20 Facts About Olga Rozanova

Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova was a Russian avant-garde artist painting in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primitivism, and Cubo-Futurism.

Olga Rozanova was born in Melenki, a small town near Vladimir.

Olga Rozanova's father, Vladimir Rozanov, was a district police officer and her mother, Elizaveta Rozanova, was the daughter of an Orthodox priest.

Olga Rozanova was the family's fifth child; she had two sisters, Anna and Alevtina, and two brothers, Anatolii and Vladimir.

Olga Rozanova graduated from the Vladimir Women's Gymnasium in 1904.

Olga Rozanova audited courses at the Stroganov School of Applied Art in 1907 but was not accepted for admission.

Unlike most of the other female avant-garde artists, Olga Rozanova was the only one who did not study abroad to learn about European art.

Olga Rozanova moved to St Petersburg and joined Soyuz Molodyozhi in 1911.

Olga Rozanova became one of the most active members of this organization, which organized art exhibitions, lectures, and discussions.

Olga Rozanova would submit her canvases to their group exhibitions until 1913.

Olga Rozanova later traveled to Moscow to try to establish joint projects between the two groups; these negotiations proved to be unsuccessful.

Olga Rozanova later exhibited four works in the First Free International Futurist Exhibition in Rome, which took place from 13 April to 25 May 1914.

Olga Rozanova met the poet Aleksei Kruchenykh in 1912; he then introduced her to the Russian Futurist concept of zaum poetry, a language with no fixed meanings and constant neologisms, which is probably used by birds.

Olga Rozanova would write her own poetry in that style, and illustrated books of zaum poetry, two examples being A Little Duck's Nest of Bad Words and Explodity.

Olga Rozanova joined the avant-garde group Supremus that year, which was led by former fellow Cubo-Futurist Kazimir Malevich.

Olga Rozanova published literary works, which included the essay The Bases of the New Creation and the Reasons Why it is Misunderstood.

Olga Rozanova maintained that the creation of pictures based on the "Abstract Principle" constitute three stages: the intuitive principle; the individual transformation of the visible; and, abstract creation.

Olga Rozanova died of diphtheria at the age of 32 in Moscow in 1918, following a cold she contracted while working on preparations for the first anniversary of the October Revolution.

Olga Rozanova's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Art,.

Olga Rozanova's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.