Jack of Diamonds and Donkey's Tail exhibition, 1912 The students rejected from Korovin's classes, and others, soon formed Moscow's first radical independent exhibiting group, the
Jack of Diamonds, which was named by Larionov. The Donkey's Tail was conceived as an intentional break from European art influence and the establishment of an independent Russian school of modern art. The exhibition proved controversial, and the censor confiscated Goncharova's religiously-themed work,
The Evangelists (1910–11), deeming it
blasphemous partly because it was hung at an exhibition titled after the rear end of a donkey,
Russian Futurism and Rayonism Goncharova and her partner, Larionov, were continuously harassed for their artwork and the way they expressed themselves. In Russia, she was to become famous for her work in this style, such as
Cyclist. In 1911, she and Larionov developed
Rayonism, and produced many paintings in that style. As leaders of the
Russian Futurists, they organized provocative lecture evenings in the same vein as their Italian counterparts. Goncharova was also involved with graphic design—writing, and illustrated several avant-garde books. Another important exhibition Goncharova participated in is called The Target (March–April 1913) and No. 4 (March–April 1914). She played a very important role when it came to Russian art at the time. Her aesthetic choices that were bridging the Eastern and Western traditions, served as a catalyst for manifestos and art movements at the time. She was one of the leading artists in Cubo-Futurist (
Airplane over a Train, 1912) and Rayonist (
Yellow and Green Forest, 1913) circles. Even though her pre-World War I art still had problematic associations, her participation in these exhibits were a segue for Moscow's avant-garde blending of both Western European Modernism and Eastern traditions. In one of her interviews, she said that she got inspiration from
Picasso, Le Fauconnier, and
Braque, but still her first "Cubist" works to date as long as one year before that.
Later career and death Goncharova was a member of the avant-garde
Der Blaue Reiter group from its founding in 1911. In 1915, she began to design ballet costumes and sets in
Geneva. In 1915 she started work on a series of designs –
Six Winged Seraph,
Angel,
St Andrew,
St Mark,
Nativity, and others – for a ballet commissioned by
Sergei Diaghilev, to be titled
Liturgy. Also involved in the project, for which
Igor Stravinsky was invited to compose the score, were Larionov and
Léonide Massine, but the ballet never materialized. Goncharova moved to Paris in 1921 where she designed a number of stage sets of Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes. She also exhibited at the
Salon d'Automne in 1921, and participated regularly at the
Salon des Tuileries and the
Salon des Indépendants. Goncharova also identified with Everythingism (
russ. Vsechestvo), the Russian avant-garde movement. Everythingism was considered as an extension of Neo-Primitivism. This art promotes heterogeneity, a blending of multiple cultural traditions, such as West and East and different styles such as
Cubism and
Futurism. It aspired to erase the boundaries between what is considered the origin and the copy, and assimilated those together. It was an art movement that was free of already set artistic laws. Between 1922 and 1926, Goncharova created fashion designs for
Marie Cuttoli's shop, Maison Myrbor on the Rue Vincent, Paris. Her richly embroidered and
appliquéd dress designs were strongly influenced by Russian folk art,
Byzantine mosaic and her work for the
Ballets Russes. In 1938 Goncharova became a
French national. On 2 June 1955, four years after Larionov suffered a stroke, the two artists got married in Paris to safeguard their rights of inheritance. ==Style==