Extra Credit - LACMA

Although I recently visited LACMA in relation to an early Asian art history class, I ended up exploring more than I had in previous visits. Although I saw many pieces that I liked, what struck me most was not what I was aesthetically drawn to, but pieces that I had learned about in the modern Russian art history class I am currently taking, specifically in reference to the avant-garde and subsequent Constructivist movements. I had previously walked through this part of the museum and never paid much attention to the pieces, not knowing anything about them.

As mentioned earlier, based upon my personal taste, most paintings and drawings of both movements hold no appeal, but understanding them helps to appreciate the art, as is true of any artistic movement. One of the paintings that caught my attention (as I just wrote a paper on the artist) was Liubov Popova's 'Architectonic Painting' (to the right.) Popova was a reluctant member of the Constructivist movement, which forgoed the concept of 'art for art's sake' and looked to achieve the ultimate synthesis of design engineering and aesthetic taste. The greater purpose of art was to break down the high-low hierarchy art, similar in meaning to the street painting of today. But also moving art beyond the canvas, Constructivists used their art as a form of propaganda in promoting the ideals of the artistic movement and the Socialist government that supported it.

In this painting, Popova clearly shows the cubist inspiration absorbed from working with Picasso, as well the beginnings of her experimentation with Constructivist geometric line, color, and movement. The blue serves as a backing to emphasize the stark contrast of the other colors, drawing the eye to the read hand and subsequently moving the eye onto the centered orange mass. Even though it is not a literal figural representation, its sense of movement, specifically forward motion is successfully communicated. Though Popova's later works are not featured in LACMA, this subtle interplay of line and color eventually helped to make her one of Constructivists most prominent artists. unlike many of her contemporaries, whose grandiose ideas were restricted to notepads and sketches, she was able to truly move beyond the canvas into designing textiles and clothing.