Drawing Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Perumbadavam Sreedharan on the same canvas was how Maltseva Evgeniya kicked off an exhibition of her paintings at the Russian Cultural Centre here on Sunday afternoon.
It took only a few minutes for Ms. Evgeniya to paint Mr. Sreedharan who has written a book on Dostoyevsky. The Russian writer also happens to be one whom Ms. Evgeniya has read a lot during her growing up years.
Though she has held a number of oil-on-canvas exhibitions, this is her first exhibition in charcoal. The exhibition has 18 paintings in all and draws upon the artist’s life in Russia and her first trip to Kerala along with her husband.
ADVERTISEMENT
The subjects of a few of her works are people whom she met during her trip to India. She has made a collage of a medical professional who is also a singer after hearing of how many people in the country had to take up professional careers while their passions were relegated to second spot.
A waiter at a hotel is the subject of two drawings.
The only work with a woman as the subject is inspired by her mother, Ms. Evgeniya says. Though there is a faint smile on the woman’s lips, her eyes tell a different story. Ms. Evgeniya says it reflects the sadness in her life - burdened by all her responsibilities, she has no fun or enjoyment. “It is the story of women around the world,” she says.
ADVERTISEMENT
Glimpse of her life
Besides people whom she met, the exhibition also affords a glimpse into her life – her husband and Lisa, a street dog. A number of charcoal works feature the two. Pointing to one, she says she has a big canvas of it which she named ‘I’m better than Lucian Freud,’ the British painter, because she did not like his work. “But then I realised I was neither better nor worse than him, just different.”
There is a portrait of her husband where she has focussed on the character of light and shadow, without going into any details.
One interesting work is that of Lucifer before his fall, and is inspired by an ice sculpture she made of Lucifer in front of a church in her city during the festival of Angels. “He was beautiful and clean before his fall, and many people did not know that.”
Born in Izhevsk in Russia, she studied art there before leaving to study at Kazan, and then to Moscow to learn contemporary art. She planned to go to London but did not go there. After an exhibition called ‘Spiritual Warfare’ in Moscow, she realised her time there had ended and returned home. She did nothing for a year and a half, but resumed her career with an exhibition ‘Song of Songs,’ says Ms. Evgeniya.
On Sunday, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury was among those who dropped in to view the exhibition.