Natalia Goncharova – an artist who was called the “standard of shocking” and “Amazon of the avant-garde”

Natalia Goncharova (June 03, 1881 – October 17, 1962) is one of the few female artists recognized as outstanding avant-garde masters. Goncharova painted pictures, was engaged in graphics, illustrated printed publications. The creativity of the avant-garde artist delighted her contemporaries with her diversity – she became famous as a talented painter, designer and theater set designer, and her biography became another example of the sad fate of representatives of the Russian cultural community, who were forever cut off from their homeland at the beginning of the 20th century.

Natalia Goncharova strove for innovation in her work. One of the first in Russia, she began to write works in the style of cubism and became a pioneer of rayonism, a fundamentally new direction in painting. A bold experimenter, Goncharova combined elements of Russian icon painting, the art of the Eurasian peoples and motifs of the Ancient East in her creations.

Biography

Natalia’s father, the modernist architect Sergey Goncharov, is the heir to an old noble family, rooted in the Petrine era. The grandmother of the future artist was fond of painting all her life and gained some fame as a good portrait painter.

Natalya grew up in the countryside, spent a lot of time outdoors and painting. She received her secondary education at a women’s gymnasium in Moscow. After graduating from an educational institution in 1898, the girl had a strong desire to return to her native land, but she understood that she needed to get a profession.

Only in the mid-1900s did the young woman find her vocation by enrolling in the sculpture department of the Moscow School of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture.

In 1904, Goncharova’s sculptures received a silver award at a student exhibition, which did not prevent her from transferring to the painting class of Konstantin Korovin. Already in 1907, she became seriously interested in neo-primitivism, which was reflected in her work. Goncharova deliberately simplified her style, focusing on flat solutions.

Exhibitions

The first personal exhibition of the artist turned into accusations of pornography and proceedings with the police. Vernissage closed. Natalia had to prove her innocence in court. But among the futurists, Goncharova became a real celebrity and brought into fashion avant-garde drawings on faces and loose shirts. It was then that they started talking about her as a “standard of shocking”.

At the suggestion of Mikhail Larionov, Goncharova joined the Donkey Tail Art Society founded by another and was one of the first to join the Cubists. Natalya did not consider style to be a new word in art, but she was really fascinated by the Rayonism invented by Larionov. Thanks to the combination of special methods of color rendering, form and space, all images appeared to the audience in the form of rays reflected from the subject.

In 1913, the artist participated in several exhibitions at once, where she presented about eight hundred paintings, sculptures and design works. Finally, critics recognized Goncharova’s talent, and the Tretyakov Gallery acquired one of her paintings. At the same time, Sergei Diaghilev invited Natalia Goncharova to take part in the design of the performances of the Russian Seasons in Paris. During a visit to France, the civil spouses staged a joint exhibition at the gallery of the art dealer Paul Guillaume, which was enthusiastically received by the French press.

With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1914, the couple briefly returned to Russia.

For a year and a half, the avant-garde artist managed to release a series of mystical lithographs about the war, work at the Chamber Theater on the scenery for Carlo Goldoni’s play “Fans” and organize a solo exhibition. In 1915, at the insistent invitation of Diaghilev, Natalya, together with her common-law spouse, finally moved to Paris.

The artists became full members of the theater group, designed many performances, went on tour with the troupe. After the events of 1917, the couple realized that it was too dangerous to return to their homeland. In Paris, they rented a small apartment on the corner of the rue de Seine, where they lived for almost half a century. Cooperation with the Russian Ballet continued until the death of the founder of the troupe in 1929. The venerable stage designers did not remain without work and designed the scenery for other theaters, including for the enterprise of Ida Rubinstein.

The elderly artists formalized their relationship only in 1955. Despite her illness, Natalia Goncharova continued to work on the scenery, as there was a catastrophic lack of funds for life. Interest in the couple’s work re-awakened in the early 1960s. Museums actively bought their paintings, but the money could no longer restore health. Natalya Sergeevna died on October 17, 1962 at the eighty-second year of her life and was buried at the Ivry Parisien cemetery.