Varvara Stepanova
Russia (1894—1958)Born in current Lithuania, Stepanova studied at Kazan School of Art, where she met Rodchenko, her long life partner. With him she moved to Moscow in 1912, studying at the Stroganov School and getting to know Futurist poets and other visual poetry such as Zigra Ar and Gaust Chaba. With the revolution she started making art accessible to everyone. With Rodchenko and Gan she founded the Working Group of Constructivists. She worked on different forms of art from poetry to graphics, from philosophy to clothing design. She became textile designer at Tindel (the First State textile factory in Russia) with Lyubov Popova and later on she was appointed Professor of textile design at the Higher Techinical Artistic Studios. Throughtout her career she continued expressing her talent in many disciplines, including theatre and costume design and produced work from painting to decorative design. With Rodchenko she also contributed to political magazines, such as LEF and Novyi LEF. She died in 1958.
