Untitled 2017

Lucy Ivanova’s painting presents a snapshot of figures in an indeterminate, perhaps liminal, space. Her painterly style prompts questions about the nature of representation, the role of the artist and the socio-historical context. Ivanova was born in 1989, towards the end of the Soviet era, a period in which the institutions of art such as galleries and art schools were closely controlled by the state. Although her style is gestural, spontaneous, and individualistic, Ivanova’s work is, like all art, embedded in the history of artistic institutions. The very notion of the artist creating in isolation depends on the existence of academies and other networks. Is this picture then a reaction to or an embrace of that history? Does the indistinct space invoke the disorientating conditions of recent Russian history? To learn more, we can look at publications on the history of Russian art and exhibition catalogs to understand how Ivanova’s work relates to contemporary trends and long-standing traditions. Such research reminds us that even the most personal artistic statements are shaped by the social and institutional frameworks in which they are produced.