Lidiya Masterkova, also Lydia Masterkova, (, 1927 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

– 12 May 2008 in Saint Laurent,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) was a Soviet-born French painter, and part of the non-conformist Lianozovo Group along with Oscar Rabin. She was strongly influenced by

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

, which she was exposed to at the exhibition of foreign artists held during the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow (1957). Masterkova studied under Mikhail Perutski at the Moscow Secondary School of Art (1943–46), the

Vasily Surikov Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (; 24 January 1848 – 19 March 1916) was a Russian Realism (arts), realist history painter. Many of his works have become familiar to the general public through their use as illustrations. Biography He was born to an ...

School of Art (1946) and Moscow Regional School of Art (1947–50). A dedicated abstractionist, Masterkova was associated with the Lianozovo Group, a diverse group of artists and poets who fought steadfastly and uncompromisingly for creative freedom. One of these artists, Vladimir Nemukhin, lived with her, although they never married. One of the significant personalities in the Moscow art world of the 1960s, Masterkova's work at the beginning of that decade included loosely painted watercolors in bright colors. Soon after, she darkened her palette and in the mid 1960s, her work was characterized by abstract compositions created with a palette knife in which dark, craggy forms contrasted with a light background. By the end of the decade, she began incorporating lace and brocade collected from abandoned churches into her compositions. She felt these items were filled with a kind of mysticism. In the early 1970s, these dark, brooding forms were still in evidence, but superimposed by collages of white circles bearing the numerals 0, 1, and 9. She also created subtle, circular, black and white compositions by manipulating India ink or watercolor on wet paper, often affixing collage elements cut out of white paper. During this period, Masterkova contributed to apartment exhibitions in Russia, foreign exhibitions, and the first shows of nonconformist art, including the first autumnal review, "In the open air" (" Bulldozer Exhibition") in 1974 in Belyayevo. Shortly afterwards, in 1975, she moved with her son to France, where she worked with the Galerie

Dina Vierny Dina Vierny (25 January 1919 – 20 January 2009) was a French Model (art), artists' model who became a singer, art dealer, Collection (museum), collector and Curator, museum director. She is known as the model and muse to French sculptor Aristi ...

in Paris (1976) and held a one-woman show called ''Adieu à la Russie'' (1977). Lydia Masterkova tended to work in cycles and series, the most famous of which is "Planets" (1976). Her work resides in numerous museums and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey, and the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

in Moscow, which held a retrospective of her work in 2006. She died in 2008 at the age of 81 and was buried in Saint-Laurent-sur-Othain in

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

References

Bibliography

*Kolodzei, Natalia. ''4+4: Two Generations of Russian Avant-Garde.'' Mimi Ferzt Gallery, New York, 2001. Exhibition catalogue. *Rosenfeld, Alla (editor); Norton Dodge (editor). ''From Gulag to Glasnost : Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union.'' Thames and Hudson/The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, 1995. * T. Smorodinskaya (Editor), K. Evans-Romaine (Editor), H. Goscilo (Editor). ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture (Encyclopedias of Contemporary Culture)''. Routledge, 2007.

External links

Lidiya Masterkova

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No. 79(3896), 13.05.2008 * Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, Kolodzei Art Foundatio

*Art4.ru Contemporary Art Museu

*RusArt.net, ''Lydia Masterkova'

*Kino Galler

*Tskukanov Art Collectio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masterkova, Lidia 1927 births 2008 deaths Soviet emigrants to France French women painters Soviet painters 20th-century French women artists 21st-century French women artists 20th-century women painters