Natalia Goncharova was a brilliant and groundbreaking Russian avant-garde artist. She is most famous for being a painter, and was also a sculptor, costume designer, set designer, illustrator, and writer.

Goncharova was born in Nagaevo, Russia, on July 3rd, 18811I actually wasn’t sure about this for awhile – different websites list different birthdays for her… And sometimes they write multiple dates without explaining why. But the most credible source I’ve found says that it was June 21st by the old Russian calendar, or July 3rd by the Gregorian calendar., began studying art in her early twenties, and would create for nearly the rest of her life. She was a pioneering artist, both within European art in general, and within Russian art specifically. She was one of the first creators of the Cubo-Futurism movement, and developed the Rayonism style with her life partner and fellow artist Mikhail Larionov

Goncharova was a radical and forward-looking artist, and in her work she often sought to blend influences and blur boundaries. One thing she was passionate about was combining influences from both East and West, and she was one of the first major artists to combine elements from Russian folk traditions, religion, and country life, with contemporary artistic developments.

I first encountered Goncharova and her work at my internship, where the painting in the header image, The Phoenix from her series The Harvest, was hung on the wall2… more or less. The frame had broken, so it was less hung on the wall and more, fallen behind the printer. I tried to fix it by improvising, but there’s only so much that scotch tape can do, and they eventually decided to throw it away.. When they decided to get rid of it, I asked them to take it home instead. And so it inspired me to write my first OT header 3… which I have finally done a year later..

Here’s a few of Goncharova’s paintings, for your enjoyment. Have a great day, everyone!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.