Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova was one of the most active representatives of the new art. In 1911, she joined the first Saint Petersburg association of innovative artists — “Soyuz Molodyozhi” (Union of Youth).

The work “Saint Petersburg City” is one of the six original lithographs by Rozanova, which she created specifically for the third issue of the “Soyuz Molodyozhi” anthology. With a print run of 1000 copies, it was published on March 22, 1913, and became the first periodical devoted to avant-garde art.

For this third issue, Olga Rozanova also prepared a policy essay entitled “The Basics of New Creativity and the Reasons Behind Misunderstanding It”. In this publication, she fervently defended the right of artists to turn to abstract art and depict what they saw in a free manner.

The stylization of the cityscape in this lithograph is typical of other works by Rozanova created between 1912 and 1913, where objects seem to dissolve in a dissonance of rhythm. “Saint Petersburg City” is a striking example of the style of a Russian art movement called Cubo-Futurism.

The fusion of the aesthetics of Futurism and Cubism occurred as Russian artists passed through the stages of development of the styles simultaneously and in a short period of time. In 1917, in her article “Cubism. Futurism. Suprematism”, Olga Rozanova wrote,

Industrial motifs, that Futurists had a penchant for, were seldom depicted by Russian artists, influenced by the distrustful attitude towards the new age of urbanism, industry and speed, which had developed in the 19^thcentury. Olga Rozanova, on the other hand, painted modern cities a lot. Her paintings and drawings depict a merry chaos of apartment buildings, factory buildings with pipes, streetcars and passers-by.

Together with the Futurist poets, Rozanova participated in the creation of books, most of which were printed using lithography. This technique made it possible to achieve the unity of form and content, write the text by hand and combine it with drawings. The books she illustrated also contained many sketches of modern cities.