Lot 40: ENDER, MARIA 1897-1942 Flowers in a Vase

ENDER, MARIA 1897-1942 Flowers in a Vase inscribed with a dedication in Cyrillic on the reverse, c. 1930s Watercolour on paper, 36 by 27 cm.
Provenance: Collection of Ya.E. Rubinshtein, Moscow, inscription on the reverse.

The Ender sisters, Maria (1897, St Petersburg - 1942,Leningrad) and Ksenia (1894, Slutsk - 1955, Leningrad) studiedfrom 1918 to 1922 at the Petrograd State Free Art Workshops ofMikhail Matiushin in the Spatial Realism department, andworked in the department of organic culture at GINKhUK (theState Institute of Artistic Culture) also under the direction ofMatiushin, Maria from 1923 to 1926 and Ksenia 1923 to 1924. Mikhail Matiushin was an artist, musician, composer, art researcher, one of the leading lights of the Russian avant-garde andinventor of the theory of "broadened observation". In the depart-ment of organic culture at GINKhUK a group of artists,Matiushin's students, formed an association which they calledZOR-VED (an abbreviation of the words 'seeing' and 'knowing').Matiushin spoke of a new truth existing in art, a non-figurativefiguration. "Figures do not leave the field of vision, they justchange into a new form."

For the artists of the avant-garde, the concept of realism did notmean copying nature. It was no accident that the word "realism"acquired the attribute "spatial". It became synonymous with anew idea of the universe, of connections with nature. The group'sinvestigations were mainly concentrated on the problem of theperception of colour in space, of the influence of colour on formand on the connections between colour and sound. The Endersisters were active participants.

Maria Ender conducted an independent project researching colour,ran the department researching the use of peripheral perception ofcolour and form and gave 24 lectures at the department's meetings.She prepared for publication the articles The Laws of Reproduction ofColour Form, Chevreul's Law of Simultaneous Contrast and Its Relationship tothe Principle of Broadened Observation, Colour and Colour Combining, Spaceand Form and On Supplementary Form. She taught colour studies at theState Art and Industry Technical College (1930), and at theLeningrad Institute of Proletarian Visual Arts (1930-1932). MariaEnder actively collaborated with Matiushin in preparing a colourhandbook for publication in 1932. She took part in designing theSoviet pavilion at the World Exposition in Paris in 1937 and theWorld's Fair in New York in 1939.

Ksenia also wrote reports at the Institute on various subjects.From 1925 to 1927 she worked as a scientific collaborator at theDecorative Institute. Due to poor health she gave up painting early on and in the 1930s worked as a designer in an engineer's office. Both sisters participated in the Exhibition of Pictures by PetrogradArtists of All Movements in Petrograd in 1923, and in the 14thVenice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 1924. Landscapesoccupy a major place in the oeuvre of Ksenia Ender and it is inthese that she uses her experience in "broadened observation":the purification of light and the revelation of its luminescence,the colour-form connection with the surroundings through "interlinking" colour. The artist highlights simple colour forms whichcreate a slightly slowed-down, peaceful compositional rhythm.Maria Ender was one of the leading theoreticians of the new spatial realism. Her compositions were more dynamic, complex anddelicate in their colour characteristics. By finding the graphic"formulae" of objects in nature, stripping all detail, all unnecessary features from their depictions, both artists preserved a connection with the natural origin.

Liudmila Vostretsova, The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg