I think it’s time to wrap it up here on linkedin. It’s been nearly six months that I’ve been posting every Monday. That’s a lot of posts! Have you learned anything about Natalia Gontcharova? I hope so. I suppose my main goal in doing this here has been to, in part anyway, address the idea of AUTHENTICITY in her work and what we ought to look for when determining it. Because as I have said over and over, she is not reliant on a personal STYLE when she creates but rather is focused on MEANING. She is largely unique in this respect. 99.9 percent of her contemporaries repeat their INDIVIDUALISTIC style over and over again.You can prove this concept to yourself just by being a student of her work. Trace her progress as an artist and you will see that she moves through styles. Style is a matter of surface only and thus just a tool in her artistic arsenal. This is why Rayism the non objective style that she and Larionov invented circa 1910 was just as quickly abandoned or rather absorbed into their practice. Ultimately no focused meaning can be conveyed by non objective art. The human brain does not ‘get it’ no matter what the painter’s idea was behind it. If we can’t see the idea then....it’s really just color and shape. If you are Natalia Goncharova and what you want is to communicate and tell stories, present specific meaning, you need to paint things we recognize. People, places, situations, things we all know and can relate to. So if you get stuck on a work of hers, think you recognize it, don’t immediately dismiss it as a copy or a fake, look twice, look below the surface and be sure it’s not her playing with your expectations and offering a new chapter in our collective human story. It’s not about you and your individual perceptions, it’s about truth and beauty.

Today’s post is another on an image from her investigation of the Orthodox Liturgy as a theme. I wrote it several years ago and it’s interesting for me to see how what I was saying then has just gotten more and more reinforced as Ive learned and discovered more about her. The seeds bear fruit.

And Thank You to all who have participated in one way or another these last few months! It’s been such a great pleasure to get to know some of you a little bit and I look forward to more real life contact to ensue! Cheers!