Liubov Popova
1889-1924
Another female artist and giant of the avant garde, Popova was born near Moscow into a wealthy family. Aged 11 she began formal art lessons at home with subsequent enrolment in gymnasia. By the age of 18 she was studying with Stanislav Zhukovsky, and in 1908 she entered the private studios of Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Dudin. Even more crucial for her development was the period between 1912 to 1913 that she spent at the studios of the Cubist painters Henri Le Fauconnier and Jean Metzinger at Académie de La Palette in Paris.
After first exploring Impressionism, by 1913 Popova was one of the first female pioneers of the particularly Russian development of Cubo-Futurism – a fusion of two equal influences from France and Italy. Through this, using a synthesis of styles, she worked towards what she termed ‘painterly architectonics’.
From 1914–1915 her Moscow home became the meeting-place for artists and writers. Between 1914 and 1916 Popova together with other avant-garde artists (Aleksandra Ekster, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Olga Rozanova) contributed to the two ‘Knave of Diamonds’ exhibitions, Tramway V and 0.10.
In 1916 she joined the Supremus group with Kazimir Malevich: 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, fabric and theatre design.
From 1921 to 1924 Popova became entirely involved in Constructivist projects and her Spatial Force Constructions were used as the basis of her art teaching theory at Vkhutemas.
She died of scarlet fever two days after her son, from whom she had contracted the disease.
