Andrew Scheglov
For Sofi
2023

About the Item

This work is a part of an ongoing series of images in which the artist engages with notions of nostalgia and home, specific to the Russian expatriate community. Having interviewed dozens of family members and friends who chose to leave Russia at one point or another, the artist has created an expansive series of images that trade in the personal memories of this community. Lilacs are emblematic of the Russian countryside and belong to a broader history of landscape painting, particularly of the Realist, Mood Landscape, and Symbolist movements of late 19th century painting in Russia. The artist plays with this often used trope of the lilac, but sets in a contemporary North American suburb. The work is also an ode to the poet Marina Tsvetayeva (widely regarded as one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century in her home country), particularly one of her more famous poems which she wrote while in exile. Tsvetayeva was forced to emigrate out of the Soviet Union in 1922. The poem, titled Toska Po Rodine, is sometimes translated as Homesickening. In it she denounces all nostalgic ruminations over the loss of her mother tongue and states that churches and people leave her empty in her newfound circumstances. The only thing that seems to bring her to a place of reverie of something lost is the sight of a rowanberry bush by the side of the road. For the artist's cousin Sofi, it is a lilac, depicted in this image. The work is painted with oil on board and is signed at the front and on the back of the panel.

Creator:

Andrew Scheglov (1983, Azerbaijani, Israeli, Russian, Canadian)

Creation Year:

2023

Dimensions:

Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

More Editions & Sizes:

25x19x1.5Price: $3,500

Medium:

Oil,Wood Panel

Movement & Style:

Impressionist