“I wish to create with an enduring legitimacy and an exact definition of the achieved both for myself and for others.” Natalia Gontcharova 1913
As I read and reread her manifesto from her epic 1913 Moscow exhibition, it was the above statement that resonated most with me in terms of developing a true understanding of her work and i refer to over and over. Although every bit of that manifesto essentially is carried out as her career unfolds, this one specific piece gives us so much to go on. Let’s break it down a little.
As a former practicing artist myself i always felt forced by the circumstances of my own solo exhibition to apply words to what i hoped was self evident work. It was awkward and hell...I was an artist because I didn’t want to use words. I wanted to be nonverbal. The work speaks for itself right? Not so much evidently because here I am but for Goncharova, words and painting go hand in hand and she emphasizes the literary and descriptive in her work. She also says as part of the same 1913 manifesto that she wants ‘To fear in painting neither literature nor illustration nor any other bug-bears of contemporanaeity; certain modern artists wish to create painterly interest absent in their work by rejecting them. To endeavor, on the contrary, to express them vividly and positively by painterly means.’
Let’s substitute synonyms for the key words in the above quote and see what we get. “I wish to create with a ‘permanent validity’ and an ‘accurate explanation’ of the ‘accomplished’ both for myself and others.” Right? I always say she want us to GET what she is saying. She includes us ‘others’ in her own statement. She relishes the the chance to paint with clarity and precision so that we will understand. We can read her work like a book. Who else says this? (Icon painters but more on that later) Not her modernist peers in Paris. Do you think Picasso ever thought like this? About clarity? About us? I think he did when he painted ‘Guernica’ (1937) but that’s it. And he is certainly the rule not the exception.
Being able to literally read Gontcharova is a skill we can learn and develop. It does not require special sensitivities or talent. Yes I have spent many years looking at her work but I am here today sharing what I’ve learned. Slow down, look carefully. Go into a painting ready to learn. she is not inspirational or trying to bowl you over with stylish flourishes and technical bravado. She is sober and serious. What do you see? How is it made? What’s the story? These are the key questions to ask as we go deeper into the work of Natalia Goncharova
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