Nude

LUCIAN FREUD: REBEL WITH A CAUSE

Marina Vaizey

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
#2 2016 (51)

Ritualistic, spontaneous, improvisatory, disciplined, anarchic, unfashionable, indifferent, insatiable, obsessed, risk-taking yet curiously wedded to routines: Lucian Freud’s life (1922-2011) was a mass of self-imposed contradictions, while his art was almost alarmingly focused, intense and unremitting, and the product of unvarying determination. He never, from his hallucinatory early drawings, prints and paintings on a relatively small scale to the paintings of his last decades, with rich thick impasto, and occasionally crowded with figures, deviated from his obsession not only with the observed world, but his observed world. The exhibition “Lucian Freud Portraits” at London’s National Portrait Gallery collected more than 100 works from museums and private collections - the first major show since the artist died on 20 July 2011, but in which he was involved until his death. It will perhaps be the culmination of his lifetime’s preoccupation with private faces in public places, and public faces in private places - for many of those he painted were never identified by name.

LUCIAN FREUD: REBEL WITH A CAUSE

Valentin Serov, the teacher

Svetlana Yesenina

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Any discussion of Serov as a teacher ought to focus mainly on his work at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MSPSA), since it afforded the exceptional artist an opportunity to interact with talented youth and unlocked his outstanding teaching talents. Teaching at private schools from time to time, Serov understood, however, that a consistent approach to the training of the young generation could only be achieved using the solid foundations that had been formed at MSPSA over decades. Perhaps this explains why he accepted the offer of the position as a life-drawing instructor in 1897, after the school’s inspector, and then director, Alexei Lvov had spent several years trying to persuade him to take the job. That was the beginning of Serov’s nearly 12-year-long service, which left an indelible mark in the school’s history.

Valentin Serov, the teacher

Any discussion of Serov as a teacher ought to focus mainly on his work at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MSPSA), since it afforded the exceptional artist an opportunity to interact with talented youth and unlocked his outstanding teaching talents. Teaching at private schools from time to time, Serov understood, however, that a consistent approach to the training of the young generation could only be achieved using the solid foundations that had been formed at MSPSA over decades.

LUCIAN FREUD: Rebel with a Cause

Marina Vaizey

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
#4 2011 (33)

Ritualistic, spontaneous, improvisatory, disciplined, anarchic, unfashionable, indifferent, insatiable, obsessed, risk-taking yet curiously wedded to routines: Lucian Freud’s life (19222011) was a mass of self-imposed contradictions, while his art was almost alarmingly focused, intense and unremitting, and the product of unvarying determination. He never, from his hallucinatory early drawings, prints and paintings on a relatively small scale to the paintings of his last decades, with rich thick impasto, and occasionally crowded with figures, deviated from his obsession not only with the observed world, but his observed world. The exhibition “Lucian Freud Portraits”, running at London’s National Portrait Gallery until May 2012, collects more than 100 works from museums and private collections — the first major show since the artist died on 20 July 2011, but in which he was involved until his death. It will perhaps be the culmination of his lifetime’s preoccupation with private faces in public places, and public faces in private places — for many of those he painted were never identified by name.

LUCIAN FREUD: Rebel with a Cause

Ritualistic, spontaneous, improvisatory, disciplined, anarchic, unfashionable, indifferent, insatiable, obsessed, risk-taking yet curiously wedded to routines: Lucian Freud’s life (19222011) was a mass of self-imposed contradictions, while his art was almost alarmingly focused, intense and unremitting, and the product of unvarying determination.

A Many-sided Genre: The Nude in Russian Graphic Art in the 20th Century

Irina Leytes

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2015 (46)

THE CURRENT EXHIBITION IN THE LAVRUSHINSKY GRAPHIC ARTS HALL REPRESENTS THE SECOND PART OF THE MAJOR PROJECT TITLED "MAGIC OF THE HUMAN BODY". IT TELLS THE STORY OF A MOST POETIC CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN GRAPHIC ARTS AT THE END OF THE 19TH AND BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURIES, THAT OF DRAWING THE NUDE HUMAN FORM. GENERALLY SPEAKING, THE ART OF DRAWING, COMPARED TO PAINTING AND SCULPTURE, IS BY NATURE MORE CAPABLE OF QUICKLY AND FORCEFULLY TRANSFORMING AN INHERENTLY NEUTRAL MOTIF INTO AN ARTISTIC IMAGE THAT EXPRESSES CERTAIN IMPORTANT NOTIONS AND CONCEPTS. THE NUDE GENRE IS NO EXCEPTION, SO IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT EVERY WELL-KNOWN RUSSIAN ARTIST OF THE 20TH CENTURY TRIED HIS OR HER HAND AT IT. THIS EXHIBITION BRINGS TOGETHER THOSE FIGURES WHO MADE THE NUDE DRAWING INTO A SEPARATE GENRE OF THE VISUAL ARTS, AND AN IMPORTANT THEME IN THEIR WORK.

A Many-sided Genre: The Nude in Russian Graphic Art in the 20th Century

THE CURRENT EXHIBITION IN THE LAVRUSHINSKY GRAPHIC ARTS HALL REPRESENTS THE SECOND PART OF THE MAJOR PROJECT TITLED "MAGIC OF THE HUMAN BODY". IT TELLS THE STORY OF A MOST POETIC CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN GRAPHIC ARTS AT THE END OF THE 19TH AND BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURIES, THAT OF DRAWING THE NUDE HUMAN FORM. GENERALLY SPEAKING, THE ART OF DRAWING, COMPARED TO PAINTING AND SCULPTURE, IS BY NATURE MORE CAPABLE OF QUICKLY AND FORCEFULLY TRANSFORMING AN INHERENTLY NEUTRAL MOTIF INTO AN ARTISTIC IMAGE THAT EXPRESSES CERTAIN IMPORTANT NOTIONS AND CONCEPTS.

The Nude in Russian Art in the 20th Century

Nadezhda Yurasovskaya

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2015 (46)

RUSSIAN ART HAS OFTEN BEEN CONTRADICTORY IN ITS DEPICTION OF NUDES - AND CHANGING TIMES HAVE THEMSELVES CHANGED ETHICAL AND AESTHETIC VALUE SYSTEMS, AND OFFERED (AND/OR ORDERED) NEW PRIORITIES. THE 20TH-CENTURY INDUSTRIAL ERA WITH ITS REVOLUTIONARY TURMOIL TRIGGERED AN OVERTURNING OF TRADITIONAL MORAL STANDARDS IN SOCIETY, ESTABLISHING NEW AESTHETIC NOTIONS AND ALTERING ARTISTIC LANGUAGE ACCORDINGLY. THEMES OF NUDITY WERE NO LONGER CONFINED TO ART CLASSES. NUDE BODIES THAT HAD ONCE MADE THE RUSSIAN AUDIENCE NERVOUSLY BLUSH WITH EMBARRASSMENT APPEARED AS SUBJECTS OF PROPAGANDA IN A SOCIETY WHICH WAS AIMING AT DRASTIC CHANGE. THE YOUNG GENERATION OF BIG-CITY DWELLERS, RADICAL NUDISTS, CONSIDERED STROLLING THE STREETS WITHOUT CLOTHES TO BE A REVOLUTIONARY ACT. AS VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY STROVE TO CONVINCE HIS READERS: "THERE'S NO BETTER ATTIRE IN THE WORLD / THAN THE BRONZE OF MUSCLES AND FRESHNESS OF SKIN".

The Nude in Russian Art in the 20th Century

RUSSIAN ART HAS OFTEN BEEN CONTRADICTORY IN ITS DEPICTION OF NUDES - AND CHANGING TIMES HAVE THEMSELVES CHANGED ETHICAL AND AESTHETIC VALUE SYSTEMS, AND OFFERED (AND/OR ORDERED) NEW PRIORITIES. THE 20TH-CENTURY INDUSTRIAL ERA WITH ITS REVOLUTIONARY TURMOIL TRIGGERED AN OVERTURNING OF TRADITIONAL MORAL STANDARDS IN SOCIETY, ESTABLISHING NEW AESTHETIC NOTIONS AND ALTERING ARTISTIC LANGUAGE ACCORDINGLY.

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