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Natalia Sergeevna Gontcharova
(lang-ru|Наталья Сергеевна
Гончарова; June 4, 1881 - October 17,
1962) is a prominent Russian Cubo-Futurism painter
and costume designer.

==Biography==
Natalia was born in Nagaevo village near Tula,
Russia in 1881. She studied sculpture at the
Moscow Academy of Art, but turned to painting in
1904. She was deeply inspired by the primitive
aspects of Russian folk art and attempted to
emulate it in her own work while incorporating
elements of fauvism and cubism. Together with her
husband Mikhail Larionov she first developed
Rayonism. They were the main
progenitors of the pre-Revolution Russian
avant-garde organising the Donkey's Tail
exhibition of 1912 and showing with the Blaue
Reiter in Munich the same year.

The Donkey's Tail was conceived as an intentional
break from European art
influence and the establishment of an independent
Russian school of modern art. However,
the influence of Futurism is much in evidence in
Goncharova's later paintings. Initially
preoccupied with icon painting and the primitivism
of ethnic Russian folk-art, Goncharova became
famous in Russia for her Futurist work such as The
Cyclist and her later Rayonnist works. As leaders
of the Moscow Futurists, they organised
provocative lecture evenings in the same vein as
their Italian counterparts. Goncharova was also
involved with graphic
design - writing and illustrating a book in
Futurist style.


Gontcharova was a member of the Der Blaue Reiter
avant-garde group from its founding in 1911. In
1915, she began to design ballet costumes and sets
in Geneva. She moved to Paris in 1921 where she
designed a number of stage sets of Sergei
Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1962 she died in
Paris.

==External links==
*http://www.russianavantgard.com/master_03_artists
_world_of_art/natalia_goncharova-Master%203.html
Online gallery of Goncharova works
*http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/goncharova_n
atalia.html Site devoted to Goncharova
*http://www.futurism.org.uk/goncharova/goncharova.
htm Goncharova's page on futurism site

Commonscat|Natalia Gontcharova