Natalya Goncharova is an abstract artist who represents quite rare female avant-garde art. Her life and work are a vivid reflection of the trends in the development of society and culture of the 20th century. Her paintings today are worth a lot of money, and at one time she was persecuted and criticized for her special view of the world.
Childhood and origins
Natalya Goncharova was born on June 4, 1881 in the village of Ladyzhino, Tula Region, on her grandmother's estate, which was located not far from Yasnaya Polyana. According to her father, Natalya goes back to the Goncharov family, from where Pushkin's wife, the namesake of the artist Natalya Goncharova, came from. Their lineage comes from the merchant Afanasy Abramovich, the founder of a linen factory in the Kaluga region. Natalia's grandmother came from the family of the famous mathematician P. Chebyshev.
The artist's father Sergei Mikhailovich was an architect, a representative of Moscow Art Nouveau. Mom Ekaterina Ilyinichna is the daughter of a Moscow professor at the Theological Academy. Childhood girlspent on an estate in the provinces, and this forever instilled in her a love of rural life. Contact with folk art left a mark on her worldview, and this is precisely what art critics explain such a decorative effect of her work. When the girl was 10 years old, the family moved to Moscow.
Study
Upon arrival in Moscow, Natalya Goncharova, an artist in the future, enters the women's gymnasium, which she graduated in 1898 with a silver medal. Despite the fact that the girl had an undoubted inclination for drawing, she did not seriously consider the possibility of becoming an artist in her youth. After graduating from the gymnasium, she looked for herself, tried to work in medicine, tried to study at the university, but all this did not fascinate her. In 1900, she became very interested in art and a year later entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in the sculpture class of S. Volnukhin and P. Trubetskoy.
Study was good for her, in 1904 she even received a small silver medal for her work, but soon left school. In 1903, she went on a creative business trip to the Crimea and Tiraspol, where she earned money by drawing posters for an agricultural exhibition, and also painted sketches and watercolors in an impressionistic manner.
Artist Mikhail Larionov advised her not to waste time on sculpture and take up painting: “Open your eyes to your eyes. You have a talent for color, and you are into form,” he said. The meeting with Larionov changed her life and intentions, she begins to write a lot and look for her own style.
In 1904, Goncharova returned to her studies, but moved to the painting studio of K. Korovin. The girl did not abandon the sculpture and in 1907 she received another medal. In 1909, Natalia finally decides to stop her studies, considering other horizons before her.
Rayism
Together with Mikhail Larionov, Natalya Goncharova, an artist whose biography is now forever associated with the new art, in the early 1910s becomes the founder of the avant-garde movement in painting - Rayonism. This trend called for a return to the original sources of ancient Russian art. Of particular importance was the rhythm of folklore, music opened up access to the historical memory of a person and awakened artistic imagination.
A person, according to Goncharova and Larionov, perceives the world as a set of intersecting rays, and the artist's task is to convey this vision with the help of colored lines. Goncharova's early works were very bright and expressive. She was not only imbued with the idea of Rayonism, but also sought to embody all the new ideas that culture abounded at that time.
Creative biography
Since 1906, Natalia Goncharova, an artist whose photographs can now be seen in the catalogs of the most prestigious museums in the world, began to write very intensively. A trip to Paris, where she was inspired by the works of the Fauvists and P. Gauguin, makes her move away from impressionism and turn her eyes to new trends. A keen artist tries herself in primitivism (“Washing the Canvas”, 1910), cubism (“Portrait of M. Larionov”, 1913),abstraction.
Much later, art critics will say that such throwing did not allow her to develop the full power of her talent. At the same time, she is very productive and active. From 1908 to 1911 she gave private lessons in the art studio of the painter I. Mashkov. Natalya also returns to arts and crafts: she paints drawings for wallpapers, draws up friezes of houses. The artist participates in the activities of the Futurist Society, collaborating with V. Khlebnikov and A. Kruchenykh.
In 1913, Goncharova starred in the experimental film "The Lady in the Futurist Cabaret No. 13", the tape has not been preserved. The only surviving frame shows naked Goncharova in the arms of M. Larionov. In 1914, she again visited Paris at the invitation of S. Diaghilev. In 1915, the artist faced serious censorship difficulties. In 1916, he received an offer to paint a church in Bessarabia, but the war prevented these plans.
Exhibition activity
In the 1910s, Goncharova exhibited a lot, participated in the activities of art societies. In 1911, together with M. Larionov, she organized the exhibition "Jack of Diamonds", in 1912 - "Donkey's Tail", "Salon of the Golden Fleece", "World of Art", "Targets", "No. 4". The artist was a member of the Munich Blue Rider Society. Goncharova actively supported numerous actions and undertakings of that time. Together with the futurists, she walked around St. Petersburg with a painted face, starred in their films. Almost all of these events, including exhibitions, ended in scandals and a challengepolice.
In 1914, a large personal exhibition of Goncharova's works took place, 762 canvases were exhibited here. But there was also a scandal: part of the work was withdrawn on charges of immorality and insulting public taste.
The reason for such excesses at avant-garde events was often Natalya Goncharova, an artist whose exhibition of works was last held in Russia in 1915. After that, Russia never again saw solo exhibitions of this original artist.
Censorship and restrictions
In 1910, at the exhibition of the Society for Free Aesthetics, Natalia Goncharova, an artist whose work has been recognized as immoral more than once, shows several paintings with naked women in the spirit of Paleolithic Venus. The works were arrested on charges of pornography, which was not typical for Tsarist Russia of that period, when works of art were not subject to censorship. After another scandal, Natalya's father writes an open letter to the newspaper, in which he reproached critics for not seeing the living spirit of creativity in his daughter's work.
In 1912, at the famous exhibition "Donkey's Tail" Natalya Goncharova, an artist with an established reputation as an avant-garde artist, exhibited a cycle of 4 paintings "Evangelists". This work infuriated the censors with its non-trivial depiction of the saints. In 1914, 22 works were removed from the artist's personal exhibition, after which the censors even went to court, accusing Goncharova of blasphemy against shrines. They stood up for hermany artists of that time: I. Tolstoy, M. Dobuzhinsky, N. Wrangel. Thanks to lawyer M. Khodasevich, the case was won, and the censorship ban was lifted. Goncharova complained to her friends that they did not understand her, that she was driven by true faith in God.
Goncharova - illustrator
Natalia Goncharova is an artist who tried herself in various forms of manifestation. Her friendship with the Futurists led her into book graphics. In 1912, she designed the books by A. Kruchenykh and V. Khlebnikov "Mirskonets", "Game in Hell". In 1913 - the work of A. Kruchenykh “Blown up”, “The Hermits. Hermits” and the collection “Ten of Judges No. 2” of the book by K. Bolshakov. Goncharova was one of the first book graphic artists in Europe to use the collage technique. In some of her works, she acts on an equal footing with writers.
For example, the book by A. Kruchenykh "Two Poems" contains 14 drawings on seven pages, which form the idea of the work to the same extent as words. Later, already abroad, N. Goncharova created illustrations for The Tale of Igor's Campaign for a German publishing house and for The Tale of Tsar S altan.
Emigration
In 1915, Natalya Sergeevna Goncharova (avant-garde artist), together with her life partner M. Larionov, left for Paris to work with the Sergei Diaghilev Theater. The revolution prevented them from returning to Russia. They settled in the Latin Quarter of Paris, where the entire color of the Russian emigration visited.
In France, the couple organically joined the circle of local bohemia. Youngpeople organized charity balls for aspiring painters. Nikolai Gumilyov often visited Goncharova-Larionov's house, later Marina Tsvetaeva, who became very friends with Natalya Sergeevna.
Goncharova worked very hard during the years of forced emigration, but in Russia she no longer experienced such a creative explosion as in the 10s. Although her cycles "Peacocks", "Magnolias", "Prickly Flowers" speak of her as a mature and developing painter.
Theatrical works
Natalia Goncharova is an artist whose theater has become a real vocation. She worked with A. Tairov at the Chamber Theater on the production of "Fan". This work was highly appreciated by V. Meyerhold. Also in the 10s, she began to collaborate with S. Diaghilev, designing productions in his Russian Seasons. In Paris, she works with the ballets The Firebird, Spain, The Wedding. Goncharova continues to collaborate with this theater even after the death of the impresario.
Best work
There are not so many women artists in the world, especially successful ones. One of these unique ladies was Natalia Goncharova. The artist, whose Spanish flu was sold for more than £6 million, left a rich legacy. Her works are in many of the largest museum and private collections in the world. The best works include: "Washing the canvas", "Picking apples", a series of "Spanish flu", "Phoenix", "Forest", "Airplane over the train". Natalya Goncharova is the female artist with the highest cost of paintings. Her work "Picking Apples" (1909) was auctioned for almost 5 millionpounds sterling.
Private life
Natalya Goncharova is an artist whose personal life is very closely intertwined with her creative one. While still at school, she met Mikhail Larionov, and connected her fate with him for life. They were like-minded people, friends, very close people. Even when in Paris Larionov is fond of Alexandra Tomilina, the couple stays together. In 1955, they registered a marriage, although Larionov continued to have relations with Tomilina. All lived in the same house, but on different floors. And once, colliding on the stairs with the aging, weak wife of her lover, Tomilina pushed Natalya Sergeevna. This fall hastened Goncharova's death. On October 17, 1962, an outstanding Russian artist left the world. She was buried in the Parisian Ivry cemetery.
