Early Art from an Russian Amazon: Olga Rozanova
There was an exhibition recently of the works of Olga Rozanova at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The works are part of a personal collection of materials that were discovered in Germany and subsequently purchased by a Russian citizen.
The archive of her work contains early sketches and drawings in addition to personal papers and letters. Rozanova was one of six Russian women artists from the turn of the 19th-20th century who were referred to as the “Amazons of the Russian avant-garde.”
Olga Rozanova died of diphtheria at the age of 32 in 1918. She was involved in most of the battles of the Russian avant-garde with the exception of the final crushing defeat of the movement by Soviet powers. She was a fighter for her ideals in art and the truth of her cause and the battles she fought cause her much suffering.
Rozanova searched for new meanings in her works in order to try to explain the times she lived in. She moved from one modern art priciple to another, squeezing the life out of whatever artistic conception she was using at the time. She moved from abstract art into a period of examining sound patterns with her future husband, the futuristic poet Alexei Kruchenykh.
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