"Untitled", watercolor, transparence, modernism, constructivism, edgy, lightness

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Yelena Popova
"Untitled", watercolor, transparence, modernism, constructivism, edgy, lightness
2011

About the Item

Yelena Popova’s background as an artist who was born behind the so-called Iron Curtain in the USSR, when Socialism was still very much alive and when the world had not even thought about Perestroika and Glasnost, explains her interest in political topics and in a practice of art that has relevance (or at least a relation) to issues that concern our societies. This attitude is the basis for the understanding not only of her videos or computer-installations, but also of her paintings and drawings, even though these look rather abstract and thus seemingly indifferent in regards to the issues mentioned above. Popova herself relates her transparent watercolors on paper to – on the one side – a heavy nuclear accident that happened in her home town Ozyersk in 1957, many years before she was born in 1978. On the other side, she relates these works to the Russian modernist, constructivist, formalist art history and thus to artists like Lyubov Popova, Aleksandra Ekster, Natalia Gontscharova, to name just a few. But how can this relation be understood?: The watercolor was extremely diluted and the ground (paper) remained visible and the resulting forms were pale, delicate, and light. Popova wants us to see these watercolors as metaphors for the invisibility of nuclear rays that are, however, existent (as is the color). Also, the reference of modernist art points towards the utopian idea of an everlasting and infinite energy source. This was a modern project (that failed). Popova lives and works in Nottingham. She is a British artist who was born in 1978 in the USSR. Before she studied art at the prestigious Royal College in London (between 2009-2011), where she graduated with the Master Degree in 2011, she had studied Set Design and Technology at the Theater School, Moscow (1995-2000), and received a Postgraduate Diploma at Central Saint Martins in London (2007). Yelena Popova was a ‘Visiting Professor at Helsinki Fine Art Academy’ in 2017-18. She has enjoyed several prestigious residencies in the last couple of years, like – for instance - at Girton College, University of Cambridge. And she enjoys to be constantly shown in institutional solo-exhibitions, such as “The Scholarstones Project“ in Manchester’s Holden Gallery (2020), „Townlets“ in Wakefield’s The Art House (2018), „Elements“ in Cambridges Girton College, University of Cambridge (2017), „After Image“ in Nottingham’s Nottingham Contemporary (2016), „Unsensed“ in Newcastle’s Hatton Gallery, or „Recite a Painting“ in Warwickshire’s Upton House, National Trust, or in Basel’s Kunst Raum Riehen (2013). Her works have been collected by important public and private collections, such as - The Arts Council Collection, London - Government Art Collection, London - the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster, Germany - the New Hall Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge - Notthingham Castle Collection, Nottingham - Outset Purchase Prize, RCA Permanent Art Collection, London - the Saatchi-collection - the Zabludowicz Collection, London

Creator:
Yelena Popova (1978)
Creation Year:
2011
Dimensions:
Height: 7.33 in (18.6 cm)Width: 5.12 in (13 cm)
Medium:
Watercolor,Paper
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
21st Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Cologne, DE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU134425686541