Painter

Liubov Popova

Liubov Popova was a Russian avant-garde painter whose geometric oils shaped Painterly Architectonics before she moved into textile and theatrical design.

Liubov Popova quick facts

Liubov Popova moved from Cubo-Futurist painting into Suprematist abstraction, while also designing textiles, costumes, and sets for the theater.

Liubov Popova quick facts
Full name	Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova
Born	1889 · Ivanovskoe, Moscow Province, Russian Empire
Died	1924 · Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Movements	Constructivism · Suprematism · Cubo-Futurism
Paint types	Oil paint · Watercolor · Gouache
Other media	—
Other materials	—
Painting surfaces	Canvas in Painterly Architectonic (1917); linen burlap in the 1918 painting of the same title
Painting methods	Overlapped angular colored planes, varied the apparent depth of geometric shapes, and treated painted composition as an architectonic assembly
Common subjects	Nonrepresentational tilted rectangles, interlocking planes, rhythm, color, and spatial tension
Notable works	Man + Air + Space (1913) · Painterly Architectonic (1917) · Architectonic Painting (1917)

Sources: MoMA: Painterly Architectonic, LACMA: Architectonic Painting, State Russian Museum: Man + Air + Space, Städel Museum: Liubov Popova.

Paint types used by Liubov Popova

The examples identify Oil paint, Watercolor, Gouache in Liubov Popova's work and explain how each medium contributes to the image or process.

Oil paint

In Painterly Architectonic, Popova layered tilted color planes to create a shallow, relief-like space. The 1918 version in the Thyssen collection is explicitly documented as oil on linen burlap, while MoMA's 1917 painting is on canvas. The linen burlap ground affects the painting’s texture.
Watercolor

In MoMA's Composition (c. 1920) and the Six Prints portfolio, Popova used watercolor additions to develop color over paper and printed forms. The records identify watercolor as a medium in these works, rather than inferring it from her oil paintings.
Gouache

Popova used opaque gouache for geometric color studies and designs on paper, including MoMA's Design for a Poster or Mural for Tsentrifuga Publishing House (1922). In the Six Prints portfolio, gouache additions sit alongside watercolor additions on the printed sheets.

Sources: MoMA: Painterly Architectonic (1917); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza: Painterly Architectonic (1918), oil on linen burlap.; MoMA: Liubov Popova; MoMA: Composition, watercolor and gouache; MoMA: Design for a Poster or Mural, gouache; MoMA: Six Prints, watercolor and gouache additions

Painting surfaces used by Liubov Popova

Liubov Popova's documented works use canvas, linen burlap; examples distinguish the painted surface from its support or object in each cited work.

Canvas

Popova’s Painterly Architectonic (1917) is documented on canvas in MoMA’s collection. She organized tilted planes of color into a dynamic composition, using the flexible support for a shallow, constructed space. A related 1918 painting in the Thyssen collection uses coarse linen burlap instead.
Linen burlap

The Thyssen-Bornemisza records Popova’s 1918 Painterly Architectonic as oil on linen burlap. The coarse weave and visible support contribute to the painting’s material presence, while the tilted color planes build a shallow, relief-like space. This documented textile differs from the canvas used for the 1917 version.