Painterly Architectonic 1918

Lyubov Popova made this painting with oil on canvas, and it feels like she constructed it, bit by bit, with these hard-edged shapes. Imagine Popova’s concentration as she layers those geometric forms, one against the other. I wonder if she stepped back often, adjusting her composition, letting it breathe, and then diving back in. The materiality here is so palpable, and the surface so smooth. The paint isn’t too thick, but those colors – orange, yellow, white, blue – really pop against the black. The way these shapes tilt and butt up against each other makes me think about Russian Constructivism and Suprematism, those art movements that were super interested in abstracting form and space. It’s like Popova is building a new visual language. You can feel her pushing against the status quo. Painting is a dialogue, you know? We all build on what came before, throwing our own spin on things. It’s an exchange across time, constantly inspiring one another's creativity.