They present a radio tour of the exhibition of Katya Medvedeva in the Petrovsky Passage.
One of the brightest representatives of "naive art" in Russia, she began to paint at the age of forty, when she worked as a cleaner at an art school. Twenty years later, her paintings hung in Parisian museums next to the works of Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. Critics call her a "Russian nugget", collectors consider it a great success to get her work for their own collections. “The Art of a Pure Soul” is the name of the exhibition of works, which has been open since April 26 in Petrovsky Passage. Immediacy in joy and sadness, the pure look of a child - such is the "naive art" of Katya Medvedeva.
A radio tour for Silver Rain listeners was conducted by:
| Anna Chudetskaya exhibition curator |
Listen to the whole tour
1. Dasha Ivanova. 2000. Silk, oil, mixed media. 129*92
2. Today I am dancing! 2004. Cardboard, acrylic. 68*48
3. Three graces. 2001. Silk, acrylic.
4. Spanish dance. 2004. Silk, oil. 67.5*48
5. Self-portrait. 2003. Oil on canvas.
6. Bride. 2013. Canvas, oil, mesh. 93*63.5
7. Mom, I don't want custody! 2017. Silk, mixed media. 87*75
8. A lonely sail turns white. 1994. Oil on canvas. 78*58
9. To be born in Russia is destiny 1989. Oil on canvas. 145*97
10. Happy Christmas! 1990. Oil on canvas. 70*50
11. Broken button accordion. 2016. Oil on canvas. 68.5*54.5
12. Russian landscape. 2001. Oil on canvas. 65*86
13. Moscow. 2009. Silk, oil, mixed media. 60*80
14. Sunflowers. 2009. Fabric, oil, sequins. 100*100
Project partner
The elusive partisan of contemporary art has made another risky foray. Under the guise of paintings by a street artist, he exhibited the Venice in oil installation on the central square of Venice and left undiscovered from under the nose of the police.- 24.05.2019 Sold 13 lots out of 20 - only 65%. Bought Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk
- 22.05.2019 Face-to-face auction No. 56 will take place on Saturday, May 25, 2019. Bidding starts at 12:00
- 21.05.2019 The auction catalog on May 25, 2019 amounted to 653 lots - painting, graphics, religious and arts and crafts
- 20.05.2019 The traditional twenty AI Auction lots are eight paintings, eight sheets of original and two printed graphics, one work in mixed media and one porcelain plate
- 17.05.2019 Today was the perfect day to sell art: sunny and cool. And indeed the results are not bad: 14 out of 20 lots were sold, that is, 70%
- 13.05.2019 Many believe that such a high concentration of very wealthy people inevitably creates adequate demand in the domestic art market. Alas, the scale of purchases of paintings in Russia is by no means directly proportional to the sum of personal fortunes
- 12.03.2019 Such a conclusion is contained in a study published in March 2019 by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- 23.01.2019 A family heirloom, an inheritance, hung on the wall, and hung. But, having decided to sell it, people think for the first time. Where is the best place to sell? How not to get cheap? Not so easy questions, once it comes down to it
- 21.01.2019 Do collectors need documents to own a painting? Beginners want the final paper, the actual armor. What if they steal? What if you need to sell? How then can I prove that the picture is mine?
- 16.01.2019 When working on a database of auction results, we are most often able to calculate repeat sales. That is, to fix when the work was sold earlier and how much they managed to earn on it. The best examples of 2018 - in our review
An exhibition of one of the most famous representatives of naive art in Russia, the artist Katya Medvedeva (April 26 - May 31), was opened in the aristocratic Petrovsky Passage as part of the Chereshnevy Les Open Arts Festival. Marina Loshak, Tatyana Metaksa, Andrey Kolesnikov, Margarita Koroleva, Mark Tishman, Igor Vernik and others were among the first to evaluate the exposition and talk to Katya.
The evening began with a charity auction, for which the artist provided several of her works. For many lots, the proceeds from the sale of which will be transferred to the young wards of the Galchonok Charitable Foundation, a real struggle unfolded. The first winner was Andrey Kolesnikov, who got the painting "Ballerinas", and the most expensive lot of the auction was the painting "Giselle", which Dmitry Pushkar bought for 195 thousand rubles.
In her welcoming speech, the organizer of the festival, Edith Kusnirovich, emphasized that the retrospective “Katya Medvedeva. The Art of a Pure Soul” is dedicated to two anniversaries at once: the artist turned 80 years old, and she devoted 40 of them to painting. “Katya's work touches the soul of everyone, resonates in us. The idea of the project was proposed by a friend of the festival, collector Vladimir Tsurko, and the exposition is completely formed from the works of private collectors - faithful accomplices of the Chereshnevoy Les, she said. “This project is a continuation of our tradition of organizing exhibitions in the elegant building of the Passage on Petrovka, an architectural monument of the 19th century.”
Western collectors often call the works of Katya Medvedeva “painting of a naked soul”: “People felt something real in my work. I want to give advice: do not give up - never. This exhibition at Petrovsky Passage is a lesson for you: look for yourself at any age. I still live because I write - for you! Katya confessed.
An orphan from an orphanage, self-taught, Katya Medvedeva began painting when she was almost 40 years old - working as a cleaner at an art school. But already three months later her first exhibition took place, and 20 years later, in the 90s, her paintings hung in Paris in the same room with the works of Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. “Purely Russian talent,” wrote the admiring Chagall about her. "Russian nugget!" critics exclaimed as collectors lined up.
The significance of Katya Medvedeva's work was emphasized by the director of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin Marina Loshak, which put her on a par with the outstanding artists of the 20th century: “All the exhibitions that take place within the framework of Chereshnevoy Les, a longtime partner of the Pushkin Museum, are wonderful. But I have a special relationship with Katya: her paintings were exhibited in 2004 in our museum, which, as you know, is very strict in the selection of artists. I also have two works by Katya Medvedeva at home. The better the artist, the finer he is arranged, the more he is internally free - the more he wants to be like the talent that Katya shows. Both Kandinsky, and Larionov, and Goncharova, and Malevich dreamed of getting closer to a wonderful, naive and sincere art to some extent. But only a few succeeded: Pirosmani, Henri Rousseau and Katya Medvedeva - in some ways close to children, with their absolute openness, generosity, with their free view of the world, joyful and happy. Therefore, the things that we see here with you cannot leave anyone indifferent: they change something in us, they make us smile, think, and sometimes even feel sad. But this is a genuine art that gives us what we lack so much in life: sincerity and joy.”
The exhibition in Petrovsky Passage, which is held with the support of BOSCO DI CILIEGI, presents works by Katya Medvedeva from ten private collections created over the past few decades. These are oil, acrylic and tempera paintings, watercolors, works on velvet and silk.
Her stories are always a response to positive and dramatic processes in the surrounding world, a concentration of personal impressions and inner experiences. Medvedeva's favorite themes - piercing landscapes, portraits, biblical stories and ballet - are just presented on the second floor of the Passage.
A catalog with reproductions of 150 works from private collections, performed from 1984 to the present, was published for the exhibition.
Now the works of Katya Medvedeva are kept in the Tsaritsyno Museum-Estate in Moscow, the House of Folk Art in Moscow, the Municipal Museum of Naive Art in Moscow, the Charlotte Zander Museum in Germany and in other museum and private collections in Russia and abroad. Visitors to Petrovsky Passage can also purchase some of Medvedeva's recent work on display for their collection.
The immediate joy and sincere sadness of Katya Medvedeva is known all over the world today. To live up to 80 years old, continuing to look at the world with the open, pure eyes of a child, is the path of Katya Medvedeva, who will try to follow the exhibition “The Art of a Pure Soul” dedicated to her.
The XVII Open Arts Festival has prepared many other interesting events this year: you can see the full program.
The exposition will be shown as part of the Cherry Forest festival
Photo: DR
As part of the Chereshnevy Les Open Arts Festival, from April 26 to May 31, an exhibition of one of the most famous representatives of naive art in Russia, artist Katya Medvedeva, will be held.
Retrospective “Katya Medvedeva. The Art of a Pure Soul” is timed to coincide with her 80th birthday and 40 years devoted to painting.
An orphan from an orphanage, self-taught, she began painting while working as a cleaner at an art school when she was almost 40 years old. But already three months later her first exhibition took place, and 20 years later, in the 90s, her paintings hung in Paris in the same room with the works of Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. “Purely Russian talent,” wrote the admiring Chagall about her. "Russian nugget!" critics exclaimed as collectors lined up.
The exhibition in Petrovsky Passage, sponsored by Bosco Di Ciliegi, will feature works by Katya Medvedeva from ten private collections created over the past few decades. These are oil, acrylic and tempera paintings, watercolors, works on velvet and silk. According to Katya, the choice of technique when working on a painting depends on the theme of the work and the mood: “When I’m businesslike, I use acrylic, when I think about heaven, I have tempera in my hands, and if I want to talk heart to heart, I paint in oil.”
Katya uses different materials for her painting: black velvet, silk, cloth, imitation pearls, rhinestones, colored feathers. Her stories are always a response to positive and dramatic processes in the surrounding world, a concentration of personal impressions and inner experiences. Medvedeva's favorite themes - nature in all its gamut, portraits, biblical scenes and ballet - will be presented at the exhibition in Petrovsky Passage. She knew the Bible well since childhood, and fell in love with ballet after reading the book of Maya Plisetskaya's memoirs: here, on her canvases, weightless dancers twist fouettes and freeze in graceful jumps.
“I hope this exhibition at Petrovsky Passage will convey to people the main lesson that life has taught me: look for yourself at any age, a person’s life should be interesting. I have achieved my happiness through creativity. Do you think I would have lived to this age if I had not painted? says Katya.
Now the works of Katya Medvedeva are kept in the Tsaritsyno Museum-Estate in Moscow, the House of Folk Art in Moscow, the Municipal Museum of Naive Art in Moscow, the Charlotte Zander Museum in Germany and in other museum and private collections in Russia and abroad.
