Lyubov Popova

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Popova, Lyubov (1889–1924). Russian painter and designer, born near Moscow. She was one of the leading figures of Russian avant-garde art in its most exciting period, but she died tragically young of scarlet fever. After studying painting in Moscow, 1907–8, she travelled extensively (she came from a wealthy bourgeois family) and in 1912–13 worked in Paris, frequenting the studios of two Cubist artists—Le Fauconnier and Metzinger. When the First World War broke out she returned from Italy to Moscow, where she worked with Tatlin and contributed to major avant-garde exhibitions. From Cubism she developed to complete abstraction in a series of pictures she called Painterly Architectonics (1916–20). They owe something to both Tatlin and Malevich, but have a distinctive voice, especially in her rich colouring. Camilla Gray (The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863–1922, 1962) writes that ‘after Tatlin and Malevich, Popova was the outstanding painter of the post-1914 abstract schools in Russia … [Her paintings] are often executed on a rough board, and the angular forms—in strong blues, greens and reds—are brushed in on this crude, raw surface, leaving the impression of lightning-swift movement, a darting, breathless meeting of forces, a kiss-imprint, as it were, of the driving energy around us.’

Popova also worked as a designer of costumes and sets for the stage and of textiles (‘everyday clothes for women in which subtle geometric patterns were placed against a plain background', Anna Moszynska, Abstract Art, 1990). Her best-known stage designs are her Constructivist sets for Vsevolod Meyerhold's production of Fernand Crommelynck's The Magnanimous Cuckold (1922) at the Actors' Theatre in Moscow.

Popova, Lyubov (b nr. Ivanovskoye, Moscow province, 24 Apr. 1889; d Moscow, 25 May 1924). Russian painter and designer. She was one of the leading figures of Russian avant-garde art in its most exciting period, but she died tragically young of scarlet fever. After studying painting in Moscow, 1907–8, she travelled extensively (she came from a wealthy bourgeois family) and in 1912–13 worked in Paris, frequenting the studios of two Cubist artists, Le Fauconnier and Metzinger. When the First World War broke out she returned from Italy to Moscow, where she worked with Tatlin and contributed to major avant-garde exhibitions. From Cubism she developed to complete abstraction in a series of pictures she called Painterly Architectonics (1916–20). They owe something to both Tatlin and Malevich, but have a distinctive voice, especially in her rich colouring. Popova also worked as a designer of costumes and sets for the stage and of textiles.