Russian artists during this transitive moment in history strove to create paintings, sets, costumes, and literature that sparked all levels of the sensory system and represented society and emotion using evocative methods that classical techniques were not capable of. In a small, emerging sect of the Russian art psyche, Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova, and Zinaida Serebriakova occupy an even smaller group of women that were part of the symbolist and avant-garde movements. While Goncharova and Popova deserve all of the attention in the world, I’d like to focus on one of Serebriakova’s works since I am least familiar with her.
All of her pieces on the class website are wonderful. I have a soft spot for portraits completed by female artists, so I could not resist doing an analysis of a Serebriakova self-portrait completed in 1956. Serebriakova’s use of color and gaze work to reveal the duality of her reactions to her estranged children and residence in Paris: joy at being able to create her art and despair at being away from her eldest kids. Though the background contains green, blue, and red hints that are also present on her body, black permeates throughout. The black demonstrates the lack of control Serebriakova feels over her current situation in France and the oppression she feels from the Soviet government. Even though she is not in the country, they are able to prevent her from seeing her children, two of the people she treasures most in the world. On her blue dress, the left side is a vibrant blue while the right side is such a dark navy that it seems almost black. This explicit color contrast demonstrates the duality of her current state of mind. The blue color of the dress works to show that in bright parts of her life there is still sadness. Her left hand is almost completely covered by the easel to add to the idea that drowning herself in her artwork serves as her only solace from her suffering. The darkness on the right side continues up to her face and draws the viewer’s attention to the face, specifically the eyes. In her portrait, Serebriakova is gazing directly at the viewer. Since Serebriakova painted this image, she is also gazing directly at herself. Gaze allows artists to view an object subjectively. In this case, Zinaida is able to look into her own eyes and peer into her own soul. This creative choice amplifies the dual nature of her mental state and demonstrates just how helpless she is to change her own reality. All she can do is watch.
What a lovely, creative response to this painting, Thando! I’m so glad that Serebriakova’s art spoke to you. She is one of my all-time favorites. 🙂 Her self-portrait in the costume of Pierrot is also particularly interesting, in light of our discussion of Pierrot/Petrouchka during our last class period. I hope we’ll have time to talk about it tomorrow as a group!
This painting is super interesting to compare to Serebriakova’s earlier self portraits that we discussed in class. Unlike those paintings, here, Serebriakova is not in a state of undress or physical vulnerability. However, her direct eye gaze at the viewer gives us a different type of intimacy with her. As you aptly note, you can see her helplessness and sadness in her eyes. I too love Serebriakova’s paintings and the relationship she is able to create with the viewer.
I also was quite interested by this painting as well! The colors are striking, as they are often a reflection of her emotional state. I agree that the dark black is a reflection of the darkness she feels. Serebriakova is able to connect us to her turmoil through the coloring, which is so powerful and moving.
Thando, this post is such a great analysis of this painting, and fun to read because I enjoyed the work as well. I really love how brought in the artist’s background and tied it into this complex, deep work of art. In particular, I found your comments about the “gaze” very interesting and powerful especially your observation that “Since Serebriakova painted this image, she is also gazing directly at herself”. This comment reveals how intimate the act of painting a self-portrait is. Finally, your last comment on the “dual nature” of her mental state was extremely thought provoking and powerful as well.
I love your observations regarding this piece. A detail I would love to add, and a continuity in Serebriakova’s style, is the sense of mystery. In previous self-portraits, she incorporates mirrors and objects in impossible locations (e.g. a candle on the virtual side of the plane of the mirror in her 1909 portrait) to make the viewer question their perspective of the work or its creation. At first, this looks like a more candid view of the artist: she clearly has art supplies present and the mirror by which she studies herself is absent. Her palette consists of a traditional four-color scheme: white, yellow, red, and black (attested by streaks on the palette). You can even see that she has mixed orange. Yet the blue that figures so prominently in her attire and the symbolism of the work is completely absent. It may fall to her right along the palette (truncated by the plane of the portrait surface), yet the fact that the corner would also have to include black and green makes this implausible. I leave with the sense that Serebriakova does not wish the blue to appear part of the physical genesis of her work, but rather an emergent symbolic property.
I think both of you made some very keen observations about this painting! Thando– the duality of light/dark shades in this painting, especially when considered in the context of her immediate situation, is a very interesting point. The specific use of colors that elicit joy and sadness contribute to your previous note. Zach– the recurring idea of perspective in her art was something I did not think about. The way we see her is almost through the canvas as she is painting herself, and the ‘gaze’ that Thando pointed essentially complete the self-portrait. She is clearly appreciative, but something is bothering her.