Moscow artist Tatyana Nazarenko began participating in exhibitions in the late 1960s, and now her name firmly takes its place among those whose creative work made a significant contribution to Russian art in the 1970s.
While trying to define the main professional objectives for painters in her generation, T.G. Nazarenko, in one of her speeches, wrote about the desire to ‘reveal the spiritual world of a contemporary, to understand both that and myself, to express the truth of feelings’.
Contemporaries are people who live in the same time period, who are in the same circles, friends, acquaintances, colleagues. They were the ones who became the heroes in several works that formed a kind of cycle, united by their shared experiences of the problems and issues raised by the artist. The pursuit of the fortuitous and the mundane, to see what is significant in the disposition of someone’s contemporary, a keen interest in the spiritual world, the moral position taken by the individual, the thirst for authenticity, the genuineness of feelings and actions - these are what form a link between the paintings Young artists, After the Exam, Visitors at a Dormitory, and My Contemporaries.
The composition of the painting My Contemporaries is pointedly severe, and built in such a way that all attention is focused on the three main characters. The interior is extremely uncluttered, and is barely outlined. Despite the presence of some household items, it does not give the impression of a cozy, lived-in room. The objects around are not involved in what is happening. They are mercilessly shifted to the side, pushed aside by the presence of people and, along with that, they are actively working on the “second” perspective inherent in the picture - the emotional one - creating an image that is as much about the interests and occupations of its owners as it is about the rhythm of their life, and how unsettled their lives are. The main action takes place in an empty space, in the foreground, as in an area partitioned off on a stage.
Contemporaries are people that live nearby. Their faces seem surprisingly familiar, just like their manner of dress and how they gesture. The artist generalizes the features of specific models, trying to tell us about a certain type of person that lives nowadays. The heroes are ordinary, prosaic, but there are still three personalities in the portrait, three types of disposition. How the work is built, the arrangement of the figures, seemingly presupposes communication, dialogue, but we are more likely to have three monologues uttered at the same time: one personal, important to that person. The eldest of the heroes is detached, immersed in his own thoughts, almost indifferent to what is happening. The young man in the sweater is concentrated on trying to prove something to himself. The third hero - or heroine, to put it more accurately - is the artist herself. She stands a bit to the side, in the background, without interfering.
She does not embellish either her heroes or herself, she is really worried about the lack of understanding, contact between people who are close in terms of their spirits and the perceptions of their environment. We do not immediately notice that the window opening is completely empty; it resembles the empty architectural openings in Renaissance portraits. Most often, behind them a view opens up on a “universal”, cosmic landscape, which is supposed to remind us that the heroes stand in front of eternity. In My Contemporaries, outside the window is a also ordinary, or so it would seem, familiar courtyard, low brick houses, trees that are transparent in the autumn, and a bluish-gray sky with scudding clouds. The clouds suddenly blur the boundary between the interior and the landscape, naturally penetrating the room.
While trying to define the main professional objectives for painters in her generation, T.G. Nazarenko, in one of her speeches, wrote about the desire to ‘reveal the spiritual world of a contemporary, to understand both that and myself, to express the truth of feelings’.
Contemporaries are people who live in the same time period, who are in the same circles, friends, acquaintances, colleagues. They were the ones who became the heroes in several works that formed a kind of cycle, united by their shared experiences of the problems and issues raised by the artist. The pursuit of the fortuitous and the mundane, to see what is significant in the disposition of someone’s contemporary, a keen interest in the spiritual world, the moral position taken by the individual, the thirst for authenticity, the genuineness of feelings and actions - these are what form a link between the paintings Young artists, After the Exam, Visitors at a Dormitory, and My Contemporaries.
The composition of the painting My Contemporaries is pointedly severe, and built in such a way that all attention is focused on the three main characters. The interior is extremely uncluttered, and is barely outlined. Despite the presence of some household items, it does not give the impression of a cozy, lived-in room. The objects around are not involved in what is happening. They are mercilessly shifted to the side, pushed aside by the presence of people and, along with that, they are actively working on the “second” perspective inherent in the picture - the emotional one - creating an image that is as much about the interests and occupations of its owners as it is about the rhythm of their life, and how unsettled their lives are. The main action takes place in an empty space, in the foreground, as in an area partitioned off on a stage.
Contemporaries are people that live nearby. Their faces seem surprisingly familiar, just like their manner of dress and how they gesture. The artist generalizes the features of specific models, trying to tell us about a certain type of person that lives nowadays. The heroes are ordinary, prosaic, but there are still three personalities in the portrait, three types of disposition. How the work is built, the arrangement of the figures, seemingly presupposes communication, dialogue, but we are more likely to have three monologues uttered at the same time: one personal, important to that person. The eldest of the heroes is detached, immersed in his own thoughts, almost indifferent to what is happening. The young man in the sweater is concentrated on trying to prove something to himself. The third hero - or heroine, to put it more accurately - is the artist herself. She stands a bit to the side, in the background, without interfering.
She does not embellish either her heroes or herself, she is really worried about the lack of understanding, contact between people who are close in terms of their spirits and the perceptions of their environment. We do not immediately notice that the window opening is completely empty; it resembles the empty architectural openings in Renaissance portraits. Most often, behind them a view opens up on a “universal”, cosmic landscape, which is supposed to remind us that the heroes stand in front of eternity. In My Contemporaries, outside the window is a also ordinary, or so it would seem, familiar courtyard, low brick houses, trees that are transparent in the autumn, and a bluish-gray sky with scudding clouds. The clouds suddenly blur the boundary between the interior and the landscape, naturally penetrating the room.
Everyday life, the “familiarity” of the landscape brings this time period to mind, and at the same time brings a lyrical note into the painting’s strictly analytical structure.
