Dr. Andrei Tolstoy – Moscow Museum of Modern Art

Our colleagues from the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg have already had the pleasure of seeing her work in an exhibition held there last year. Now, for the first time, we also have an opportunity to view her work and I would like to emphasize that we are extremely happy to open this exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art at this festive time of Christmas and New Year.

Ilana Raviv solo exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art

By:
Dr. Andrei Tolstoy
Head of the Research Department
Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts
Our colleagues from the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg have already had the pleasure of seeing her work in an exhibition held there last year.  Now, for the first time, we also have an opportunity to view her work and I would like to emphasize that we are extremely happy to open this exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art at this festive time of Christmas and New Year.
This is a period of intrepid expectations and hope. I think that I am correct in saying that the arrival of this exhibition has already fulfilled one of our hopes.  Those of you who have already passed through the exhibition halls will have noticed to what extent Ilana Raviv’s work is both diverse and organic.
The paintings assembled in this exhibition are wonderful; those from the eighties and nineties reflect subtle hand movements and pen strokes on paper.  The drawings transmit an innocent amazement at beauty in the world of objects and also at the loveliness of the figures gazing out at you from them.
Raviv’s works are boldly expressive and filled with numerous story moments.  They are richly enhanced with highly expressive dramatic outbursts and include an emotional flow that is suitably and accurately reflected on paper in daring brush strokes. For this purpose, Raviv uses complex artistic techniques that are, in my mind, extremely successful.
She has mastered a wide range of potential concepts; from classical to expressionistic and even slightly abstract art which includes spontaneous regenerative eruptions. Hence for us, this type of exhibition is clearly a defining event.  Raviv is an important and vital link in the chain of artists of the 20th and 21st century.
During this century classical art has undergone a significant evolution. We are familiar with the prominent examples of leading artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, all of who created a new style of art, even though surprisingly, they never actually dismissed the classical manner; simple, prominently laconic and expressive.
Here, in these halls, we see this style of painting which is the fruit of Raviv’s labors. Her paintings are reminiscent of the 20th century’s greatest works.  Not only Matisse and Picasso, but also Albert Marquet and Raoul Dufy, the wonderful French fauvist artists.  Ilana Raviv’s excellent work is also characterized by its simplicity, conciseness, and the numerous energies in each spot.  From this point of view, in my opinion, Raviv is following in the footsteps of those prominent twentieth century artists.
This is evident in her black and whites as well as in her color works.  Even though Ilana adds colors and selects different bold color highlights, her conscious emphasis is to accentuate a decorative wholeness.  By virtue of this decorativeness, each painting appears to be an independent creation whereby in effect each one is a prominently brilliant piece amongst a huge entirety of monumental or graphic works.
Her oeuvre is about synthetic thinking, the ability to perceive uniqueness and independent value coupled with a sense of belonging to something greater and indeed an entire project, which was also an important attribute of the best artists of the twentieth century.
Raviv is part of this school, the French school of seemingly simple but also totally calculated art. The French artists, with all of their capabilities in reflecting normal ordinary details, were raised on Cartesian philosophy.  In fact, every dot, every line, every color highlight is completely calculated as was manifested by such artists as Matisse and Georges Braque, Picasso’s colleague, who jointly established the Cubist movement.
Raviv’s work undoubtedly belongs to European art, in spite of the fact that she works in Israel and the United States.  However, as we know, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, pictoral traditions and movements have blended into a new phenomenon and product called modern art.  Raviv’s art is both very modern and up to date, in the best sense of the word, while at the same time also very traditional, containing all of the best elements of the past century’s art while still being new.
December 24 2008