Cats, 1913, Natalia Goncharova, (Russian-French), [no. 23-07-38]

Cats, 1913, Natalia Goncharova
ARTWORK Collectie
[no. 23-07-38]

Natalia Goncharova was one of the most important figures in the inception and development of Russian Modern art in the years immediately preceding the 1917 Socialist revolution. A figure of great controversy and vision Goncharova was[expander_maker more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]more a beacon of innovation than merely an artist (in its technical definition). Her name is often mentioned together with Mikhail Larionov, her collaborator and partner of 60 years and together they experimented with the contemporary French and European styles, and in the second half of 1912 brought forth a unique fusion of Cubo-Futurism and Orphism they called Rayism.
Cats, (rayist per cep.[tion] in rose, black, and yellow), painted shortly thereafter, exemplifies the new style.
Rayism focused on depicting not the real state of being of material objects – in other words, not the way we would actually see a tree or an animal, but the rays (thus the name) of light reflecting from its surface. This revolutionary approach was largely influenced by the advances in the study of light and vision. As scientists discovered the real mechanisms in the perception of light by the human eye, Goncharova and Larionov found new ways of depicting these findings on canvas. [/expander_maker]