A woman on Wednesday a beginning and a bike!

Until this week I had not heard of Natalia Goncharova.  I am a cyclist and a print maker. ;  While they cannot be enjoyed at the same time they do have comparable qualities.  Bicycles are aesthetically pleasing in a mechanical sort of way and printmaking is a very basic form of engineering.

So when researching these terms, engineering, mechanical, movement, art and women I came across the Futurists and to discover the women of the 20th century ‘galvanised by the violent energy of the futurist movement … who wielded [or welded] their brushes, needles and pens with much  vigor’ ; I then found the Cyclist by Natalia Goncharova.  While it is a long time since I have ridden with such eagerness; it is an image I would like to emulate on paper!

Natalia Sergeeva Goncharova born 1881, was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter,writer, illustrator, set  and  costume designer .  Her family were politically liberal and well educated members of the rural gentry.  Her early works reflected this environment although she preferred to focus her attention on the daily activities of the servants and peasants who lived and worked on the family estate.  

At the turn of the century the art institutions were no longer segregating male and female students, however women were denied equal rights upon completion of the degree.   Goncharova claimed that she had little training; nonetheless she taught and attended lessons at the Moscow Institute.  Here she met Larionov; who moved into Natalia’s family home;  together they set up a studio and shared living accommodation … this was just the beginning … The cyclist painted 1912-1913 after her first solo exhibition held for one single evening 24th March 1910 by the Society of Free Aesthetics in Moscow this made her uniquely visible as  an artist  and a rich and colourful life transpired …

Particularly as Natalia Goncharova’s Flowers sold recently for nearly 11 million dollars my painting will probably not!