Cockerel 1914

Natalia Goncharova, born in Russia in 1881, painted this Cockerel using oil on canvas. I can see her putting down the broad strokes of yellow wash, and how she allows the composition to build out from there. There’s a real push-pull dynamic here, between representation and total abstraction. The architecture is both a kind of stage-set and also a formal echo of the stylized flowers to the right. There's a definite Russian folk quality, almost like the set of a stage production, or an illustration in a children’s book. I wonder if she started with the architecture, or with the decorative elements, and how she made them work together. The layering of the different planes, from the architecture to the small figures on the ground and the ornament on the left, almost reminds me of cubism. Goncharova, like a lot of artists, seems to be having a conversation with folk art as well as modernism. It’s an exciting mix.