In 1913 as part of the manifesto from her enormous Moscow exhibition Natalia Gontcharova says she will: “fear in painting neither literature nor illustration nor any other bugbears of contemporaneity; certain modern artists wish to create a painterly interest absent in their work by rejecting them. To endeavor, on the contrary, to express them vividly and positively by painterly means.”

Here are more of her words to go by, to help us in understanding just what she does and what differentiates her from the others of her generation. She wants to be literal and illustrative and to use her best abilities as a painter to manifest her stories. Yes? Do you agree? She creates narratives and storylines within individual paintings but more interestingly between works. There is a through line that we can read. A literal connection from one to the next. Her remakes are not do-overs but compliments and continuations. When Pablo Picasso executes his multiple versions of Lee Miller in 1937 (see visual aid) they don’t function as a narrative whole but as individual iterations. No story is told by his repetition, it is just the artist trying again. There’s a big difference between what Goncharova does and what Picasso does. ( I love Picasso as the opposite of Gontcharova because the contrast is so utterly consistent.)

This idea of narrative runs deep with Goncharova. It is all pervasive I would suggest. What I’m sharing today is another great example of how she changes the meaning of the work while still using the same imagery. We can read the changes between the two. It’s another self portrait. This is a remake of ‘Self Portrait and Portrait of Mikhail Larionov in Fancy Dress’ (private collection, Moscow) from 1906. If two weeks ago was the saddest self portrait then this one is certainly the most up lifting. We get to see her perception of Mikhail and herself as bold, adventurous avant-garde artists grown up from their younger, more modest post expressionistic selves. The remake is absolutely charged with electricity and verve while the first version is quiet and coy.

So on we go. More discoveries, more data, more to see. Are you getting it? Seeing what I’m putting out there? I would love to know what you’re thinking. It’s dialogue that I’m searching for. And I don’t mean social media dialogue. Call me. Let’s zoom. How many opportunities do we have to bring artistic meaning into the world? After all, without the participation of us, the viewers, art has no power, no impact, no worth.