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Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova (Russian: Любо́вь Серге́евна Попо́ва; April 24, 1889 – May 25, 1924) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist and Constructivist), painter and designer. She was also a rarity in the highly masculine world of Soviet art. Popova was born in Ivanovskoe, near Moscow, to the wealthy family of Sergei Maximovich Popov, a successful textile merchant and vigorous patron of the arts, and Liubov Vasilievna Zubova, who came from a highly cultured family. Popova Sergeyevna had two brothers and a sister: Sergei was the eldest, then Liubov, Pavel and Olga. Pavel became a philosopher and the guardian of his sister's artistic legacy. She grew up with a strong interest in art, especially Italian Renaissance painting. At eleven years old she began formal art lessons at home; by the age of 18 she was studying with Stanislav Zhukovsky, and in 1908 entered the private studios of Konstantin Yuon and Ivan O. Dudin. Popova traveled widely to investigate and learn from diverse styles of painting, but it was the ancient Russian Icons, the paintings of Giotto, and the works of the 15th and 16th century Italian painters which interested her the most. In 1909 she traveled to Kiev, then in 1910 to Pskov and Novgorod. The following year she visited other ancient Russian cities, including St. Petersburg, to study icons. In 1912 she worked in a Moscow studio known as "The Tower" with Ivan Aksenov and Vladimir Tatlin, and also visited Sergei Shchukin's collection of modern French paintings. In 1912 – 1913 she studied art with Nadezhda Udaltsova in Paris, where she met Alexander Archipenko and Ossip Zadkine in 1913. After returning to Russia that same year, she worked with Tatlin, Udaltsova and the Vesnin brothers. In 1914 she traveled in France and Italy at the development of Cubism and Futurism. Through a synthesis of styles Popova worked towards what she termed painterly architectonics. After first exploring Impressionism, by 1913, in Composition with Figures, she was experimenting with the particularly Russian development of Cubo-Futurism: a fusion of two equal influences from France and Italy. From
1914 – 1915
her Moscow home became the meeting place for artists and
writers. In 1914 – 1916 Popova together with other avant-garde artists (Aleksandra
Ekster, Nadezhda
Udaltsova, Olga
Rozanova) contributed to the two Knave
of
Diamonds exhibitions,
in
Petrograd Tramway
V and the 0.10, The Store in Moscow. Her
painting The Violin of 1914 suggests the
development from Cubism towards the "painterly architectonics" series
of 1916 – 1918. This series defined her distinct artistic trajectory in abstract form. The canvas surface is
an energy field of overlapping and intersecting angular planes in a
constant state of potential release of energy. At the same time the
elements are held in a balanced and proportioned whole as if linking
the compositions of the classical past to the future. Colour is used as
the iconic focus; the strong primary colour at the centre drawing the
outer shapes together. In 1916
she joined the Supremus group with Kazimir
Malevich, the founder of Suprematism, Aleksandra
Ekster, Ivan
Kliun, Nadezhda
Udaltsova, Olga
Rozanova, Ivan
Puni, Nina
Genke, Ksenia
Boguslavskaya and
others who at this time worked in Verbovka
Village
Folk Centre. The creation of a new kind of painting was
part of the revolutionary urge of the Russian
avant-garde to
remake the world. The term 'supreme' refers to a 'non-objective' or
abstract world beyond that of everyday reality. However there was a
tension between those who, like Malevich saw art as a spiritual quest,
and others who responded to the need for the artist to create a new
physical world. Popova embraced
both of these ideals but eventually identified herself
entirely with the aims of the Revolution working in poster, book
design, fabric and theatre design, as well as
teaching. At 0.10 she had exhibited a number
of figurative painted cardboard reliefs in a cubist derived style. In
1916 she began to paint completely abstract Suprematist compositions,
but the title 'Painterly Architectonics' (which she gave to many of her
paintings) suggests that, even as a Suprematist, Popova was more
interested in painting as a projection of material reality than as the
personal expression of a metaphysical reality. Popova's superimposed
planes and strong colour have the objective presence of actual space
and materials. In 1918
Popova married the art historian Boris von Eding, and gave birth to a
son. Von Eding died the following year of typhoid fever. Popova was
also seriously ill but recovered. As early
as 1917 in parallel with her Suprematist work, she had made fabric
designs and worked on Agitprop books and posters. In the Tenth State Exhibition:
Non Objective Creativity and Suprematism, 1918, she contributed the
architectonic series of paintings . She continued painting advanced
abstract works up to 1921. Then in 1921 in 5 x 5 Exhibition, statements
by
Popova and her four fellow Constructivists were made declaring that
easel painting was to be abandoned and all creative work was to be for
the people and the making of the new society. From
1921 – 24 Popova became entirely involved in Constructivist projects,
sometimes in collaboration with Varvara
Stepanova, the architect Alexander
Vesnin and Aleksandr
Rodchenko. She produced stage designs: Vsevolod
Meyerhold's production of Fernand Crommelynck's The Magnanamous Cuckold,
1922;
Her Spatial
Force Constructions were
used
as the basis of her art teaching theory at Vkhutemas.
She
designed typography of books, production art and textiles, and
contributed designs for dresses to LEF. Popova
died of scarlet
fever in 1924 in
Moscow. A large exhibition of her work opened in Moscow on December 21,
1924. Rodchenko/Popova:
Defining
Constructivism, an exhibition of Liubov Popova and
Aleksandr Rodchenko, her fellow Constructivist's, work was showing at
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, until 11 January 2010. |