Natalia Goncharova

Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (Russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Гончаро́ва; IPA: [nɐˈtalʲjə sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvnə ɡənt͡ɕɐˈrovə]; June 16, 1881 – October 17, 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubo-Futurism), painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Her great-aunt was Nataliya Nikolaevna Goncharova, wife of the poet Alexander Pushkin.

Life and work

The Donkey's Tail was conceived as an intentional break from European art influence and the establishment of an independent Russian school of modern art. However, the influence of Russian Futurism is much in evidence in Goncharova's later paintings. Initially preoccupied with icon painting and the primitivism of ethnic Russian folk-art, Goncharova became famous in Russia for her Futurist work such as The Cyclist and her later Rayonist works. As leaders of the Moscow Futurists, they organised provocative lecture evenings in the same vein as their Italian counterparts. Goncharova was also involved with graphic design—writing and illustrating a book in Futurist style.

Goncharova was a member of the Der Blaue Reiter avant-garde group from its founding in 1911. In 1915, she began to design ballet costumes and sets in Geneva. In 1915 she started work on a series of designs—Six Winged Seraph, Angel', St. Andrew, St. Mark, Nativity, and others—for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev to be titled Liturgy. Also involved in the project, for which Igor Stravinsky was invited to compose the score, were Larionov and Léonide Massine, but the ballet never materialized. Goncharova moved to Paris in 1921 where she designed a number of stage sets of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She also exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1921, and participated regularly at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des Indépendants.

Between 1922 and 1926 Goncharova created fashion designs for Marie Cuttoli's shop, Maison Myrbor on the Rue Vincent, Paris. Her richly embroidered and appliquéd dress designs were strongly influenced by Russian folk art, Byzantine mosaic and her work for the Ballets Russes.

She became a French citizen in 1939.

Goncharova died in Paris, in 1962.

Her work is held in

• the Museum of Modern Art.
• the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• the Tate
• The Israel Museum

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  Self-portrait (1907)

   

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  Women with rakes (1907)

   

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  Khorovod (1910)

   

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  Cyclist (1913)

   

Legacy

Portrait of Natalia Goncharova by Mikhail Larionov (1915)

On June 18, 2007, Goncharova's 1909 painting Picking Apples was auctioned at Christie's for $9.8 million, setting a record for any female artist.

In November 2007, Bluebells, (1909), brought £3.1 million ($6.2 million).

The record was updated a year later, when Goncharova's 1912 still-life The Flowers (formerly part of Guillaume Apollinaire's collection) sold for $10.8 million.

The copyright in the Estate of Natalia Goncharova is administered by ADAGP, Paris.