Liturgy, St. Andrew 1914

Natalia Goncharova made Liturgy, St. Andrew with gouache and gold paint. Imagine her hand moving across the surface, building up layers of colour that bring St. Andrew into being. He’s a patchwork of geometric forms, dancing and leaping. I wonder what Goncharova was thinking when she made this? Was she feeling particularly playful that day, or was she making a statement about tradition, turning something formal into a kind of jaunty folk dance? I sympathize with her for trying to bring dynamism to the subject. I love how she's used a limited palette of reds, whites, and browns, punctuated with that halo of gold, which really pops, doesn’t it? Look at how the red paint is applied, thin and translucent in some areas, thicker and more opaque in others. Each shape makes you see the next shape. She reminds me of Léger, Picasso, Gris. And here she is, in conversation with them all. Painting is like that – it is an embodied expression, a never-ending discussion, ambiguous and uncertain, open to endless interpretation.