In December 2009, a retrospective exhibition of works by Natella Toidze was opened in the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery. The presented works give a complete picture of the painter's creative path. The heir to the famous dynasty of artists, she is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, she was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Natella Toidze's work is, first of all, a reflection of deep feelings, comprehension of the surrounding world, therefore the themes, plots and technique of performance are so diverse.
Her first and main teacher was her father - the famous sculptor and graphic artist Georgy Moiseevich Toidze. It was he and the creative environment in which the future artist grew from birth - clay, pencils, models, books and talks about art, numerous meetings with friends of grandfather Moisei Ivanovich (student of I.E. Repin, one of the founders of the USSR Academy of Arts) and uncle Irakli Toidze (famous poster artist) - had a great influence on her, shaped the inner world of Natella Georgievna.
Already in her early works, an outstanding artistic talent manifested itself. In a small watercolor work "Rybki" (1967) Toidze declares himself as an excellent colorist. The objects are written a little conventionally, everything is built in color. The silverware shines, the pearlescent surface of the peeled fish absorbs the reflections from the emerald glass of the bottle and the blue tablecloth. The color of the picture is similar to the color of a gray-pearl shell, which reflects the emerald-blue sea and the blue-turquoise sky.
The meeting of still little Natella with the famous artist Martiros Saryan and his parting words "always remain yourself" then seemed common, and only with time it became clear that a simple phrase was the best advice for a novice painter. There is a great meaning hidden in this simplicity - reflections on Russian art, the talent and fate of the artist, "genetic memory", which is a connecting thread between generations, and that an artist becomes an Artist only if he is not a hostage of all past experience, but gains freedom of choice.
This is the path that Natella Toidze chose. She entered the Moscow State Academic Art School in memory of 1905 at the Faculty of Theater and Scenery Art, deliberately refusing to choose the Faculty of Painting. Her studies allowed her to think in broader categories, to discover a new understanding of the space and scale of the canvas, to realize the importance of dialogue between the viewer and the artist.
Thus, large-format works appear in Toidze's work ("Before the Snow", 2007), a scale is set commensurate with a person who can "enter" a picture as if into another world. The viewer ceases to be an outside observer; he seems to be included in the figurative world of the artist. Excessive details disappear from the paintings, and the main thing remains - nature, which is in harmony with man.
Natella's artistic method is not in a special recognizable style, but in a constant search for the only correct plastic solution based on the task. To implement it, the master freely uses various painting techniques.
"Cezanne" still lifes with a white tablecloth and perspective, "turned inside out" at the viewer ("Still Life in the Kitchen", 1974), "Levitan" landscapes, multifaceted in their content ("Sleigh", 2000) are allusions to existing cultural traditions: post-impressionism and avant-garde, Moscow and Georgian schools of painting. Drawing on the experience of his predecessors, Toidze creates his own system of values \u200b\u200bthat does not depend on fashion.
In recent decades, the decorative element has intensified in her work. Thus, the heroines of the diptych "Flora and Fauna" (1999) appear before us as African maidens; an exotic interpretation of images allows you to focus on the beauty of the lines, the clarity of the silhouettes, especially spectacular against the background of flowering ornamental shrubs, painted with wide short multidirectional strokes that include all tones - from pale pink to dark cherry. Ornamental background, numerous details, silhouette, large color planes, richness of palette and contrast make the picture unusually effective.
At first glance, Natella Toidze's painting is easy to perceive, but the longer you look at her canvases, the more meanings are revealed in them. Any object in the space of the canvas acquires special significance.
In her work, the artist combines decorativeism and natural vision, complex spatial solutions and flat compositions. Each of her works is a deeply thought out and solved problem, and her work as a whole is a reflection of a complex inner world.
An exhibition of works by the famous Moscow painter, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Natella Toidze, opens in Moscow on Wednesday. The artist's paintings can be seen until October 31 in the exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Arts at 21 Prechistenka.
The exhibition includes both the early works of the artist and recently created paintings. Landscapes of Georgia, painted in a pasty "temperamental" manner, close to the painting of "Jack of Diamonds" (cycle "Svaneti", "Babushkin's yard", "Narikala"), and complex in composition, exquisite still lifes coexist with more restrained color gamut landscapes of the middle Russia ("Sleigh", "Moscow Courtyard", polyptych "Northern Mallows", "Thaw").
A characteristic feature of Toidze's work is the indispensable presence of a dramatic beginning in her painting, which is evident even with the high decorativeness, pronounced ornamentalness of the canvases ("Winter in Bullfinches", "Wild Grapes", "Early Summer"), the press release of the exhibition notes.
The artist's creative method is certainly work from nature, where she creates landscapes, still lifes, portraits. In the last decade, Toidze prefers large-format canvases and at any time of the year he paints them not in a workshop, but exclusively in the open air, despite the technical difficulties of performing such works. In such paintings, the author's special ability to emphasize the poetry of everyday life is clearly noticeable, to summarize it picturesquely and show the world from an unusual point of view: the stems, leaves, trunks of trees are taken large, life-size, sometimes turning into a pattern that is complex in terms of color ("Thickets", " August "," Before the Snow ").
Underlined, even somewhat exaggerated decorativeism, evoking associations with European art of the era of symbolism, is characteristic of another layer of Toidze's works - metaphorical compositions (Flora and Fauna, diptych Intermission, Hunting).
“For Natella Toidze there are no self-restrictions in the choice of the subject: the world is diverse, and the artist sees the aesthetic principle in this diversity. She is equally interested in the nature of the Caucasus and the Russian North, the views of Moscow courtyards and the landscape of village fields. Everything she writes is full an acutely individual feeling, which contains a lot: from the innate ancestral memory of past generations to the acuteness of the realities of the modern world, "writes art critic Vladimir Prokhorov.
"The art of this master should puzzle the snob-connoisseur of contemporary art, because it comes from the heart, not from a cold concept. It does not fit into any stereotypical system and lives according to the laws of pure painting. The figurative structure of these works is immersed in a vibrating colorful element. The subtlest coloring of the works is mysteriously interwoven with the spicy colors of the sunny South, and the shades of the inescapable sadness of the vastness of Central Russia, and the already completely unearthly reflections of some other beautiful world, which attracts the viewer with the picturesque fabric of Natella's canvases, ”notes Prokhorov.
Natella Toidze was born and raised in Moscow in a family associated with art for several generations. To this artistic dynasty belonged the artist's grandfather, Mose Toidze, a painter, a student of I.E. Repin, one of the founders of the USSR Academy of Arts, and her father, Georgy Toidze, a famous sculptor and graphic artist.
Natella Toidze graduated from the theatrical and decorative arts faculty of the Academic Art School "In Memory of 1905". In her professional development, the traditions of the Moscow school of painting became fundamental. At the same time, the artist calls her father the first and main teacher: since childhood, Giorgi Toidze has set serious creative tasks for his daughter, including sculptural ones. Choosing easel painting, she successfully works in the genres of landscape and still life, writes portraits and allegorical compositions.
The name of the exposition may make you associate with a bright sculpture made of various materials. And, indeed, when you come to the exhibition, you will see both color and shape, but only on the canvas.
Painting by Natella Toidze "Intermission. Columbine and Harlequin"
"I started to do art with sculpture, so when I switched to painting, I intuitively began to sculpt the shape with color. If you come close to my works, you can see that they are, like a mosaic, assembled from many spots, brush strokes," says the author Exhibitions.
The very concept of "sculpture of color" belongs to art critic Paola Volkova, who, having visited one of Toidze's exhibitions, called her painting sculptural.
Painting by Natella Toidze "By the Fireplace"
Love for forms was passed on to Natella from his father - Georgy Toidze, a famous sculptor and graphic artist. The family lived in an apartment that was inseparable from the workshop. It was there that the future artist spent all her free time, doing modeling from clay and plasticine. According to her memoirs, she even had her own small machine. The girl was seen as a promising sculptor, but at the age of 10-11, Natella asked to buy her paints: “Color has always been of great importance to me. Since childhood, I loved to observe shades, shadows and highlights, and this happened unconsciously. "
Painting by Natella Toidze "Seedling"
Besides, Natella was interested in large format canvases. And when she still did not have an easel, her parents gave her huge sheets of paper that could be divided into several parts. But Natella used them entirely - she laid them on the floor and painted, lengthening the brush.
Remained with the artist and passion for sculpture. In future plans to make a joint exhibition of color and form: "I have been thinking about this for a long time, but there are more technical problems with sculpture - it needs material, next time I will definitely try to implement this idea."
Exhibition "Natella Toidze. Sculpture of Color" in New Manezh
Outdoor workshop
Most of Natella Toidze's paintings are landscapes and still lifes, as well as decorative and allegorical compositions. Everything related to nature, the artist writes in the open air. According to her, only outdoor work conveys the whole palette of feelings and emotions from what he saw.
"The main thing for me is to convey the emotional state of nature, which the viewer himself can feel with me," says Toidze.
It usually takes three to four days to write one piece. All this time, Natella Georgievna spends in the open air - the artist never finishes the work in the studio: “If suddenly I see some inaccuracy in the studio, then together with the canvas I return to nature. Because the open air has its own laws of writing: light, colors, atmosphere. And an inaccurate color stroke (smear) can ruin the entire pictorial state of the picture, just as a false note can destroy musical harmony. "
Painting by Natella Toidze
Working outdoors, of course, carries with it certain difficulties (especially since the dimensions of the canvases are huge - up to two meters). The main one is related to the weather, which must be the same for several days in order to preserve the state of nature.
“Once,” Natella Georgievna recalls, “on the last day of work, the temperature dropped sharply, and when I brought the painting home, my household immediately noticed:“ The landscape became five degrees colder. ”Because cold is a change in lighting, the appearance of clouds and, of course, other colors. So you have to work very quickly - the state around you changes every minute. "
Painting by Natella Toidze "Herzeno. On the Moscow River"
Paintings around us Ideas for new works, according to the artist, come to her in different ways: she will notice something during a walk, but she will come up with something while building the next composition. But the main goal of the author is to set new tasks for himself every time, to discover something unusual and convey it to the viewer: "If I write winter, I always try to show it in different colors, because there are many conditions at any time of the year."
Such paintings include "March", where Natella Georgievna wanted to portray a winter composition, but the calendar spring was already in the yard. Then she decided to add a decorative element to the work and hung patterned rugs against the background of snow, which became the basis of the work.
Painting by Natella Toidze "March"
And in the next picture ("The Snow Has Melted"), winter has finally receded - the clear sky and bright sun, dry land and trees awaiting buds - all this creates a tangible feeling of spring.
"The hazel bush was so brightly illuminated by the sun that it seemed to glow itself. So he entered the work," - says the landscape painter.
There are also many flower compositions at the exhibition, for example, "Golden Balls" painted in the Kostroma village: "I saw how flowers powerfully penetrate through the cracks of the fence, and it seemed to me interesting to depict what I saw in detail."
Painting by Natella Toidze "Golden balls"
There are still lifes on display. For example, the paintings "Watermelon on Black" and "Watermelons on Red" are unusual in their pictorial task, where the author experiments with the background: "I wanted to paint pieces of watermelon on a scarlet tablecloth, but so that they remain integral and do not merge with the fabric."
Pictures by Natella Toidze "Watermelon on Black" and "Watermelons on Red"
The artist applies this kind of solution to the seemingly familiar image of Flora and Fauna. If the goddess Flora is usually portrayed as a blue-eyed blonde girl with a basket of flowers, and Fauna is a reserved young lady surrounded by animals, then Natella Georgievna sees them first as black women immersed in the night heat of a certain tropical world ("Flora and Fauna / diptych"), and then altogether northern beauties in the coolness of the forest ("Northern Flora and Fauna / diptych").
Work by Natella Toidze "Northern Flora and Fauna / diptych"
Georgian motives
"When my father was alive, he loved to show me Georgia, we traveled a lot and planned the whole route in advance."
Painting by Natella Toidze "Kutaisi. Iron Bridge"
The Georgian series is very different from the rest of the paintings. According to the author, it is not only a mixed technique - the works are written in pastels and watercolors, but also in other sensations: “Every time I work, I write what I feel, therefore the unusual color scheme is associated with the warm and vibrant atmosphere of Georgia” ...
More than half of the series is Svaneti, where the artist worked for about a week. In her paintings, Toidze, in addition to the famous towers, showed the traditional hay harvesting, the sunset in Ushguli, as well as mountain ranges, against which the colorful roofs of rural houses can be seen.
Pictures of Natella Toidze "Svaneti"
Natella Georgievna feels Tbilisi in her own way: “If you remember the old part of Tiflis, then the city seems pearlescent, like a shell, its shades are so subtle”.
The landscape painter's love for Georgia is expressed not only in her paintings, she often visits Tbilisi, where, by the way, is the house-museum of her grandfather, the famous painter and favorite student of Repin, Mose Toidze: “I would gladly bring this exhibition to Georgia. If invited, I will definitely come. "
Pictures of Natella Toidze from the Georgian series
Natella Toidze's works are kept in the collections of major Russian museums: the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. In addition, the artist's paintings periodically participate in international shows - in Paris, Lisbon, New York, and Beijing.
In the exhibition hall of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts on September 2 at 11 o'clock a personal exhibition of the famous Moscow artist Natella Toidze will open. In the past few years, her retrospective exhibitions have been successfully held at the State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, Paris, Vologda, Saransk, Nizhny Novgorod.
Natella Georgievna Toidze possesses a recognizable author's style and a high pictorial culture, embedded in the family, associated with art for several generations. To this artistic dynasty belonged the artist's grandfather, Mose Toidze - a painter, student of IE Repin, father, Georgy Toidze, a famous sculptor and graphic artist, and uncle, poster artist Irakli Toidze, author of the famous poster "Motherland Calls!" Among the first female professional painters in Russia was the artist's grandmother, Alexandra Sutina, who graduated from the Orthodox icon painting class of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
N. Toidze was born and raised in Moscow, where she graduated from the theatrical and decorative art faculty of the Moscow Academic Art School "In Memory of 1905". In her professional development, the traditions of the Moscow school of painting became fundamental. Choosing easel painting, Toidze has been successfully working in its different genres for many years: landscape, still life, portrait, and writes allegorical compositions.
Since 1973, Natella Toidze began to regularly participate in Moscow, All-Union and All-Russian exhibitions. In 1984 she joined the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 2004, after a personal exhibition at the Russian Academy of Arts, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts. Since 2007 Natella Toidze has been a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, and since 2011 - a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts. She took part in exhibitions at the State Museum in Beijing, at the Lincoln Center in New York, in Lisbon, etc. Natella Toidze's works are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and other museum and private collections in Russia, as well as in private collections in France, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Finland, USA.
The Kaluga exhibition presents more than 20 works by Natella Toidze from the collection of the author, the Russian Academy of Arts and private collections. The exhibition displays both early and recently created works of Toidze: landscapes painted in a pasty manner, close to the painting of "Jack of Diamonds", sophisticated still lifes complex in composition and color, landscapes of central Russia restrained in color ("Moscow Courtyard", " Northern mallow "), emphasized decorative metaphorical compositions (diptych" Flora and Fauna ").
The exhibition of the famous Moscow artist, member of the Russian Academy of Arts Natella Toidze "Sculpture of Color" has opened in the Voronezh Museum. Kramskoy on Friday, March 6. Natella Toidze is one of the most famous and popular Russian artists today. In the past few years, her large, retrospective exhibitions have been successfully held in the Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, large galleries in different cities of the world. Natella Toidze's works are in museums and private collections in Russia, as well as in private collections in France, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Finland, USA.
The current exhibition includes both early works by Natella Toidze, created back in the 1970s, and recently written. In total, the exposition includes about six dozen paintings - mostly large-scale ones. These are works from the collection of the author, the Russian Academy of Arts and private collections. The exhibition includes all genres in which the artist works - landscape, still life, allegorical canvases. The vernissage gathered a huge number of spectators, the opening was attended by the wife of the governor Tatyana Gordeeva, Voronezh cultural figures, businessmen, city officials.
The definition "Sculpture of color" belongs to the famous art critic Paola Volkova, - the director of the museum Vladimir Dobromirov told about the name of the exposition, - and at first glance it seems paradoxical, but in fact, if we perceive the shape of a sculpture through color, then why not create painting this sculptural form through color?
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Photo - Sophia Uspenskaya
Natella Toidze comes from a family that has been associated with art for several generations. To this artistic dynasty belonged the artist's grandfather, Mose Toidze - a painter, a student of Ilya Repin, one of the founders of the USSR Academy of Arts, father, Georgy Toidze, a famous sculptor and graphic artist, and uncle, poster artist Irakli Toidze, author of the famous poster "The Motherland Calls" ... Among the first female professional painters in Russia was the artist's grandmother, Alexandra Sutina, who graduated from the Orthodox icon painting class of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
This is a story, and the fact that it has a continuation, the fact that Natella Georgievna so high and beautifully carries the banner of the art of this amazing family is inspiring, - said art critic Bronislav Tabachnikov, opening the exhibition. He called the exposition "a painting holiday".
When you look at the paintings, I am amazed by several qualities: this is the highest culture of the canvas, secondly, it is a celebration of color - it feels alive on Natella Toidze's canvases, you want to immerse yourself in it - and, finally, this is an amazing drama.
Natella Toidze, who came to Voronezh to attend the opening of the exhibition, noted that, indeed, the desire to capture the "drama of nature" is one of the main creative tasks for her.
All the works were done in the open air - this is very important for me, because I try to convey this dramatic state of nature, - said Natella Toidze. - Many of my works are called like this: “Before the Snow”, “After the Rain”, this transition from one state to another. Therefore, always, regardless of the weather, unless it is below -7 outside, I work in nature. I have a special huge easel, made to order, which is not always convenient with it, but it is very interesting to me, because it is impossible to paint nature from the workshop.
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