The Emotions in Color exhibition opened at Moscow’s Art-Space on January 16, 2025. The event, organized by the Public Foundation for Support of Culture and Contemporary Art, “gives professionals and amateurs in the field of visual arts, psychologists and the general public an opportunity to look at emotions, hidden fears and desires through the prism of art”.
Among the artists whose works have been selected for the exhibition are:
- Vladimir Naumov, Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter and teacher, People’s Artist of the USSR, winner of the USSR State Prize, honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts;
- Arkady Plastov, portraitist, landscape painter, illustrator, People’s Artist of the USSR;
- sculptor, People’s Artist of the USSR Iulian Rukavishnikov;
- Dmitry Belyukin, RAKh academician, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation;
- Russian artist Alvaro Neelix (Andrei Voronin);
- Ivan Matvienko, Russian artist, sculptor and producer of Elena Vaenga;
- Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Honored Artist of the Republic of Dagestan Khadzhi-Murad Alikhanov;
- Soviet artist, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Nikolai Novikov;
- Soviet artist, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Mikhail Abakumov
and many others.
The opening of the exhibition opened the way to the emotions of visitors literally from the threshold: the lights suddenly went out in the huge international exhibition complex in the heart of Moscow, where the event was held. Representatives of the cultural establishment, political and media figures found themselves in complete darkness alone with themselves and the objects of art, but none of them left the exhibition space. People started to light up flashlights on their cell phones and enthusiastically looked at the exhibits of contemporary art, which in the game of shadows appeared literally in a new light and perspective.
Head of the Organizational and Analytical Department of “Rossotrudnichestvo” Konstantin Volkov in his welcoming speech to the organizers noted:
– I have opened a huge number of exhibitions around the world, but today feels very different. We physically lack light, but look how much of it is made up for by the light of your smiles and the sparkle of your eyes from your thirst for knowledge! It is as if the absence of light has formed a new concept.
Even in the darkness the guests’ attention was attracted by the exposition area of the works of Vladimir Naumov, who passed away in 2021. His works were presented at the exhibition by his lifelong companion, Soviet and Russian film actress, People’s Artist of the RSFSR Natalia Belokhvostikova and his daughter, film director and film actress Natalia Naumova.
– The space turned out fantastic! The canvases played in the glare of light and shadow, gained some kind of convexity, magic – admired Natalia Belokhvostikova.
She also noted the peculiarities of the exposition:
– If you look at all these paintings, you can see that they take you to some distances and centuries. There is nothing random in them and color and composition are very important. Very often they cause an incredible emotional outburst. Even yesterday at my home, when we were collecting Volodya’s paintings, I couldn’t resist sitting down among them once again to feel them. They live, they are alive!
Since the exhibition was born spontaneously, we did not have time to prepare some of the paintings – we will show them later in Manezh at the Traditions and Modernity festival. But here are 15 works that were needed today, on this day, at this hour, because they reflect the theme of emotional and color energy of art.
You can look into them endlessly. Even I am still finding new layers of meaning, and continue to understand better and better the man I have lived with for 50 years. It’s fantastic. So I am very happy that Volodya’s work will live here for the duration of the exhibition.
At the end of the opening ceremony, Vera Kiseleva, President of the Public Foundation for Support of Culture and Contemporary Art, said:
– We did not, of course, anticipate that this would happen. But, apparently, it was necessary for us to feel such concentrated emotions in these mystical circumstances. This is real live art!
The guests were obviously in agreement, and left the dark exhibition center reluctantly.
The exhibition will last until February 16 and will include not only the exposition, but also lectures on the influence of color on the perception of art and the surrounding reality, master classes on painting and art therapy.
Address: Moscow, Tverskaya, 9 (Art-Space)
