In the 1910s Falk joined the provocative artistic association ‘Jack of Diamonds’, its members spoke against the traditions of the academism and the realism of the 19th century. The ‘Jacks’ were inspired by the post-impressionism, the fauvism and the cubism, they painted in the figurative and pictorial style of Paul Cezanne.

Robert Falk’s was eager to express the volume of the image, he painted with angular brush strokes in rich saturated colours.

In order to accelerate the inner tension of his paintings Falk didn’t doubt to distort the depicted objects. In his words, he was eager “to emphasize the emotional expression with the help of the modified silhouettes”.

Falk’s early works differ from the cheerful paintings of the members of the ‘Jack of Diamonds’ Association, they are a kind of gloomy and have some hidden dramatic nature that was expressed not through the plot but through his techniques.

The painting Flowers that is exhibited at the Astrakhan Art Gallery represents Robert Falk’s artistic explorations. The decorative and avant-garde representation of the still-life painting makes viewers to think over the question: what is more beautiful – the nature as it is or its artistic depiction in a pretty artificial way? The objects painted by Falk can’t look like this in reality, only on canvas: the bright vivid colours of the paper-made roses are balanced by the white purity of the milk pot standing nearby.