EUGENIE VRONSKAYA
Still Point in a Turning World
EUGENIE VRONSKAYA
Still Point in a Turning World 1 - 28 April 2015 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/eugenievronskaya
Front cover: Trinity (detail), oil on canvas, 46 x 60 cms (cat. 19) Left: Eugenie in her studio
1 Winter Night, Studio, 2014 oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms ÂŁ2,400
FOREWORD Still Point in a Turning World (TS Eliot) Eugenie Vronskaya studied first in Moscow at the Krasnopresnenskya School of Art and then came to London in 1991, taking advantage of the new liberties after the fall of the Wall and everything that came down with it. She was the first Russian student to enrol for the Masters course at the Royal College of Art and completed her studies with an international bursary awarded by VISA. By then she had become a friend of Sir Anthony Caro and participated in his Triangle workshop at Pine Plane, New York State. Other residencies followed at Delfina in London and Spain and she was invited to teach in Winchester and London. In 1997 she moved to Scotland and has lived in the Highlands ever since. These are the bald and impressive facts of her journey and from the biography we can shine light on aspects of her painting. As a girl she studied icons, the enduring images of Russian Orthodox devotion, and when invited to show in a converted church at Kilmorack she invoked the idea of Iconostasis, the screen of icon paintings which divided the sanctuary from the rest of the church, to provide the leitmotif for her work, a series of small scale portraits. The idea we can take forward is that art stands between the worlds of the real and imagined, the temporal and spiritual, in her words:
“. . a transitional tunnel connecting and separating us from another dimension.” Much of her new imagery seems to be drawn from the banal: the bottles, cupboards and washing piles which surround her at home are spotlit, piled high, obliterated and recreated. A view out of a window is spotted with snow and Kandinsky’s early forests are evoked, and a simple still life of glass bottles owes something to Morandi. Like Philip Guston, whose approach she admires, the work suggests a naivety which belies its sophistication: a random mark or dribble undermines the notion of belle peinture in favour of a modernist aesthetic where conventional beauty is not an objective. These remarks are mere observations; from her own testimony we know that her paintings come from her emotional and sensory experiences: all the tribulations and moments of ecstasy, all the life experiences, the necessary handmaidens of ego, must finally be set aside as the work comes to a resolution, the poignant letting go which all artists must experience, the move from personal to general to allow the work of art to intercede, like the icon, into the lives of others: the Still Point of the exhibition’s title. GUY PEPLOE February 2015
2 Crystal Clear Sound, 2014 oil on canvas 76 x 102 cms ÂŁ3,200
3 All Eggs in One Basket, 2014 oil on board 76 x 60 cms ÂŁ2,600
4 Crystal Clear, 2014 oil on canvas 101 x 76 cms ÂŁ3,200
5 The Circle of Life, 2014 oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms ÂŁ2,100
6 White Wash, 2014 oil on canvas 61 x 45 cms ÂŁ2,100
7 Silva Lining, 2014 oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms ÂŁ2,400
8 Not Jars, Not Apples, 2014 oil on canvas 76 x 122 cms ÂŁ3,500
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9 Snow Happiness, 2014 oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms ÂŁ2,400
10 My Raft of Medusa , 2015 oil on canvas 60 x 46 cms £2,100
11 Jam Jar Catacomb, 2015 oil on canvas 120 x 150 cms ÂŁ5,300
12 Coffee, Cat, Mandelshtam, 2015 oil on canvas 60 x 46 cms ÂŁ2,100
13 A Letter to Malevich, 2014 oil on canvas 51 x 40 cms ÂŁ1,900
14 The Death of Marat, 2013 oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms ÂŁ2,100
15 Him, 2014 oil on canvas 76 x 51 cms £2,400
16 Teanassie Ghost, 2015 oil on canvas 51 x 78 cms ÂŁ2,400
17 Self Portrait, 2015 oil on canvas 76 x 51 cms ÂŁ2,400
18 Shelve Live, 2014 oil on canvas 122 x 76 cms ÂŁ3,500
19 Trinity, 2014 oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms ÂŁ2,100
20 The Moon in December, 2014 oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms ÂŁ2,100
EUGENIE VRONSKAYA 1966 1975-79 1981-83 1983-89 1991-93
Born in Moscow Studied Icon painting and other religious disciplines Krasnopresnenskaya School of Art, Moscow Moscow Fine Art University (BA and MA). Fine Art Royal College of Art, London (MA), painting
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1982 1990 1991 1995 1995 1996 2005 2006 2008 2011 2012 2014
Kuznetsky Most, Moscow Boundary Gallery, London Boundary Gallery, London Socollnic Gasworks Gallery, London TMI, Coppenhagen, Denmark. Detouched, Kingsgate Gallery, London War And Peace Boundary Gallery, London Iconostas Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland Between The Lines Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London River Runs Through.., Kilmorack Gallery Scotland Jane Roberts Fine Art , Fauburg Saint Honore, Paris Accidentally Deliberate Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1983-89 Kuznetsky Most, Krymsky Val, Manezh 1989 Group show, Mars Gallery, Moscow 1990 International Art Fair, Olympia, Kensington, London Glasgow Printmaking Gallery Pine Plane, New York State, USA 1991 Group show, Discerning Eye, Mall Gallery, London Art Express, Mall Gallery, London Austin Desmond Gallery, London XIXI, Royal College of Art, London
GROUP EXHIBITIONS CONTINUED 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 2000-14 2008 2010 2014
AWARDS 1990 1991 1992 2007 2012
Sireny Mission, Pachipanaway, Zimbabwe, Africa Degree show, Royal College of Art Kensington and Chelsea Centre DAD, Gasworks Gallery, London Stuck With It, Cubit Street Gallery Annual Kilmorack Group Show, Scotland Cadogan Contemporary, Hampshire Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland Partridge Fine Art, London The Gallery, London, Shepherd Market Discerning Eye, Mall Gallery London
International Artist Workshop Triangle, USA (Invited by Sir Anthony Caro) Glasgow Printmaking Workshop Visa International Bursary International Artist Workship, Pachinpaway, Zimbabwe, Africa ‘TMI’ Award, Denmark Award Best Local Artist by ICA, Scotland Borchard Self Portrait Award
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Pushkin Museum, Mars Gallery and New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Tate Gallery, London V & A, London Eden Court /The Public Catalogue Foundation /Borchard Collection
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