Label Text: In Lyubov Popova’s Composition ROUGE, rectangles, arches, and triangular shapes intersperse to create a cushion-like web of black pigment. Embracing the Constructivist incorporation of text into visual compositions, the word “ROUGE” coalesces behind the inky shapes. In a subtle display, a red square also hovers beneath the design. One of the most distinctive members of the Russian avant-garde, Popova was a pioneer of Cubo-Futurism, before joining the Supremus group with Kazimir Malevich in 1916. In the late 1910s, the artist referred to many of her paintings as “Painterly Architectonics,” the abstract style featuring superimposed planes and vibrant tincture. During the 1920s, she was closely associated with the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK), also teaching at the VKhUTEMAS. In 1921, Popova, along with other Constructivists, decried easel painting and turned her focus instead to producing printed fabrics, book covers, posters, clothes, and theater designs. The artist’s career was cut short by her death in 1924 from scarlet fever, which she contracted from her young son, who also died. Julia Molin, 2023
Tags: abstract; text; writing Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2001.54 |