Valentina Ivanovna Apukhtina
Born in the city of Sumy in 1941. In 1960, she graduated from the Lviv College of Decorative and Applied Arts named after I.I. Trush. In 1967, she graduated from the Moscow Higher School of Art and Industry named after S.G. Stroganov.
Works in collections
Her works are housed in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the Far Eastern Art Museum, as well as in private collections in Germany.
Exhibitions and auctions
1987-88: Exhibition of Soviet Medal Art. Helsinki;
1988: 1st Creative Association of MOSKh. Exhibition Hall "Kashirka", Moscow;
1989: Group exhibition at the House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow;
1989: Group exhibition, Budapest-Moscow;
1990: Painting on Paper, London;
1990: Scientific and Technological Progress in Fine Arts, House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow;
1990: Origins. Action. Exhibition in Mediterranean cities: Turkey, Italy, Israel;
1990: Soviet-English group exhibition, Central House of Artists, Moscow;
1991: Contemporary Artists for Malevich, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow;
1991: Triennial, Delhi;
1991: Medal Exhibition, Royal Coin Cabinet, Stockholm;
1991: ART MYTH 2, Moscow International Art Fair, Central Exhibition Hall "Manege", Moscow;
1992: Solo exhibition, Central House of Artists, Moscow.
Author about himself
My interest in form grew as I became aware of myself in space. Perhaps I became an artist due to an acute sense of fleeting beauty; I wanted to capture it, to stop the moment, not to let a pleasing form disappear. And form consumed me. I struggled for a long time until I gained a sense of my own vision, a feeling of my own weight – this is where beauty lies. At the same time, I sensed a distance – everyone has their own; some are allowed close by form, while others are kept at a proper distance. In my case, it does not let me too close, and in turn, I do not let the viewer near my work. Detachment emerges. It turned out that beauty cannot be held onto, only immersed in its flow.
With color it was much the same. First came fascination with the Carpathians, a flower, a beautiful girl. Then amazement and admiration at world masterpieces, at great masters past and present... Then suddenly there was detachment, colors were no longer for their own sake, but somehow arranged themselves; there was a desire to convey not color itself, but an environment – an environment of tranquility and contemplation without violence or aggression, governed by harmony. Silence. All of this in color.
Currently, I am enthusiastically working on the conceptual series "Meditation" – I have suddenly realized that one can convey even the state of our breathing through color.
Critic
... Valentina Apukhtina's works "Dialogue" and "Mother and Child", with their flat, deliberately non-volumetric composition, assert a new plastic formula. The pieces actively interact with the environment, "cutting through" space, dispersing it in a centrifugal flow. The object and the surroundings exist as equally valid categories of artistic perception. The 'flattened' plastic is permeated with air and the dynamics of space thanks to the rhythmic play of lines and color spots. The easel composition "Dance of Shulamith" is executed in papier-mâché technique. The material creates an effect of weightlessness of the figure, emphasizing the fragility of the forms. A flexible, singing outline of the silhouette conveys the gliding movement of the dance. The elusive beauty, the ghostliness of the image is intensified by the mosaic play of the surface, its textural handling, the color dominated by a cold, metallic sheen...
G. Pletneva
Bibliography
Journal 'Decorative Art', No. 11, 1989; Journal 'Creativity', No. 10, 1989; Catalogue 'Apukhtina and Others. Painting, Sculpture', 1989, Moscow.
Works 17
