Goncharova, Nataliia

Born June 4, 1881, in Ladyshkino, Tula Province; died Oct. 17, 1962, in Paris. Russian painter, graphic artist, and theater artist.

Goncharova studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (from 1898). She took part in the exhibitions of the magazine Zolotoe runo and in several art associations, including the Jack of Diamonds (1910), Donkey’s Tail (1912), and Target (1913). She came under the influence of cubism and futurism. The crisis of Russian art of the prerevolutionary period is reflected in a number of her works. She was one of the creators of Russian primitivism (Washing Linen, 1910, in the Tret’iakov Gallery) and, with M. F. Larionov, of what was known as rayonnism (one of the first experiments with decorative abstract art).

From 1915, Goncharova lived in Paris. She designed the stage sets for S. Diaghilev’s private theater (1914–29). Her stage designs (Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or, 1914; Stravinsky’s The Firebird, 1926) were colorful and marked by lubok (cheap popular prints) expressionism.