Cubo-Futurism Popova was one of the first female pioneers in
Cubo-Futurism. Through a synthesis of styles she worked towards what she termed
painterly architectonics. After first exploring
Impressionism, by 1913, in
Composition with Figures, she was experimenting with the particularly Russian development of Cubo-Futurism: a fusion of two equal influences from France and Italy. From 1914 to 1915 her Moscow home became the meeting-place for artists and writers. In 1914–1916 Popova together with other
avant-garde artists (
Aleksandra Ekster, Nadezhda Udaltsova,
Olga Rozanova) contributed to the two
Knave of Diamonds exhibitions, in Petrograd
Tramway V and the
0.10,
The Store in Moscow. An analysis of Popova's cubo-futurist work also suggests an affinity with the work of
Fernand Leger, whose geometry of tubular and conical forms in his series of paintings from 1913 to 1914 is similar to that in Popova's paintings. Popova embraced both of these ideals but eventually identified herself entirely with the aims of the
Revolution working in
poster,
book design, fabric and
theatre design, as well as teaching. At
0.10 she had exhibited a number of figurative painted cardboard reliefs in a cubist derived style. In 1916 she began to paint completely abstract
Suprematist compositions, but the title "Painterly Architectonics" (which she gave to many of her paintings) suggests that, even as a Suprematist, Popova was more interested in painting as a projection of material reality than as the personal expression of a metaphysical reality. Popova's superimposed planes and strong color have the objective presence of actual space and materials. In 1918 Popova married the art historian
Boris von Eding, and gave birth to a son. Von Eding died the following year of
typhoid fever. Popova was also seriously ill but recovered.
Constructivism As early as 1917, in parallel with her Suprematist work, the artist 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 until 1921. In the
5x5=25 Exhibition of 1921, Popova and her four fellow
Constructivists declared that easel painting was to be abandoned and all creative work was to be for the people and the making of the new society. Popova worked in a broad range of mediums and disciplines, including painting, relief, works on paper, and designs for the theater, textiles, and typography. Popova did not join the
Working Group of Constructivists when it was set up in Moscow in March 1921, but joined by the end of 1921. In 1923 she began creating designs for fabric to be manufactured by the First State Textile Printing Works in Moscow. From 1921 to 1924 Popova became entirely involved in Constructivist projects, sometimes in collaboration with
Varvara Stepanova, the architect
Alexander Vesnin and
Alexander 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. She worked briefly in the Cotton Printing Factory in Moscow with Varvara Stepanova. == Death and legacy ==