Maria Ender

Maria Ender was a leading Russian artist, whose color theory experiments were innovative for modern art and public life in the early Soviet republic. Ender examined color not on its own but in the context of its surroundings and in constantly shifting space and time. In 1916, upon meeting Mikail Matiushin, she began to study painting, drawing and music under his guidance. After graduating, she joined his section of the Petrograd Free State Workshops, which specialized in spatial realism, where she was to remain until 1922. As one of the foremost artists working in this field, Ender gained employment as a scientific fellow at GINKhUK (State Institute of Artistic Culture). Her work there brought her into contact with Kazimir Malevich, Nikolai Suetin, llya Chashnik, Vera Ermolaeva, and Pavel Filonov. She was also heading the department on the applications of the peripheral comprehension of color-form, based in its laboratory for eyesight, hearing, and sense of touch. Throughout this time she carried out independent research into color-in-space (interval, tonality, overtone in color), which after the dissolution of GINKhUK in 1926 gained her a position at the Institute of the State History of Arts. Along with her brother Boris, she joined the team that produced the Soviet Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair and then again at the 1939 New York World's Fair. She died tragically in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad. Ender’s works can be found in public collections such as the State Museum of Contemporary Art – Costakis collection, Thessaloniki; the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; and the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.