Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf
Taking Off Without Taking Flight
Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presents an exhibition by Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf whose artworks see real-life stories turn into metaphors, acquiring a timely and yet timelessly philosophical aspect
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The artist’s second solo show at Erarta, featuring works from the past three years
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An invitation to ponder challenging subjects and see them in a completely new light
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A story of our dealings with the reality which at times seems absurd beyond all expectations
Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf has an instantly recognisable style and an artistic voice all her own. Giving preference to charcoal, the artist leaves her backgrounds blankly white and uses other colours very sparingly. This results in impeccable compositions free of any excess details. Kuznetsova-Ruf presents scenes without context: her characters are left one on one with eternity epitomised by the white expanse of canvas. After all, the tokens of time come and go, but the essence of human existence and the intensity of affects remain unchanged.
Anastasia believes that ‘The artist has only three seconds to get the viewers’ attention. The next task is to keep them hooked in order to get across the second, third, and all the subsequent meanings of your artwork.’ Kuznetsova-Ruf’s paintings are always based around extremely apt imagery – that is why three seconds are enough for us to grasp it and, drawing on our own experience, imagine the entire story.
Taking Off Without Taking Flight, the artist’s second solo show at Erarta Museum, explores our dealings with a reality which at times seems absurd beyond all expectations. Here, real-life stories turn into metaphors, acquiring a timely and yet timelessly philosophical aspect.
Although Kuznetsova-Ruf’s artistic practice is hard to categorise, it most accurately fits the definition of conceptual art whose ultimate goal is to communicate an idea. Anastasia admits that the search for ideas is the most challenging stage of creating an artwork: what matters at this point is to listen to one’s own self and pursue distinct creative aims so as not to fall into the ‘trap of being relevant’ while indulging the desire to please someone else.
That said, Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf’s works are not confined to conceptualism: is seems that the artist is in the process of transitioning to uncharted territory – one that is gradually supplanting postmodernism and is most frequently labelled ‘metamodernism.’ Philosophers and art critics are just beginning to conceptualise its defining features, but already obvious is the fact that at the heart of this phenomenon lies a need to grapple with the current epochal shift – for instance, by formulating a new self-consciousness or embracing the so-called ‘new sincerity.’
Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf was born in 1983 into a family of artists. In 2003, she graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Art (Moscow), and in 2007, completed her studies at the Vasily Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute. On three different occasions Anastasia received the Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. In 2013, Kuznetsova-Ruf became the runner-up in the 4th PORTRAIT NOW! International Competition.
Anastasia was included in ARTEEX data portal’s best contemporary Russian artists list, featured in the I Like This public art rating, an offshoot of 49ART Russian Investment Art Rating, and rated among the 20 best-selling contemporary Russian artists under the age of 45 according to the 2020 auction sales reports compiled by InArt for Forbes Life.
The artist’s works were acquired for public and private collections worldwide. Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf took part in numerous exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Beijing, Berlin, Riga, Stockholm, Uppsala, Rotterdam, and other cities.
