In the exhibition hall of the Kaluga Museum fine arts The opening will take place on September 2 at 11 o'clock personal exhibition famous Moscow artist Natella Toidze. In the past few years, her retrospective exhibitions have been successfully held at the State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, Paris, Vologda, Saransk, Nizhny Novgorod.

Natella Georgievna Toidze possesses a recognizable author's style and a high pictorial culture, embedded in the family, associated with art for several generations. To this artistic dynasty belonged the artist's grandfather, Mose Toidze - a painter, student of IE Repin, father, Georgy Toidze, a famous sculptor and graphic artist, and uncle, poster artist Irakli Toidze, author of the famous poster "Motherland Calls!" Among the first female professional painters in Russia was the artist's grandmother, Alexandra Sutina, who graduated from the Orthodox icon painting class of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.

N. Toidze was born and raised in Moscow, where she graduated from the theatrical and decorative art faculty of the Moscow Academic Art School "In Memory of 1905". In her professional development, the traditions of the Moscow school of painting became fundamental. Choosing easel painting, Toidze has been successfully working in its different genres for many years: landscape, still life, portrait, and writes allegorical compositions.

Since 1973, Natella Toidze began to regularly participate in Moscow, All-Union and All-Russian exhibitions. In 1984 she joined the Union of Artists of the USSR. In 2004, after a personal exhibition at the Russian Academy of Arts, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts. Since 2007 Natella Toidze has been a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, and since 2011 - a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts. Participated in exhibitions State Museum in Beijing, at the Lincoln Center in New York, in Lisbon, etc. Natella Toidze's works are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and other museum and private collections in Russia, as well as in private collections in France, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Finland , USA.

The Kaluga exhibition presents more than 20 works by Natella Toidze from the collection of the author, the Russian Academy of Arts and private collections. The exhibition displays both early and recently created works of Toidze: landscapes painted in a pasty manner, close to the painting of "Jack of Diamonds", sophisticated still lifes complex in composition and color, landscapes of central Russia restrained in color ("Moscow Courtyard", " Northern mallow "), emphasized decorative metaphorical compositions (diptych" Flora and Fauna ").

nizhny Novgorod, Kremlin, bldg. 3 ("House of the Governor"), Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum, artmuseumnn.ru

Have you noticed that since last year the Art Museum has been very active in introducing us to various areas of painting, new names?

So the first exhibition in 2015 opens a representative of a dynasty of artists, one might say, with a legendary biography ...

The museum works:
daily from 11:00 to 18:00
Thursday from 12:00 to 20:00
Tuesday - day off
Directions: by any transport to the stop "Minin and Pozharsky Square"

Natella Toidze is not just an original artist. She is a representative of the third generation of the famous dynasty of painters and sculptors.

The dynasty was founded by her grandfather Mose Toidze, a student of Repin, one of the founders of the USSR Academy of Arts.

And her daughter Nana became a theater artist, so that the fourth generation drove away from the apple tree not far.

Natella Georgievna was born and raised in Moscow. But this riot of colors is clearly not from here. The first paintings of the 1970s and 80s probably came from the Caucasus Mountains.

Kutaisi. Iron bridge. 1982

And here are the pictures recent years were born, probably, in a dacha near Moscow. And I like them more ...

Gold balls. 2001

Northern mallow. 1995

And this work, although it is called "The Snow Came Down", somehow subtly reminds Savrasov "The Rooks Have Arrived"

Rook, however, flew in alone.

Although no, it's more like a crow.

"It is interesting for me to convey the mood of what I saw," said Natella Georgievna. "If, looking at my work, this mood returns to the viewer, then I will be grateful to him."

Like this. A person does what he likes. And this can be seen in every picture.

And it is probably physically difficult to study. The paintings were painted from life, and most of them are of considerable size.

"This is work, a lot of physical labor" - I heard by chance from behind. Probably the artists - they knew what they were saying :)

As noted at the opening of the exhibition, this is a rare case when an artist has a recognizable handwriting, individual author's style.

I agree. In my amateurish opinion, not only the size of the paintings, close-ups, but even the brushes, the author uses unusual.

If you look closely at the canvas, the width of the strokes is 15-20 millimeters. With this, almost a painting, brush, the author manages to convey all the nuances of the color of leaves, sky, petals ...

It is interesting that two paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery (!) Are presented at the exhibition by the author's versions.

Here is one of them: "Red dry". Indeed, original.

And here is the second - "By the fireplace". In my opinion, nothing special. Or am I not very fond of Rottweilers?

— Natella Georgievna, is it true that you always paint landscapes only in nature? There are many photographs in the exhibition where you work on location: in a forest, in a village, in a field.

— Yes, I work on location at any time of the year.

It is important for me to see, hear, feel everything around the canvas: the rustle of foliage, the play of light and shadows, the chirping of birds, the movement of air. I hope this is also included in the content of the picture and determines its atmosphere. And this is the main thing for me.

— Yes, you have practically no plot ...

- It's easy to come up with a plot, but I don't think that this applies to pictorial solutions. Real music excites without words, not like in a song. We often hear a song where there is practically no music, and the words should excite the listener. It is interesting for me to convey the state of the world around me by purely pictorial means - a combination of color spots, their location, rhythm, composition ... And nature just gives a wealth of states.

— The exhibition features many winter landscapes.

- I write often in winter, until the paints freeze. I love to paint snow, it is always different, and every time it poses a new pictorial task for me.

- Art critics write about the inner drama of your paintings.

- I think this is due to the inconsistency of the task - to convey the movement of life, the dynamics of matter in the static image. And this is very interesting to me, I try to convey, again by purely pictorial means, a certain process, some movement in nature, a change in its state. This is probably why the works are so called: "Before the Snow", "Thaw", "After the Rain", "Summer is Over".

- Do you finish your work in the workshop?

- No never. All work must be completed on location. In the workshop there is a different light, a different environment, which means a different state. And like music, one false note can ruin everything musical composition, in painting, one wrong stroke will destroy the entire pictorial state of the picture. Therefore, on the contrary, if I find some inaccuracy, I return the canvas to nature. Sometimes because of one stroke, one color stroke.

- Is the artist born with this inner tuning fork, or is it learned?

- For everyone, probably, in different ways. Since childhood, I have lived among art books. I still could not read, but endlessly leafed through them, examined them. My father, Georgy Toidze, was a wonderful sculptor and graphic artist, he erected many monuments, including in Moscow. We lived on Povarskaya, 30, in the mansion of Count Shuvalov, in the part where the house church used to be. There was my father's workshop, which was separated from the living area by a large glass door. I rode a tricycle around huge sculptures, among clay, plasticine, sacks of plaster, among models and models. And then she herself began to sculpt something of her own. My father made me a small machine, and I began to spend all the time in the workshop with my father.

- Were you encouraged in these pursuits?

- I am from a family of hereditary artists, my grandfather - Mose Toidze, a famous Georgian artist, a student of Repin, graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where I met my grandmother, Alexandra Sutina, a novice of the monastery, who studied icon painting. Uncle - Irakli Toidze, famous poster artist, author of the wonderful poster "The Motherland Calls!" But no one forced their children to be artists. They understood, they knew that those who give themselves to art should really want it themselves. My grandfather had six grandchildren and granddaughters, and I am the only artist.

My father, of course, explained to me what volume, depth, plastic are, and it was interesting to me. And at some point I felt that I needed a color.

— That's where the sculpture of color comes from!

- Yes, probably. It is amazing that this is how Paola Volkova wrote about my painting as a sculpture. Paints appeared - watercolor, then oil. But the formats were already large then.

— How old were you?

- 8-9. My father never told me: “Work,” although they themselves were great workers - both dad, grandfather and uncle. They spent their entire lives in the workshop. I remember that well.

- Do you manage to work like that?

- Not always. Still, the current life around requires a greater return from a woman - family, parents, children, grandchildren. But I work hard and enjoy it.

By the way, the only thing that remained with me from Repin - I learned about this much later - is Repin's palette, no matter how funny it sounds. When I asked oil paints, dad bought them and showed how and in what color sequence to squeeze the tubes onto the palette. That's how I started to work. But then in art school the teachers said that the paints were wrong, in the wrong order. But I got used to it and didn't change the palette. And somehow later I asked my dad why he opened the palette to me in this way. And he replied that his father taught him this, and that the teacher, Repin, taught him.

— And you were not taught some painting techniques? For all the clarity and brightness of your handwriting, the exhibition shows the absence of just what can be called a technique.

- I just think that the technique found, which is then replicated by the artist, means a dead end. And, unfortunately, such examples are always visible. To repeat what was found, to quote yourself, to copy the earlier - the end of creativity. Sometimes you can see how the artist sometimes accentuates his technique, aggravates him, if I may say so, because there is no other way.

I have never worked as a "trick", setting a new task for myself each time. But this is just the most interesting!

— When they write about your innovation, how do you understand it?

- Probably, it means that she is engaged exclusively in painting as such, that is, without the help of plot, symbols and signs, the ability to convey only the state of the world around with color. Nowadays, few people work like that. Although I never thought and do not think about innovation, about traditions, about modernity or not.

— Tell me, Natella Georgievna, how do you find an object for work, how do you choose it from many similar ones?

- I work quickly enough, there is no other way in nature: the sun goes away, the light changes, clouds are pouring in, rain or snow is gathering. But I choose the object for a long time and carefully. And the main thing in this - it should be interesting to me myself. The pictorial task should worry me.

— What does the large format give you? It's very time consuming! ..

- Very much, especially in winter, but I'm curious - you need a lot of space. I can hardly fit into the small size.

Photo: Victoria Odissonova / "Novaya Gazeta"

- How do you ask yourself the size? This is decided in advance, you need to prepare a stretcher, canvas?

- At the moment of maturation of the task. When I find an object, I feel its state, I begin to see both the format and the size of the future picture. That is, also in the same place - on location.

- How are your decorative, symbolic things that are made in the workshop born?

- Yes, in general, the same. And in decorative things, I solve for myself primarily painting problems. And this should excite and fascinate me too. And the main thing here is to worry. Because, I hope, when this excitement is in the artist, his painting will excite the viewer too.

An exhibition of works by the famous Moscow painter, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Natella Toidze, opens in Moscow on Wednesday. The artist's paintings can be seen until October 31 in the exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Arts at 21 Prechistenka.

The exhibition includes both the early works of the artist and recently created paintings. Landscapes of Georgia, painted in a pasty "temperamental" manner, close to the painting of "Jack of Diamonds" (cycle "Svaneti", "Babushkin's yard", "Narikala"), and complex in composition, exquisite still lifes coexist with more restrained color gamut landscapes of the middle zone Russia ("Sleigh", "Moscow Courtyard", polyptych "Northern Mallows", "Thaw").

A characteristic feature of Toidze's work is the indispensable presence of a dramatic beginning in her painting, which is evident even with the high decorativeness, pronounced ornamentalism of the canvases ("Winter in Bullfinches", "Wild Grapes", "Early Summer"), the press release of the exhibition notes.

The artist's creative method is certainly work from nature, where she creates landscapes, still lifes, portraits. In the last decade, Toidze prefers large-format canvases and at any time of the year he paints them not in a workshop, but exclusively in the open air, despite the technical difficulties of performing such works. In such paintings, the author's special ability to emphasize the poetry of everyday life is clearly visible, to summarize it picturesquely and to show the world from an unusual point of view: the stems, leaves, trunks of trees are taken large, life-size, sometimes turning into a pattern that is complex in terms of color ("Thickets", " August "," Before the Snow ").

Underlined, even somewhat exaggerated decorativeism, evoking associations with European art of the era of Symbolism, is characteristic of another layer of Toidze's works - metaphorical compositions ("Flora and Fauna", diptych "Intermission", "Hunting").

“For Natella Toidze there are no self-restrictions in the choice of the subject: the world is diverse, and the artist sees the aesthetic principle in this diversity. She is equally interested in the nature of the Caucasus and the Russian North, the views of Moscow courtyards and the landscape of village fields. Everything she writes is full an acutely individual feeling, which contains a lot: from the innate ancestral memory of past generations to the acuteness of realities modern world"- writes art critic Vladimir Prokhorov.

"The art of this master should puzzle the noble snob contemporary artbecause it comes from the heart, not from a cold concept. It does not fit into any stereotypical system and lives according to the laws of pure painting. The figurative structure of these works is immersed in a vibrating colorful element. The spicy colors of the sunny South, and the shades of the inescapable sadness of the vastness of Central Russia, and the already completely unearthly reflections of some other wonderful worldwhere the viewer is drawn by the picturesque fabric of Natella's canvases, ”notes Prokhorov.

Natella Toidze was born and raised in Moscow in a family associated with art for several generations. To this artistic dynasty belonged the artist's grandfather, Mose Toidze, a painter, student of I.E. Repin, one of the founders of the USSR Academy of Arts, and her father, Georgy Toidze, a famous sculptor and graphic artist.

Natella Toidze graduated from the theatrical and decorative arts faculty of the Academic Art School "In Memory of 1905". In her professional development, the traditions of the Moscow school of painting became fundamental. At the same time, the artist calls her father the first and main teacher: since childhood, Georgy Toidze has set serious creative tasks for his daughter, including sculptural ones. Choosing easel painting, she successfully works in the genres of landscape and still life, writes portraits and allegorical compositions.

October 2015

Natella Toidze is a representative of the famous Georgian dynasty of painters, which left a deep mark in Russian art. The artist has prepared a new exhibition entitled "Sculpture of Color".

Pictures of a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts have been exhibited in Beijing, New York, Lisbon ... Some of the works are in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, in private collections in France, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Finland and the USA.

Despite worldwide recognition, Natella is in no hurry to call herself established in the profession. “The artist's journey is long,” she says. - It seems to me that if you find yourself and work in one convenient manner, your creative growth stops. And this is not interesting both for the artist himself and for those who appreciate his work. My paintings are completely different, they are not repeated either compositionally or thematically. Each time I set new tasks, this is the only way to move forward. Hence the "plasticity" in the title of my exhibition. The very expression "sculpture of color" belongs to art critic Paola Volkova, who thus spoke about my works. "

Natella Georgievna possesses a recognizable author's handwriting and an indisputable artistic gift inherent in a family that has been associated with art for several generations. The artist's grandfather Mose Toidze was a student of Ilya Repin himself, one of the founders of the USSR Academy of Arts. Father Georgy Toidze is a well-known sculptor and graphic artist, and his uncle, poster artist Irakli Toidze, is the author of the famous poster "The Motherland Calls!"

The exposition includes both early works by Natella Toidze and recently created ones. More than 40 works in total: landscapes of central Russia, painted in a "temperamental" manner, still lifes complex in composition. At any time of the year, the artist paints only from life, preferring plein air to work in the studio. “In winter, in felt boots, warmly dressed,” she says. “If I’m cold, I’ll warm up somewhere and go out again. And in a closed space with staged light, it is impossible to paint a living thing - the sky, sunbeams on the grass, shadows. The birds sing, adding to the mood. It then returns to those who look at the picture. "

Recently, Natella Georgievna prefers large-format canvases and brushes of appropriate sizes. Two-meter easels and other technical structures have their author - husband of Natella Toidze, famous film director, People's Artist of Russia Vadim Abdrashitov. “I work as a loader,” jokes Vadim Yusupovich. - There are no easels for this size of canvases, you have to make them yourself. There is a problem, how to install it so that it is not blown away by the wind, because the windage is very high. We have to hang up a couple more bags with bricks to know for sure that all this will not turn over. "