Family Heritage 2020

Andrey Remnev’s “Family Heritage” is a painting that seems steeped in dream-like nostalgia with its fairytale palette. Look at how the figures are rendered with such detail; their garments are adorned with intricate patterns and motifs, which are built up with very fine brushes. The effect is strangely flattened as if the figures are costumes. I find myself drawn to the juxtaposition of the detailed figures against the painterly background of ribbons and flora, which almost dissolves in a blur of warm colors. The painting feels strangely unresolved to me. Focusing on the silhouettes dancing across the lower part of the robes, they read as an emblem of the family, a kind of self-referential heraldry. It makes me think of the work of Symbolist painters, such as Gustav Klimt, who were also interested in decorative flatness, intricate patterning, and allegorical subjects. In the end, the painting resists any definitive reading. It's like Remnev invites us to wander freely through its visual poetics, embracing the ambiguity and the sheer pleasure of looking.