Transnational Modernism and Artistic Innovation: A Comparative Synthesis on Natalia Goncharova and Frida Kahlo.

Abstract

This study addresses how artists Natalia Goncharova of the Russian avant-garde and Frida Kahlo a Mexican modernist use artistic expression as an intersectional medium to construct self-identity, challenge gender expectations, and show authority within male dominated patriarchal societies. The method used is a comparative synthesis of their artistic strategies across three main themes: aesthetic hybridity and global influences, the nuanced recontextualization of religious, folk and cultural forms and the strategic performance of gender and the body. This analysis provides a physical and visual synthesis through the creation of a mixed media sculpture inspired by the Matryoshka wooden Russian cultural doll. The study's findings prove that Goncharova’s artistic style reflects a flexible approach later synthesized as Everythingism and the employment of strategic public performance to assert agency within the Russian avant-garde art scene and late imperial Russian culture. Kahlo used the nuanced appropriation of folk forms and identity construction through the persona of La Mexicana reclaiming herself from the male centered gaze and constructed a new visual language that addressed women’s struggles. The Matryoshka Pinata inspired sculpture merges Russian and Mexican cultural forms with the use of recycled cardboard from protest materials, further affirming the artists shared focus on advancing marginalized art forms and political resistance. This comparative synthesis confirms that both artists pioneered hybrid aesthetic strategies as a powerful means of self-identity and resistance, enhancing our understanding of how art connects to global critical conversations concerning feminist and queer theory and the deconstruction of post-colonial and patriarchal attitudes.