| Cyclist | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Natalia Goncharova |
| Year | 1913 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 78 cm× 105 cm(31 in× 41 in) [1] |
| Location | State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg |
Cyclist is a 1913 Cubo-Futurist painting by the Russian artist Natalia Goncharova. The painting is considered an "archetypal work" of Futurism by its current holder, the State Russian Museum. [1]
The titular cyclist is a male figure bent over his bicycle while pedaling through a town or city. The street beneath the cyclist is cobbled while behind him lies a row of shop windows. [2] [3] :113
Goncharova was an early Russian developer of Cubo-Futurism, combining characteristics of both Futurism and Cubism in Cyclist. Cubist fragmentation, for example, is used to indicate the cyclist's speed. [2] Movement is also portrayed in the work's Futurist elements, such as its repetition of forms and dislocation of contours. [1] The dynamic effect of multiplied forms and repeated delineation is further amplified by Goncharova's use of broad brushstrokes. [3] :113 The presence of urban life, another concern of Futurism, is included in the work through the use of street signs in the background. However, the composition is distinct from classical Futurist works due to its higher level of visual balance. [1] In particular, Cyclist contrasts with the more abstract and dematerialized representation of cycling found in Umberto Boccioni's 1913 painting Dynamism of a Cyclist . [4]
Cyrillic letters from the shop signs are visually "shifted" onto the bicyclist in the painting. Art historian Tim Harte views the pointing finger on the leftmost storefront as part of a "visual clash" since it points in the opposite direction of the cyclist's motions. [3] :113
Cyclist was shown with Goncharova's Airplane over a Train in the artist's 1913 solo show. [3] :113
In his 2009 book on the Russian avant-garde, Harte considered Cyclist to be a "more mature" Cubo-Futurist painting compared to Goncharova's earlier works [3] :116 and wrote that the painting evidences Goncharova's intensified focus on "modern motion's distortion of space and image". [3] :113
In a 2019 review of Goncharova's work, art critic Laura Cumming described Cyclist as "an exhilarating picture" demonstrative of the artist's "excitement with futurism". [5]
As of 2021, Cyclist is in the State Russian Museum and is located in the museum's Benois Wing. [1]
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century which later also developed in Russia. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city. Its key figures were the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Fortunato Depero, Gino Severini, Giacomo Balla, and Luigi Russolo. It glorified modernity and aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past. Important Futurist works included Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism, Boccioni's sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, Balla's painting Abstract Speed + Sound, and Russolo's The Art of Noises.
Rayonism was a style of abstract art that developed in Russia in 1910–1914. Founded and named by Russian Cubo-Futurists Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, it was one of Russia's first abstract art movements.
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Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Larionov. She was a founding member of both the Jack of Diamonds (1909–1911), Moscow's first radical independent exhibiting group, the more radical Donkey's Tail (1912–1913), and with Larionov invented Rayonism (1912–1914). She was also a member of the German-based art movement Der Blaue Reiter. Born in Russia, she moved to Paris in 1921 and lived there until her death.
Cubo-Futurism was an art movement that arose in early 20th century Russia, defined by its amalgamation of the artistic elements found in Italian Futurism and French Analytical Cubism. Cubo-Futurism was the main school of painting and sculpture practiced by the Russian Futurists. In 1913, the term ‘Cubo-Futurism’ first came to describe works from members of the poetry group ‘Hylaeans,’ as they moved away from poetic Symbolism towards Futurism and zaum, the experimental “visual and sound poetry of Kruchenykh and Khlebninkov”. Later in the same year the concept and style of ‘Cubo-Futurism’ became synonymous with the works of artists within Russian post-revolutionary avant-garde circles as they interrogated non-representational art through the fragmentation and displacement of traditional forms, lines, viewpoints, colours, and textures within their pieces. The impact of Cubo-Futurism was then felt within performance art societies, with Cubo-Futurist painters and poets collaborating on theatre, cinema, and ballet pieces that aimed to break theatre conventions through the use of nonsensical zaum poetry, emphasis on improvisation, and the encouragement of audience participation.
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