“She turned geometry into movement and color into momentum.”

Aleksandra Ekster was a Ukrainian avant-garde and Futurist artist. She grew up in Kyiv, a city that at the time allowed young artists space to experiment. She took full advantage of that opportunity.

Her studio became a center for the city’s intellectuals—artists, writers, directors, and dancers. She herself was constantly traveling between Kyiv, Paris, Moscow, Odessa, and Rome.

In 1924, she left Soviet Union under the pretext of participating in the Venice Biennale. She never returned, instead settling in Paris, where she also taught at Fernand Léger’s academy.

World War II reduced her life to poverty and isolation in a suburb of Paris. She died in 1949, and it took decades before her place in art history was seriously recognized.