Russian Ladies of the Avant-garde

Author: Linda DeLaine
Website: RL Online
Department:
Page: 2   ( 7) pages

Summary: Part II of this feature

Natalya Goncharova (1881-1962), determined to blur or erase totally the line between male and female artists, dressed in men's clothes and lived out of wedlock with fellow Mikhail Larionov. Natalya was the most dramatic of the group of women and, as the eldest, served as somewhat of a matriarch.

Natalya very early on was intrigued with Russian iconography (The Evangelists; 1911), peasant needlework (Linen; 1912) and folk art. This is reflected in most of her work. With Larionov, Natalya founded the Donkey's Tail, an artists group which was a break away from the Jack of Diamonds group. The latter was interested in studying European art styles, whereas the Donkey's Tail group focused on Russian contemporary art. Natalya's religious icons outraged the Russian Orthodox Church partly because her use of darker town and primitive figures, and the tradition that icons are typically written by monks or other religious individuals.

In 1912, Natalya began producing paintings in the Cubist style using interesting angles and different colored blocks to form her subjects. The following year, she began her Rayist work in which subjects in her paintings would appear as illuminated rays of color and light. Natalya was considered the first generation of Russian avant-garde. It is not completely clear how this differed from the second generation, except to say that the elder artist did not sympathize with the Bolshevik Revolution as did the younger members. Natalya left Soviet Russia and settled in Paris in 1917.

Aleksandra Ekster (1882 - 1949) was an upper class lady who was the wife of a successful lawyer. She was a personal friend to Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

During the pre-Revolution years, Alexandra travelled regularly to France and Italy. Her work from this period reflects the influence of these regions. By the mid-1910s, Aleksandra's work incorporated elements of the Cubist collage with a movement towards the Suprematist. By 1917/18, her paintings had evolved to the point where any recognizable objects were gone. Aleksandra's works had become studies in blocks of bright colors. Along with her contemporaries, Aleksandra displayed her work at the 1921 5 X 5 = 25 exhibition in Moscow. At this time, the artists declared an end to non-practical art and a new focus on industrial design or Constructivism. For Aleksandra, this may not have been by choice, but rather a means of survival under the new Soviet regime. She and her husband left the Soviet Union in 1924, after which little is known of her or any pieces she may have produced.

In 1912, Nadezhda Udaltsova (1885-1961) and Lyubov Popova (1889-1924) studied Cubism together at the Academie de la Palette in Paris. Nadezhda was married to fellow artist Alexander Drevin, while Lyubov's partner was artist Alexander Vesnin. Popova bore a child in 1924. Both she and the infant died from scarlet fever. Nadezhda's husband was arrested in the 1930s for not conforming with Socialist Realism. Thought to be in prison, Nadezhda carried out an exhausting campaign for his release. She didn't realize that Drevin had been shot soon after he was arrested.

Nadezhda was one of the best examples of a pure Cubist artist. In Moscow, her works were exhibited by the Jack of Diamonds artist group. In 1916, she began to work in the Suprematist style with textiles and instructed others in this venue.

Lyubov, too, began with very large Cubist works. She tended to use larger canvases and was more interested in the exploration of color than constitution. By 1921, Lyubov was working in the Constructivist style and displayed her work at the 5 X 5 = 25 exhibit in Moscow. After this show and until her death in 1924, Lyubov concentrated on production design for the experimental theatre and work with textiles.

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Amazons of the Avant-Garde
Alexandra Exter, John E. Bowlt (Editor)

Hardcover, 365pp.
Abrams,Harry N Inc
March 2000