“Happiness against the backdrop of wretched reality”: unknown works by Ivan Lubennikov were shown at the exhibition

A masterpiece with the newspaper “MK” was found in the gallery “Our Artists”

“Life goes on” is the title of the exhibition by Ivan Lubennikov, known not only for his painting, but also for his monumental art. He is the author of three Moscow metro stations and the most “Russian” station of the Paris metro. Ivan Lubennikov died in October 2021, he was 70. The artist, reminiscent of an epic sage, free, bold and ironic, a philosopher from art, now continues to live in his works. The artist’s wife, artist Natalia Glebova, found many of the paintings presented at the exhibition in the studio and stretched them on stretchers to show unknown pages of Ivan Lubennikov’s work.

At the entrance to the “Our Artists” gallery you are greeted by a poster with one of the works of the new exhibition. Before us is a naked bather who, seeing fishermen sailing on a boat, is about to pull on a white shirt. The robe is completely transparent, like the image of a naked diva, like the landscape itself. Despite the girl’s wary gaze, the whole plot conveys an unbearable lightness of existence. These are the other works of the artist at the “Life Goes On” exhibition. In them, as in the character of their author, there is lightness, irony, monumentality and transparency. There are a lot of female images here – the girls are mostly naked. But admiring nudity is not the main thing here.

“He never painted from life since he graduated from college,” says the master’s widow, Natalia Glebova. – This is pure fantasy. He said that the hand moves itself when you draw a woman. He was concerned about plasticity. A woman for him is the basis of life and a source of joy.

Here is one of these images: in front of us are three identical girls with red curls, similar at the same time to sunflowers and the sun, running into the river. There is also nudity with irony: a half-naked girl sits on the windowsill, with pure, sincere, wide-open eyes, and outside the window there is a river of people who have gathered for an unknown reason (there are no posters or slogans here). There is only one place in the crowd where there is free space: around another beauty in a miniskirt, whom others are looking at. Everyone who is in her areola smiles, while the rest frown.

Among the picturesque divas there is a muse. She sits exhausted on the floor in a red robe, looking at her lost sandal and holding a crown of olive branches in her hands. Being a muse is not easy, the author realized. When asked whether she is depicted in this picture, Natalia Glebova answered negatively. Although in many female images it is precisely her features that are discernible. Ivan Lubennikov often wrote to his wife. She was his “Summer” – this is the name of the portrait of Natalia Glebova, which she shows with special trepidation. In it, as in all the artist’s works, there is something for which Lubennikov is called a master of the “grand style” and a Caravaggist. This is an amazing light painting that creates a plot, an image, and depth.

The same light painting and play of contrasts enchants both in landscapes and in Lubennikov’s still lifes. One of the most striking works is a large canvas called “Fire, Water and Copper Pipes.” This is a memory of the commune on Ordynka, where Ivan and Natalia began their life together. But the master painted the picture much later – in 2009. In front of us is a shared kitchen with a bright blue wall that radiates happiness. On the left is an old stained gas stove with the words “fire” written above it. In the center there is a table where we find a primitive cup and a teapot with peeling edges – this is “water”. And on the right are “copper pipes”: on another shabby table lies a torn issue of the latest newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” and a page torn from some popular magazine. “This is pure happiness against the backdrop of wretched reality. You can hear how everything sings despite the situation,” says Natalia Glebova.

In the same room – and there are four in total at the exhibition – there is another work that can undoubtedly be called a masterpiece. And this is also a still life, but without reference to memories. Pure form, color and light. A black background, a white table on which a saucer competition is highlighted with one line, a black vase with white flowers, a pink teapot, a blue sugar bowl. Perfect design, and at the same time caravaggism.

“I picked out a topic that was important for the author,” says Natalia Kournikova, curator of the exhibition and founder of the Our Artists gallery. – This is joy and a woman – as the basis of life and the keeper of the hearth, whom he admired in all its manifestations. Ivan Lubennikov graduated from the Surikov School in the 1970s, and already in the late 1980s he was appreciated by both the general public and professionals. His paintings are popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. During the difficult years of perestroika, he was able to create his own light, refined style. He is a muralist who worked very skillfully with space. In his works we see a modern perception of the old masters, especially Caravaggio. Ivan Lubennikov is a lyrical person, in whose description of his life there is a lot of humor and admiration. He wrote about the eternal.