The exhibition "The Joy of Being" by Elena Mukhina in the halls of the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery

November 11, 2014 at 17 hours in the halls of the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery at the address: st. Prechistenka, 19 opens an exhibition of works by the honored artist of the Russian Federation, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts Elena Mukhina "The Joy of Being".

The exhibition will be held from November 11 to 30, 2014.

The work of Elena Mukhina is a bright page of modern culture. Her paintings in an amazing way exist on the verge of the chamber genre and monumental panels and are a kind of “pictorial song” of the generous sensuality and full-blooded beauty of the life of a Russian woman. Each work indisputably testifies to the bright poetics, individuality of manner, power of the pictorial language, courage of the artist’s creative search.

Elena Mukhina was born in 1954 in Yaroslavl in the family of the artist F.V. Novotelnov. She received her professional education at the Yaroslavl Art School, where her teachers were students of the famous painter A. Osmerkin - V. Leontyev, Yu. Druzhinin and others. Since 1975 - a participant in many regional, republican, international and foreign exhibitions, including joint exhibition with N. Mukhin in Cologne (Germany), two pastel exhibitions “Russia - Italy”, the exhibition “Golden Ring of Russia”, personal exhibition “Objects of Love” in the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery. In 1985 she joined the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 2000-20003 She was a member of the board of the Yaroslavl organization VTOO "Union of Artists of Russia". She was awarded the commemorative medal “Worthy”, in 2008 - the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The works of E. Mukhina are in private collections in Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the USA, in art museums of Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Norilsk, Exeter (Great Britain), and in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

The new exhibition project “The Joy of Being” includes several cycles of paintings created by the artist over the past five years: “Indian Summer”, “In the Bath”, “5 Pearls”, “The Joy of Being” - only about 50 works.

“What a great happiness to go to the workshop, draw and write.”

Elena Mukhina

The art of Elena Mukhina is already familiar to Muscovites. Ten years ago, she literally burst into the artistic space of the capital, striking the energy of her paintings and graphic sheets, leaving no room for indifference.

What, then, at the first solo exhibition in Moscow attracted the famous Yaroslavl artist in art? Originality of the vision of the world? A peculiar interpretation of images? Their unexpected openness of feelings? The courage of formal decisions? Probably all taken together, and also - sincerity, dedication to the profession and a special light - the light of love, which literally then bewitched and intrigued the viewer.

Time has not erased or diminished these qualities. The images of the series “Big NUs”, “Dance”, “Motherhood”, “Music”, well-known from that exhibition, the poetry cycles “Reading Anna Akhmatova, or“ Great Love of David Samoilov ”found their worthy continuation. New picturesque cycles “Indian Summer”, “Bathhouse”, individual canvases depicting dancing and loving couples, are penetrated by the same unusual sensation of warmth, rhythm of life. The freedom and imagination of the artist’s compositional thinking, determination, swiftness in drawing and the delicate harmony of the canvas’s picturesque organization give rise to exciting and memorable images. In them we find and recognize manifestations so characteristic of people in life: passion or shyness, nervous tension at the level of exhaustion or enveloping all softness and tenderness… This extravaganza of feelings often unfolds against the background of a distant landscape, as a kind of stable element, but it does not calm, but rather brings a sad note of loneliness.

Should the sources of the artistic manner of this master be sought? Of course, they certainly exist, but they are not expressed explicitly, but indirectly. They are carefully preserved somewhere in the pantries of the artist’s memory. An important, attractive and unforgettable is the originality of the talent of Elena Mukhina, her individuality, full-blooded images and a completely clear huge creative potential.