Nymph 2005

Andrey Remnev painted this work, ‘Nymph’, in Russia, at the turn of the twenty-first century. It invites us to consider what ‘nymph’ signifies in our contemporary world. The woman’s elegant ballet shoe peeking beneath her layered skirt contrasts with the demure fan she holds up to her face. Remnev’s art evokes the stylization of the early twentieth-century Russian art world, when artists had to decide whether to support or critique the institutional status quo. With its flattened perspective and its decorative patterns, this painting is both a conscious revival of early modernism, and an ironic comment on Russia’s post-Soviet social structures. By looking closely at the art of this period, and by reading Russian literary sources, we can come to see how artists both shape and reflect the societies in which they live.