Why the paintings of the most expensive artist in the world today, Natalya Goncharova, were arrested 100 years ago right at exhibitions

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Considering creativity Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova - avant-garde artists, representatives of the Rayon movement, the flagship of Russian modernism, a sculptor and decorator, one involuntarily asks the question: I think it’s unlikely … And the church blamed her for the extraordinary solution of church plots, and the public for promoting porn.

The works of Goncharova are very far from the extravagant works of the avant-garde artists of that time, but much closer to primitivism and realism, which does not allow them to be considered truly avant-garde. However, a huge PR around the artist's work was inflated by people who have works by Natalya Sergeevna in their collections. And it is very curious that in 2011 it suddenly became clear that more than 300 paintings attributed to Goncharova are fakes. And then another question arises:

But be that as it may, Goncharova is today a world-famous artist, whose paintings are sold at incredibly fabulous prices in the art market. According to statistics, her work "Flowers" (1912) was sold at Christie's in 2008 for more than $ 10, 9 million, the painting "Spanish Woman" (1916) in 2010 - for $ 10, 7 million, and "Picking Apples" (1909) in 2007 - for $ 9.8 million.

Private bussiness

Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) - daughter of the Moscow architect Sergei Mikhailovich Goncharov, who belongs to a noble family; great-uncle of A. S.'s wife Pushkin Natalia Goncharova.

Having spent her childhood in the countryside, she will always regret later that she had lived all her life in large cities, while she would have preferred a rural life. Indeed, in the future, the artist will always be attracted by the theme of the peasantry. All her life, striving to learn the essence of the people's creativity, she collected popular prints, stone women.

Natalia graduated from high school with a silver medal, then studied for 3 days in medical courses and half a year at the Faculty of History before she found her calling. In 1901, in the status of a volunteer, Goncharova entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Department of Sculpture. There she met her future husband M. F. Larionov. It was he who advised her not to waste time on sculpture and take up painting. - he said. And Natalia moved to the painting department, where Konstantin Korovin became her mentor, but she also did not leave the sculpture.

In 1909, Natalia Goncharova stopped paying for her studies, for which she was expelled. However, by this time she had already started selling her paintings and teaching at the Painting and Drawing Studio, as well as exhibiting at art exhibitions.

The first personal exhibition of Goncharova in 1910, where 22 of her canvases were presented, lasted a little longer than a day. Several of the presented works in the nude genre were confiscated by the police, and the exhibition was closed. The artist herself was charged with distributing pornography, but was later acquitted in court. Natalia never worked in this genre again.

It was difficult to understand why they were so up in arms against Goncharova, but in all likelihood one of the reasons was that for women artists at that time there was an unspoken taboo that limited the possibilities of working on nude.

Natalia destroyed the stereotypes of "female" behavior not only in painting, but also in life: she wore shirts that looked more like work clothes, trousers and a cap, starred in the futuristic film "Drama in Cabaret No. 13" with bare breasts.

A year later, at one of the exhibitions of "Jack of Diamonds", another painting by Goncharova, "The God of Fertility", was confiscated. A year later, the Orthodox Church issued an official ban on the series of works "Evangelists" at the "Donkey's Tail" exhibition - the official pretext for the ban was that the subjects of the paintings did not correspond to the title of the exhibition.

In 1914, the organizers of the opening of the exhibition of the artist had already agreed in advance on the list of exhibited works by Goncharova. However, not two days will pass before an anonymous review will appear condemning the use of avant-garde techniques to depict religious subjects.

The scandal undoubtedly broke out again, and the clergy demanded the immediate closure of the exhibition. But this time Count I. I. Tolstoy, vice-president of the Academy of Arts Nikolai Wrangel and artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. And the spiritual dignitaries had to retreat. The Synod issued a verdict that the artist "revives the technique of ancient Byzantine masters" and the scandal hesitated by itself.

Most of Goncharova's exhibitions provoked aggression from the press, censorship, or offended public. The artist's father, speaking in defense of his daughter, wrote an open letter to the newspaper, in which he was indignant:

In 1915, a year after her last clash with the censorship, Natalia Goncharova, along with her husband Mikhail Larionov, at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev, briefly moved to France to work on the Russian seasons, but in the end the artists decided to stay in France. Later, the revolution prevented them from returning to Russia.

They settled in the Latin Quarter of Paris, where the whole bloom of the Russian emigration loved to be. Goncharova and Larionov organized charity balls for aspiring painters. Nikolai Gumilyov and Marina Tsvetaeva often visited their house.

In the 50s, Goncharova worked a lot, her cycles "Peacocks", "Magnolias", "Thorny Flowers" speak of her as a mature painter. It is especially curious that she worked in a very wide range. And in general, it seems that she worked in general in all styles.

And in the 60s, there was a revival of wide interest in the art of Larionov and Goncharova, their exhibitions were held in many countries and cities of Europe and America. The artist died in Paris in 1962.

However, after 100 years, Goncharova's work continues to cause controversy among the churchmen, who are still dissatisfied with the "descraralization of symbols", accuse the artist of outright shocking, "decorativeness without filling" and the like.

In part, there is some truth in this, since Goncharova was very fond of folk art, naive art and primitivism and was in search of her all her life. After all, this is the essence of the artist's profession - to implement themes through artistic methods.

At the beginning of the 20th century, not only Goncharova went through the path of creative formation, but also the art deco diva Tamara Lempicki, even during her lifetime thanks to her painting, who managed to become a millionaire.