Our Notes & References

Celebrated portfolio reproducing with striking pochoirs Goncharova and Larionov’s works for the avant-garde stage and showing a variety of styles on large folding plates.

First edition, limited to a total of 515 copies (this one no. 162): a pleasant example, complete in its original folder.

Goncharova and Larionov met at art school in Moscow, forming a life-long professional and personal partnership. They were founding members of several radical artistic groupings and in 1913, under the influence of Cubo-Futurism, they invented Rayonism, which pioneered the movement towards abstractionism in Russian art. On the invitation of Diaghilev, they went to Paris in 1914 to work on costume and set design for the Ballets Russes. Like Bakst and Picasso, who also designed for Diaghilev, Goncharova and Larionov “transcended the frames of their studio paintings to use the theatre as a laboratory of material forms, each applying different strategies, but all united within what Larionov called a ‘universe existing alongside the world of reality’.” (Bowlt)

“Entre les nouvelles formes que le vingtième siècle a données aux arts, l’expression nouvelle de l’art décoratif fut trouvée par la génie de deux peintres – Larionow et Gontcharova.” (From the introduction by Parnakh).

The present portfolio was published for Larionov and Goncharova’s exhibition of theatre designs at the Galerie Barbazanges. It opens with Goncharova’s sets for the ballet Le coq d’or (her 1914 debut with the Ballets Russes) and continues with various costume and make-up designs (‘Costume russe’, ‘Kikomora’ etc.), before ending with colourful pochoirs (stencils), including Larionov’s cricket costume (‘Le Grillon’) for the ballet Histoires naturelles with music by Ravel: an outré example of why performers found Larionov’s designs a challenge to wear.

Also included is Valentin Parnakh’s essay discussing Larionov’s theories about dance and theatre and singling out the artist as the initiator of new types of choreography, including dances based on free movements, types of gait, animal movements, mechanical dance and social dance related to work. His text is embellished with tipped-in illustrations of sets and costumes, some in colour on glossy paper.

“While Larionov and Goncharova recognised the importance of Western art on avant-garde artistic practice, their work simultaneously fostered a distinctly Eastern character” (Fox), something particularly visible in this remarkable publication.

Bibliography

Fox, D. ” The Transgressive Art of Natalia Goncharova,” (online); Bowlt, J.E. ” Léon Bakst, Natalia Goncharova and Pablo Picasso,” in J. Pritchard, ed. Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes: When Art Danced with Music. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013. pp. 103-28.