Olga Rozanova stood at the origins of the Russian Avant-Garde. She painted Primitivist canvases, issued books on Futurism jointly with Aleksey Kruchenykh and created artworks in the style of Supermatism. In particular, the latter includes Flight of an Aeroplane painting dated 1916, which was acquired by the museum in 1937.

The painting has a vertical format, and the canvas space is filled with triangles and rectangles. The white background part is wider at the top than along the edges. The color variety increases in a downward direction. The bottom of the composition represents curvilinear geometrical figures. Due to this configuration, the painting was entitled Flight of an Aeroplane by a museum keeper who entered it in the accession book. Originally Olga Rozanova had named it Supermatist Composition.

The central part of the painting features the figures of more complicated shapes than large rectangles or triangles. They are painted with pale pink and golden ocher colors.

Olga Rozanova was born in 1886 in Vladimir province. She came from a wealthy noble family. In 1904 Olga came to Moscow to study painting. She attended the art school established by Konstantin Yuon, a theatre artist, and Anatoly Bolshakov’s school of painting and sculpture. In 1910 Olga Rozanova moved to St. Petersburg, where she joined the Union of Youth, the first Russian association of experimental art. The Union stood at the origins of the Russian Avant-Garde. It was a project intended to unite non-academic artists.

Olga Rozanova was one of the Russian Avant-Garde founders. Supermatism represented an important part of Avant-Garde movement in painting. In February 1917 the artist joined Supremus society organized by Kazimir Malevich and became its secretary. When Supremus had introduced its own magazine Olga Rozanova started writing articles on the subject of modern art. The first issue published her article entitled Cubism. Futurism. Suprematism providing a comparative analysis of these styles.

During the Soviet period, Olga Rozanova got involved in art reorganization. She started working for the People’s Commissariat for Enlightment, the Arts Department (IZO Narkompros) and headed the Arts and Crafts Section. The artist created color writing, a new type of objectless painting. It was based on the ornamental aspects of visual art.