Lyubov Popova - Constructivism

Constructivism

As early as 1917 in parallel with her Suprematist work, she had made fabric designs and worked on Agitprop books and posters, In the Tenth State Exhibition: Non Objective Creativity and Suprematism, 1918, she contributed the architectonic series of paintings . She continued painting advanced abstract works up to 1921. then in 1921 in 5 x 5 Exhibition. Statements by Popova and her four fellow Constructivists were made declaring that easel painting was to be abandoned and all creative work was to be for the people and the making of the new society.

From 1921–24 Popova became entirely involved in Constructivist projects, sometimes in collaboration with Varvara Stepanova, the architect Alexander Vesnin and Aleksander Rodchenko. She produced stage designs: Vsevolod Meyerhold's production of Fernand Crommelynck's The Magnanimous Cuckold, 1922; Her Spatial Force Constructions were used as the basis of her art teaching theory at Vkhutemas. She designed typography of books, production art and textiles, and contributed designs for dresses to LEF.

Popova died of scarlet fever in 1924 in Moscow. A large exhibition of her work opened in Moscow on December 21, 1924.

Rodchenko/Popova: Defining Constructivism, an exhibition of the work of Popova, Rodchenko, and other Constructivists was shown at Tate Modern, London, in 2009, and subsequently at Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.