Eugenie Vronskaya

EUGENIE VRONSKAYA Reflection

EUGENIE VRONSKAYA Reflection

4 - 28 March www.scottigh-gallery.co.uk/eugenievronskaya

Front cover: Trinity (detail), oil on canvas, 46 x 60 cms (cat. ********) Left: Eugenie in her studio

Winter Night, Studio, oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms

FOREWORD 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: the paint is denied perfection of finish; a random mark or dribble undermines the notion of belle peinture in favour of a modernist aesthetic. 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.

GUY PEPLOE February 2015

Crystal Clear Sound oil on canvas 76 x 102 cms

All Eggs in One Basket oil on board 76 x 60 cms

Crystal Clear oil on canvas 101 x 76 cms

The Circle of Life oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms

White Wash oil on canvas 61x45 cms

Silva Lining oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms

Not Jars, Not Apples oil on canvas 76 x 122 cms

Snow Happiness oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms

My Raft or Medusa oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms

Jam Jar Catacomb oil on canvas 120 x 150 cms

Coffee, Cat, Mandelshtam oil on canvas 60 x 46 cms

A Letter to Malevich oil on canvas 51 x 40 cms

The Death of Marat oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms

White Wash oil on canvas 61 x 45 cms

Teanassie Ghost oil on canvas 51 x 78 cms

Self Portrait oil on canvas 76 x 51 cms

Shelve Live oil on canvas 122 x 76 cms

Trinity oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms

The Moon In December oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ TEL 0131 558 1200 EMAIL mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk