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Lot Essay
'Fate did not assign a long life to Liubov Sergeevna Popova. Just seventeen years separate the beginning from the end of her activities as a painter. During this time she was obliged to finish her studies, to assimilate the influences of her contemporaries, to achieve independence, and to realize her potential within this period of independent creativity. Popova's development as an artist was consistent. She was not obliged to readjust her sights under the influence of critics or to reject any of her principles. She attained the highpoint of her career and, with that, it came to an abrupt end. However, Popova did manage to maximise her talent and potential, and her accomplishments coincided with her period of maturity when they received their vivid and consistent embodiment. Herein lies the aesthetic element of Popova's artistic career - a career surrounded by the romance of struggle, of great dynamism and of indefatigable search' (D. V. Sarabianov, From Painting to Design. Russian Constructivist Art of the Twenties, Cologne, 1918, p. 48).
Executed circa 1913, the present work is an outstanding gouache epitomising Popova's lucid elaboration of Russian and French contemporary avant-garde developments. In 1912, Popova, intrigued by the Parisian artistic scene, departed for Paris, and during the winter of 1912-1913 worked in La Palette, Metzinger's and Le Fauconnier's private studio. Popova continued to work intensely even after her return to Moscow, where she attended Morgunov's and Tatlin's studios and made friends with Alexander Vesnin. Paris, and immediately after Tatlin's Moscow marked a seminal turning-point in Popova's career: she devised her own aesthetic system, incorporating elements of Futurism and proto-Cubism, whilst emphasising her interest in a three-dimensional space, in a departure from the French artists, who were more concerned with imposing the composition on the flat surface. The sophisticated complexity of The Box Factory perfectly exemplifies her paramount preoccupations with the combination of volumes and shapes, and illustrates her researches into the organic quality of the planar dimension, influenced by the examples of Braque and Picasso.
The provenance of The Box Factory is highly distinguished. The gouache was part of the Costakis Collection, one the greatest groups of Russian avant-garde art ever gathered. Housed in the Moscow apartment of George Costakis and his family, towards the middle of the 1970s this large collection was divided into two parts. One group of works was donated to the Soviet government, while the remainder accompanied their owner to the West when he finally left Russia. Popova's lyrical urbanscape was acquired by the Cologne Galerie Gmurzynska, where it was then bought by the present owners.
Executed circa 1913, the present work is an outstanding gouache epitomising Popova's lucid elaboration of Russian and French contemporary avant-garde developments. In 1912, Popova, intrigued by the Parisian artistic scene, departed for Paris, and during the winter of 1912-1913 worked in La Palette, Metzinger's and Le Fauconnier's private studio. Popova continued to work intensely even after her return to Moscow, where she attended Morgunov's and Tatlin's studios and made friends with Alexander Vesnin. Paris, and immediately after Tatlin's Moscow marked a seminal turning-point in Popova's career: she devised her own aesthetic system, incorporating elements of Futurism and proto-Cubism, whilst emphasising her interest in a three-dimensional space, in a departure from the French artists, who were more concerned with imposing the composition on the flat surface. The sophisticated complexity of The Box Factory perfectly exemplifies her paramount preoccupations with the combination of volumes and shapes, and illustrates her researches into the organic quality of the planar dimension, influenced by the examples of Braque and Picasso.
The provenance of The Box Factory is highly distinguished. The gouache was part of the Costakis Collection, one the greatest groups of Russian avant-garde art ever gathered. Housed in the Moscow apartment of George Costakis and his family, towards the middle of the 1970s this large collection was divided into two parts. One group of works was donated to the Soviet government, while the remainder accompanied their owner to the West when he finally left Russia. Popova's lyrical urbanscape was acquired by the Cologne Galerie Gmurzynska, where it was then bought by the present owners.