Still Life with Guitar - Lyubov Popova

A Cubo-Futurist composition from 1915 by Lyubov Popova, featuring a deconstructed guitar and stencilled typography. This work demonstrates the intersection of geometric abstraction and musical subject matter.

Lyubov Popova painted this work in 1915 during a period of experimentation within the Russian avant-garde. It represents the Cubo-Futurist style. This movement combined the fragmented perspective of French Cubism with the dynamic energy of Italian Futurism. Popova had studied in Paris under Jean Metzinger and Henri Le Fauconnier. There she absorbed the techniques of analytical cubism before returning to Moscow to develop her own approach. The composition centres on the deconstructed form of a guitar. Popova breaks the instrument into its constituent parts: the curved body and strings alongside the neck. These elements are rearranged across the canvas in a series of overlapping, angular planes. The colour palette is largely restrained. It consists of earthy browns and ochres alongside cool grey tones. Small areas of deep red and blue provide contrast against the neutral background. Stencilled lettering appears across the middle of the image. The letters PFEI and PAI are visible. These suggest the influence of commercial signage or newspaper clippings common in cubist collages. Such typographic elements flatten the pictorial space. They ground the abstract forms in the material world of the modern city. The brushwork is visible and textured, which adds a physical presence to the geometric arrangement. This painting was created just before Popova moved toward total abstraction with her Painterly Architectonics series. It shows her interest in the structural properties of objects and the way they occupy space. The work is currently held in the collection of the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. It remains a clear example of how Russian artists adapted European modernism into a distinct national style.