Leonardo Da Vinci at the National Gallery

This weekend i was very lucky as one of my father's friends offered me a trip to the Leonardo Da Vinci show. Which meant that we got to skip the queue as he already bought tickets.
Apart from being immensely crowded, the show was fantastic! I think that it was the only time when i saw so many works by Leonardo in the same room. I have seen some of his paintings around the world, for example there is one in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
In the show there were many drawings by Leonardo, too. The quality of the drawings is somewhat heavenly, they are so delicate and at the same time they are so strong, i cannot even explain this in words!
I think that his works have a certain aura of secrecy around them - the characters have strange mimics or their eyes have an inhuman expressions. The fact that he was also an inventor who invented so many very developed technologically things that he was a genius of his time also adds another measure to his works.
Unfortunately i could not take any photographs at the show, this image if found on - line.

His paintings are being studied over and over again and more and more things are still being discovered under the layers of paint.

David Hockney at The Royal Academy

This weekend i have been to the show by David Hockney at the Royal Academy.

I think that the show is fantastic! Me and David Hockney definately share similar views on colour. I loved the way the landscapes of his were painted as well, there is a similarity of his brushstrokes with Van Gogh, I thought.

Especially i have enjoyed his series of paintings when he painted the same scene at four different times of year: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In these series every time of the year looks happy and bright.

David Hockney's paintings, to my mind are very optimistic in colour and attitude - i do not remember a dull painting of his, even when i skimmed through some books of his other works. Especially i liked one book with his series of paintings of his two dogs, they remind me a lot of my mother's dogs who i miss a lot since i have moved out of my mother's house.

Unfortunately, i could not take any photographs at the show, the image below is found on - line.

Essay

This week i have started writing the second essay for this year and although i still have not decided on the question entirely, it is on the personal involvement of artists in their art - if they do it just for the sake of it, for therapeutical reasons or else.
I find this topic very interesting because i do art about myself and my feelings and it is much relevant to me.
also, i get to research in depth the motives for art of some of my favourite artists including Frida Kahlo.

I hope it goes well!

Another new piece

This is another piece i made thinking about travelling and going places. The windows painted symbolise all memorable places. I do like to travel but i get homesick quite easily too, so as i have two homes now it strange as i find myself homesick wherever i am.

The windows also symbolise all the people that make a place memorable as people are like windows into something new and interesting to me.

New work

After all the travelling i came to moscow where i started thinking about home and what makes a place home, i was thinking about how at the age of 14 i moved to england while still going back to Russia all the time. Now, i can say that i have two homes both with places to live, with relatives friends and even pets.
For me it is hard to be able to kind of swap lives every time im either coming to Moscow or going back to London.
Thinking about all this i made a painting (which i think is much influenced by exhibition of Yayoi Kusama).

It is showing my two homes with all their components, with roots.

Pinakotheque Paris

When i was in Paris i also went to the pinakotheque to see two shows: Alberto Giacometti and Expressionists.
At the Giacometti show i liked that the curators made a connection of Giacometti's work to art of Etruscans and explained the differences and similarities showing Etruscan art alongside with Giacometti sculptures and drawings.
I am very fond of Giacometti, his very expressive style of working, as if he is showing constant movement. I find that his work seems quite alive which is very appealing.

The second show was a show of my beloved expressionists including Der Blau Reiter. I have always loved expressionist art, especially the bright colours, i think that they add a positive feeling to the paintings.
My favourite artists from that show would be Kandinky, whose work i have always adored and also Marianne Fon Verefkin who i have seen before but never before this show i saw such a beautiful variety of her works, wish i could have one myself, they have a great aura of calamity and happiness maybe due to the choice of colours or maybe to a magic hand of the artist.

Again, unfortunately no photographs as the shows did not allow it.

Centre Pompidou, Paris

After Barcelona, i went to France specially to see some shows and at Centre Pompidou they had two great ones: Edmund Munk and Yayoi Kusama.
In Yaoi Kusamas exhibition, the best works were her installations, especially i enjoyed one where you walk in a mirror room with water on the floor and lot of multicoloured suspended lights, it literally looked and felt like i was hanging in space. I have to say that i much prefer Yayoi Kusama's work as my own work is inspired by hers, but Munk show was really interesting too as they put all the paintings in special order, so you could see how his eye illness affected his work. I also really like exhibitions organised by dates because you can see how the interests, subjects and colours change or occur again and again throughout the artists life.
Unfortunately, i do not have any pictures from shows as they did not allow photography, but, instead i did some photographs of the permanent collection there, which, is really impressive with so many great works by great artists, that i could not leave!
Here are some of my favourite works from there:

Barcelona Showcase

At the end of the term i took part in a one-day event in barcelona, called the barcelona showcase.
This was a 12 hour exhibition for artists from all over the world. It was held in on of Gaudi's buildings in centre of barcelona, on passeig de gracia.
To me it was a very new experience - my first show outside chelsea. To be honest, it was a bit of a mess, as there were about 60 people with their work that had to hang it. I have to say, that the hanging part was easy as everybody could choose a panel where to put their work, but the sound of 60 or so hammers was too much.

I am very happy that i took part in this show as now i have a little idea of what sows are like from behind the scenes and any experience is good!

*on the picture you can see how my panel looked in the show

Year 1 show

These are photos that i took of the first part of year 1 show.
I think that the show was successful, although we as a group had some problems while trying to curate it so everybody is treated fair.
The curating part was definitely an interesting experience, as it was my first try in participating in such a thing. The main problems we experienced was the diversity of everybody's work and the amount of people i the show but i think that it all went well!