NATALIA GONCHAROVA 1881 – 1962 

Natalia Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. She was a founding member of both the Jack of Diamonds (1909–1911), Moscow’s first radical independent exhibiting group, and Donkey’s Tail (1912–1913), and with Mikhail Larionov invented Rayonism (1912–1914). She was also a member of the German-based art movement Der Blaue Reiter.

Natalia Goncharova was born in Nagaevo near Tula. She entered the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in the fall of 1901.

In 1910-1911 The Jack of Diamonds’ first exhibition included Primitivist and Cubist paintings by Goncharova . The Donkey’s Tail first exhibition (March–April 1912) organized by Larionov, included more than fifty of her paintings.

In 1911, she and Larionov developed Rayonism, and produced many paintings in that style.

Goncharova was also involved with graphic design, writing, and illustrated several avant-garde books. Goncharova also participated in two important exhibitions - The Target (March–April 1913) and No. 4 (March–April 1914). She was one of the leading artists in Cubo-Futurist (Airplane over a Train, 1912) and Rayonist (Yellow and Green Forest, 1913) circles. She exhibited at the Salon d’Automne (Exposition de L’art Russe) in 1906.

Together with Larionov, she left Russia and went to Paris on April 29, 1914. In this year she designed costumes and sets for the Ballets Russes’s premiere of The Golden Cockerel. In 1915, she began to design ballet costumes and sets in Geneva. She exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1921, and participated regularly at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des Indépendants.

On June 18, 2007, Goncharova’s 1909 painting Picking Apples was auctioned at Christie’s for $9.8 million, setting a record for any female artist at the time. She is considered one of the most expensive women artists at auction. In November 2007, Bluebells, (1909), brought 6.2 million. In 2008, Goncharova’s 1912 still-life The Flowers sold for $10.8 million.

Goncharova’s work can be found in a number of public institutions, including: Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Tate, Israel Museum, McNay Art Museum , Guggenheim, New York, Tretyakov Gallery and many private and museum collections all over the world.