. Salvi-ni-Baracca.

An extremely important event in his life was his meeting with V. E. Borisov-Musatov, who had a strong and beneficial influence on Saratov artistic youth. In 1897, Kuznetsov brilliantly passed the exams at the Moscow School of Painting and Painting. He studied well, standing out not only for the brightness of his talent, but also for his genuine passion for work. During these years, Kuznetsov was under the spell of the pictorial artistry of K. A. Korovin; no less profound was the disciplinary influence of V. A. Serov.

At the same time, a group of students rallied around Kuznetsov, who later became members of the famous creative community “Blue Rose”. From impressionism to symbolism - this is the main trend that determined Kuznetsov’s searches in the early period of his creativity. Having paid tribute to plein air painting, the young artist sought to find a language that could reflect not so much the impressions of the visible world, but rather the state of the soul. On this path, painting came close to poetry and music, as if testing the limits of visual possibilities. Among the important accompanying circumstances is the participation of Kuznetsov and his friends in the design of symbolist performances and collaboration in symbolist magazines.

In 1902, Kuznetsov with two comrades - K. S. Petrov-Vodkin and P. S. Utkin - undertook the experiment of painting in the Saratov Church of the Kazan Mother of God. Young artists did not constrain themselves by observing the canons, giving full rein to their imagination. The risky experiment caused a storm of public indignation and accusations of blasphemy - the paintings were destroyed, but for the artists themselves this experience became an important step in the search for new pictorial expressiveness.

By the time he graduated from MUZHVZ (1904), Kuznetsov’s symbolist orientation was completely determined. The picturesque discoveries of Borisov-Musatov acquired particular significance. However, the balance of the abstract and the concrete, which marks the best Musatov works, is not characteristic of Kuznetsov’s symbolism. The flesh of the visible world melts in his paintings, his pictorial visions are almost surreal, woven from shadow images denoting subtle movements of the soul. Kuznetsov's favorite motif is a fountain; The artist was fascinated by the spectacle of the water cycle as a child, and now memories of this are resurrected on canvases that vary the theme of the eternal cycle of life.

Like Musatov, Kuznetsov prefers tempera, but uses its decorative capabilities in a very original way, as if with an eye to the techniques of impressionism. The whitened shades of color seem to strive to merge into one whole: barely colored light - and the picture seems shrouded in colored fog ("Morning", "Blue Fountain", both 1905; "Birth", 1906, etc.).

Kuznetsov gained fame early on. The artist was not yet thirty when his works were included in the famous exhibition of Russian art organized by S. P. Diaghilev in Paris (1906). The obvious success led to Kuznetsov’s election as a member of the Autumn Salon (not many Russian artists received such an honor).

One of the most important events in Russian artistic life at the beginning of the century was the exhibition “Blue Rose”, opened in Moscow in the spring of 1907. Being one of the initiators of this action, Kuznetsov also acted as the artistic leader of the entire movement, which has since been called “Goluborozovsky”. In the late 1900s. the artist experienced a creative crisis. The strangeness of his work sometimes became painful; it seemed that he had exhausted himself and was unable to live up to the expectations placed on him. All the more impressive was the revival of Kuznetsov, who turned to the East.

The artist’s wanderings across the Volga steppes and trips to Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent played a decisive role. At the very beginning of the 1910s. Kuznetsov performed with the paintings "Kyrgyz Suite", which marked the highest flowering of his talent ("Sleeping in a Shed", 1911; "Sheep Shearing", "Rain in the Steppe", "Mirage", "Evening in the Steppe", all 1912, etc. ). It was as if a veil had been lifted from the artist’s eyes: his coloring, without losing its exquisite nuance, was filled with the power of contrasts, the rhythmic pattern of the compositions acquired the most expressive simplicity.

The contemplation characteristic of Kuznetsov by the nature of his talent gives the paintings of the steppe cycle a pure poetic sound, lyrically penetrating and epically solemn. Adjacent in time to these works, the “Bukhara Series” (“Teahouse”, 1912; “Bird Bazaar”, “In the Buddhist Temple”, both 1913, etc.) demonstrates an increase in decorative qualities, evoking theatrical associations.

In those same years, Kuznetsov painted a number of still lifes, among them the excellent “Still Life with Japanese Engraving” (1912). Kuznetsov's growing fame contributed to the expansion of his creative activity. The artist was invited to participate in the painting of the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, and executed sketches ("Gathering Fruits", "Asian Bazaar", 1913-14), but they remained unfulfilled. In 1914, Kuznetsov collaborated with A. Ya. Tairov in the first production of the Chamber Theater - the play "Sakuntala" by Kalidasa, which was a great success. Developing the rich potential of Kuznetsov as a decorator, these experiences undoubtedly influenced his easel painting, which increasingly gravitated toward the style of monumental art (“Fortune telling,” 1912; “Evening in the Steppe,” 1915; “At the Source,” 1919-20; “Uzbek woman”, 1920; “Poultry house”, early 1920s, etc.).

During the years of the revolution, Kuznetsov worked with great enthusiasm. He took part in the design of revolutionary festivities, in the publication of the magazine "The Path of Liberation", conducted pedagogical work, and dealt with many artistic and organizational problems. His energy was enough for everything. During this period, he creates new variations of oriental motifs, marked by the influence of ancient Russian painting; Among his best works are the magnificent portraits of E. M. Bebutova (1921-22); At the same time, he published the lithographic series “Turkestan” and “Mountain Bukhara” (1922-23). Attachment to a selected range of subjects did not exclude the artist’s lively reaction to current reality.

Inspired by a trip to Paris, where his exhibition was organized in 1923 (together with Bebutova), Kuznetsov wrote “Paris Comedians” (1924-25); in this work, his inherent decorative laconicism of style turned into unexpectedly sharp expression. New discoveries brought about the artist’s trips to the Crimea and the Caucasus (1925-29). Saturated with light and energetic movement, the space of his compositions acquired depth; such are the famous panels “Grape Harvesting” and “Crimean Collective Farm” (both 1928). During these years, Kuznetsov persistently sought to expand his plot repertoire, turning to the themes of labor and sports.

His stay in Armenia (1930) brought to life a series of paintings that, in the artist’s own words, embodied “the collective pathos of monumental construction, where people, machines, animals and nature merge into one powerful chord.” Despite all the sincerity of his desire to respond to the social order, Kuznetsov could not completely satisfy the orthodoxies of the new ideology, who often subjected him to harsh criticism for “aestheticism,” “formalism,” etc. The same accusations were addressed to other masters of the “Four Arts” association (1924- 31), of which Kuznetsov was a founding member and chairman. Works created in the late 1920s and early 1930s. (including “Portrait of the sculptor A. T. Matveev”, 1928; “Mother”, “Bridge over the Zang-gu River”, both 1930; “Cotton Sorting”, “Pushball”, both 1931) - the last high rise of creativity Kuznetsova. The master was destined to far outlive his peers, but even after reaching old age, he did not lose his passion for creativity.

In his later years, Kuznetsov was mainly occupied with landscape and still life. And although the works of recent years are inferior to previous ones, Kuznetsov’s creative longevity cannot but be considered an exceptional phenomenon.

Artist's paintings

White Night

In the steppe 1

In the steppe

Spring in Crimea

Divination

Road to Alupka

Woman in Bukhara

Woman with a dog

Mother's love

Mirage in the steppe

Still life "Bukhara".

Painter, graphic artist, set designer

Born into the family of an icon painter. He received his initial artistic education in his father's workshop. In 1891–1896 he studied at the Drawing School of the Society of Lovers of Fine Arts under V. V. Konovalov and G. P. Salvini-Baracca. I met V. E. Borisov-Musatov, often visited his workshop (therefore, in Kuznetsov’s early works one can feel the influence of Borisov-Musatov’s art). In 1897 he entered the Moscow School of Painting and Painting, studied with A. E. Arkhipov, N. A. Kasatkin, L. O. Pasternak, then in the workshop of V. A. Serov and K. A. Korovin. He also worked in Korovin's private workshop. In 1900–1901 for pictorial sketches, in 1901–1902 for drawings he was awarded two small silver medals.

He organized an art group at the School, later called “Blue Rose”. During his apprenticeship at MUZHVZ, he met S.I. Mamontov, V.D. Polenov, A.Ya. Golovin. He repeatedly visited Mamontov’s house in Butyrki and Abramtsevo, worked in a ceramic workshop, mastering the technique of majolica. With the assistance of Mamontov, he made a trip to the North (via Arkhangelsk, around Scandinavia). In 1900, together with P. S. Utkin and M. S. Saryan, he traveled along the Volga.

In 1902, together with N. N. Sapunov, he performed the scenery for R. Wagner’s opera “Die Walküre” for the Bolshoi Theater. In the same year, together with Utkin and K. S. Petrov-Vodkin, he created a painting of the Church of the Kazan Mother of God in Saratov.

In 1904 he graduated from the Moscow School of Painting and Painting with the title of non-class artist. He was one of the organizers of the exhibition “Scarlet Rose” in Saratov, held in 1904. In 1905, together with Borisov-Musatov, M. A. Vrubel, V. V. Kandinsky, he took part in the 12th exhibition of the Moscow Association of Artists, in 1906 - in exhibition "World of Art" in St. Petersburg. He took a trip to Paris, studied at the “free academies” and art schools in Montparnasse. Participated in an exhibition of Russian artists in Paris, organized by S. P. Diaghilev. From 1907 (to 1917) - member of the Free Aesthetics association. In 1907 he exhibited his works at the Symbolist exhibition “Blue Rose” in Moscow, and became one of the leaders of the society of the same name.

In 1905–1909 he worked a lot in the field of book and magazine graphics, collaborated with the magazines “Iskusstvo” and “Golden Fleece”. In 1907–1909 he painted decorative panels for the villa of N.P. Ryabushinsky “Black Swan”. In the late 1900s - early 1910s, together with Utkin, A. T. Matveev and E. E. Lanceray, he created the decorative design of Ya. E. Zhukovsky's villa New Kuchuk-Koy in the Crimea.

In 1907 to 1914 he repeatedly traveled to the East, to the Kyrgyz steppes, Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent. In 1913–1914 he worked on sketches of decorative panels for the Kazansky railway station in Moscow. In 1914–1915 he collaborated with A. Ya. Tairov at the Moscow Chamber Theater.

After the revolution, he headed the art section of the Moscow City Council, participated in the propaganda decoration of Moscow for various festivals in 1917 and 1918. In 1918 he was elected a member of the Board and the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat for Education. He taught at the First and Second State Free Art Workshops. In 1920–1927 - professor of the monumental workshop of VKHUTEMAS, from 1927 to 1929 - professor of the fresco-monumental department of the painting faculty of VKHUTEIN.

In 1923 he made a trip to Paris in connection with the organization of a personal exhibition at the Barbazange gallery. In 1925 he became one of the founding members of the “4 Arts” association. In 1929 he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In the same year, Kuznetsov’s personal exhibitions were held at the State Tretyakov Gallery, and in 1931 at the State Museum of Fine Arts. In 1937, for the panel “Life of a Collective Farm” he was awarded a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. In the 1930s - 1940s he was involved in teaching a lot. In 1939–1941 he worked at the Institute for Advanced Studies for Arts of the Moscow City Executive Committee, in 1945–1948 he was a professor of painting at the Moscow School of Art and Industry.

He repeatedly made creative trips, in 1925–1929 - to the Crimea and the Caucasus, 1930 - Armenia, 1931 - Azerbaijan, 1934 - Donbass, 1935 - Mariupol, 1936 - Michurinsk, in 1947-1966 he repeatedly visited the Baltic states.

The artist’s personal exhibitions took place in 1935, 1940, 1941, 1956–1957, 1964, 1968; posthumous - in 1971, 1978, 1990, 2003 in Moscow, Leningrad, Saratov.

Kuznetsov lived a long life, his work knew ups and downs, there were years of brilliant success and almost complete lack of recognition. He is one of the most significant representatives of symbolism in Russian painting. The heyday of creativity occurred in the 1900s - 1910s. In the 1920s, Kuznetsov moved away from the aesthetics of symbolism, but retained the characteristic features of his individual style: decorative color combined with a neo-primitivist interpretation of the plot. Despite the specific themes of his late work (for example, oil construction in Baku), the master’s works are difficult to attribute to the official direction of Soviet art.

Kuznetsov's work is presented in major museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin and others.