Painterly Architectonics

Between 1916 and 1918 Popova made her first mature non-objective works in a purely personal style, which she called Painting Architectures. The catalytic factor in the formation of her own non-objective idiom was mainly the influence of Malevich's Suprematism, the language of geometric shapes assembled in dynamic compositions floating in chaotic, white, cosmic space. The painter's aim is to create a dynamic construction of diagonally intersecting and almost immaterial planes that intersect at various angles of inclination within a complex painterly space. The composition maintains a perpetual visual fluidity that flows from the play of light on the distinctly textured yet translucent planes. Triangular and trapezoidal planes intersect each other at different gradients, and their luminous white areas give the sense of marbling and a space that pulsates with life. The composition transcends the boundaries of the painting in every direction. The vivid colour combinations reflect Popova's very personal colour sensibility. The unexpected specificity of this work consists in the two black shapes: a semi-circular and a small rectangle, which seem to pin the composition to the plane of the painting, as if to compensate for the movement of the colour planes in space.