Composition

1905–1920

The Exter house in Kyiv: a salon-studio

From 1905 (other accounts say 1906) she lives on the second floor of her father-in-law's house on Gimnazicheskaya Street and sets up a salon-studio there, a meeting place for Kyiv's avant-garde; according to other accounts, the attic studio stood at 27 Funduklievskaya Street (now Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street) and drew the city's whole intellectual elite.

1914

International Futurist Exhibition in Rome

She exhibits at the International Futurist Exhibition in Rome together with the other “Russians” — Archipenko, Kulbin and Olga Rozanova.

1915

Joins Malevich's group Supremus

She joins Kazimir Malevich's group of avant-garde artists, Supremus, and works in the Cubo-Futurist and Suprematist idioms.

1915–1916

Works with peasants in the artels of Verbovka and Skoptsy

Together with Malevich, Liubov Popova, Ivan Puni, Olga Rozanova, Nadezhda Udaltsova and others she works with peasants in the art cooperatives of the villages of Verbovka and Skoptsy, run by Nina Genke, her pupil, and Natalia Davydova. Searching for ancient peasant embroidery, liturgical sewing and weaving, she discovers Ukrainian folk art, one of the sources of her imagery, and with Malevich, Puni and Ksenia Boguslavskaya draws Suprematist designs for embroideries on bags, pillows, carpets and belts.

1918

Death of her husband Nikolai Exter

Her husband, Nikolai Exter, dies in Kyiv.

1918–1920

A workshop of decorative and applied art in Kyiv

Passionate about decorative and applied art — designs on dresses, shawls, tablecloths, cushions, screens and lampshades — she opens, together with I. Rabinovich, a teaching and production workshop where P. Tchelitchew, Alexander Tyshler, Vadym Meller, Anatol Petrytsky, Kliment Red'ko, N. Shifrin, A. Petrovich, Nikritin and others work.