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Flora Yukhnovich
FLORA_STUDIO-151-1600x1200.jpeg
Flora Yukhnovich in her London studio, February 2022. Photo: Eva Herzog. © Flora Yukhnovich. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
“In a way, I think we’re living in another Rococo period.”
– Flora Yukhnovich

reimagining dynamism

indulgence and ornamentation

theatricality of image-making

figuration and abstraction

multiplicity of readings

mark making

gestural brushstrokes

rhythmic sensuality

defying gravitation

Artists website → https://www.florayukhnovich.com/

 

In her works Flora Yukhnovich adopts the language of Rococo, reimagining the dynamism of works by eighteenth-century artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Antoine Watteau through a filter of contemporary cultural references including film, food and consumerism. For her the Rococo as a movement associated with indulgence and ornamentation feels contemporary and she connects it to the 21st-century to explore themes such as desire and the female form. (Ashby, 2022; Victoria Miro)

fête galante

a type of painting depicting the wealthy at amorous play in parkland settings that came to prominence with Watteau.
© Flora Yukhnovich, Maybe She’s Born with It, 2022. © Flora Yukhnovich. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro

“In a way, I think we’re living in another Rococo period. The internet and all its tendrils feel Rococo: the way we use images and the theatricality of image-making, the emphasis on consumerism and aspiration. I’m thirsty to bring together a whole load of material and to find my own language within that.” – Yukhnovich

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She herself describes her process as ‘searching for a language which sits between figuration and abstraction: “I like the idea of combining these two art historical moments which have become highly gendered: the pretty Rococo imagery and the machismo of abstraction. But really abstraction and figuration don’t feel separate to me. They are two different points in the same process, part of a spectrum which ranges from very loose, abstracted marks through to tightly articulated figuration. I do want the resulting paintings to remain open and ambiguous despite their figuration. The viewer has to fill in the looser areas in their mind and I hope that leads to a multiplicity of different readings.”

Yukhnovich on Tiepolo 

“There’s a complete lack of angst about him and his work, which for some reason we’ve come to think of as an important part of being an artist and a genius. His subject matter is slippery, which I like because it means you can come back to it fresh each time. Some people consider it shallow. It’s a shame because I think he’s the best colourist who’s ever lived.”
© Flora Yukhnovich selected works

Variation is a driving force in Yukhnovich’s work with her mark making ranging from delicate flourishes to dramatic and gestural brushstrokes, heightening the rhythmic sensuality that plays throughout her ambitious compositions. Yukhnovich’s paintings explore ideas surrounding dualities and multiplicities, constantly fluctuating state between abstraction and figuration. She transcends painterly traditions and fuses high art with popular culture, and intellect with intuition. Her precisely arranged structure gives way to pure texture and colour and brush marks, freed from describing flesh, become looser, lighter, functioning as directional cues to the viewer. (Victoria Miro)

In 2019 she undertook a residency with the gallery in Venice to engage more fully with Venetian culture, studying first hand works by Tiepolo. Her study of his ceiling paintings lead to a change in her palette towards celestial blues and pinks and compositions that defy a gravitational pull. (Victoria Miro)

© Flora Yukhnovich, Thirst Trap Exhibition – London 2022
Key Takeaways

Floras way of taking up colour pallets and compositions of the rococo period reimagining indulgence and ornamentation to reintroduce it into todays visual narratives gives me a new perspective and direction to think about my use of the more muted and softer colour palette. The way she abstracts elements of the composition in her theatricality of image-making shows me the impact gestural brushstrokes can have on the canvas.

References

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Ashby, C in Elephant (2022) Homage Sweet Homage: Why Do Yesterday’s Works Still Fuel Today’s Artists? Available at: https://elephant.art/homage-sweet-homage-why-do-yesterdays-works-still-fuel-todays-artists-30032022/ (Accessed: 16.05.22)

 

Victoria Miro (no date) Flora Yukhnovich. Available at: https://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/225-flora-yukhnovich/ (Accessed: 16.05.22)

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