Gift 2011

Andrey Remnev painted ‘Gift’ with oil on canvas, and in it we see a dreamlike scene, perhaps an allegory of the gifts of nature. With its classical references, Remnev’s work belongs to a tradition of academic painting going back centuries, yet it also breaks with that tradition. The faces of the figures are individual and expressive, not idealized. And the artist’s style borrows from early icon painting, a style largely suppressed during the modern era of Russian art institutions. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a revival of interest in pre-revolutionary Russian culture, including Orthodox Christianity. Contemporary Russian artists have explored styles and subjects that were discouraged under Soviet rule, when art was meant to promote the values of the state. The re-emergence of spirituality and symbolism in art reflects this shift, marking a fascinating turn in Russian cultural history. To understand the art of our time, it helps to look at the social and institutional contexts in which artists operate.