A Tender Dialogue with Nature

With a timid cup and a proud samovar. With a dozing roof and a drafty little balcony. With her native town and the river. She converses slowly, peers closely. She has known them for a long time, but never ceases to be surprised. And to paint!

Window to Sarapul

Artist Valentina Konyukhova was born and lives in an old merchant town on the banks of the Kama. A town with a special rhythm of life, an almost 300-year glorious history, artistic taste and Art Nouveau architecture. There's probably not a single lane in Sarapul's historic center or a little square on Starcheva Hill where she wouldn't stop with her easel. She manages to catch the pure ultramarine or the heavy lead tone of the Kama's water, the delicate pink flashes of clouds and the dizzying cobalt of March shadows. One can stare, get lost, for a long time drown in the gaze at these brushstrokes and patches, the precise lines and soft shades. Valentina Konyukhova masters both a strict realistic manner of execution and a tempestuous impressionist painting.

Valentina Konyukhova's solo exhibition "Dialogue with Nature" has just opened at the "Gallery" Exhibition Center of the Museum of Izhevsk. Thanks to it, residents of Izhevsk and guests of the capital of Udmurtia discover the artist's beloved city. How delightful to peek through the framed window and be transported to Sarapul! Winter, slightly sleepy ("Snow on the Kama", "Study with the Ravine"). Spring, windy, with the river breaking free ("March Shadows", "Spring in the City", "Koreshev's House", "Magnificent Sarapul"). Summer, blinded by sun and sand ("Hydrangeas", "The Old Tower", "Summer Day. Embankment"). Autumn, cooled and pensive ("Where Summer Floats Away", "Tranquility", "Autumn Study").

On the artist's canvases there is a touching, homely Sarapul of narrow courtyards, rusty roofs and humped streets ("Old Houses", "Roofs", "Sarapul Courtyards"). And there is also a proud, wise City – through the gaps in the walls of the ruined Church of Peter and Paul one can see the dome of the restored Pokrovsky Cathedral ("Through the Centuries"). The painting captures not only the architectural appearance of the building but also the life it has lived. Not only the mise-en-scène of the cityscape, but the momentary play of the "actors" – wind, sun, moist air or a layer of dust. In all works of the urban cycle this passionate and profound counterpoint is clearly visible.

Voices of the Exhibits

From 1989 to 2019 Valentina Konyukhova worked at the Sarapul Museum of History and Culture of the Middle Prikamye (now the Sarapul Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve). First as a senior researcher, then as head of the artistic and exhibition complex "Bashenin's Dacha". It is no wonder that the beautiful dacha became her favorite model. The more surprising question is when and how Valentina Semyonovna managed to paint and go out for studies amid an incredibly heavy museum workload?

Konyukhova was the museum's only art historian-researcher; she was able to systematize and describe the extensive art collection, creating a high-quality permanent exhibition at Bashenin's Dacha. Valentina Semyonovna became a pioneer-researcher of the early period of the life of Margarita Vorontsova – a native of Sarapul and the wife of sculptor Sergey Konenkov. She studied the work of the well-known Russian painter brothers Pavel and Alexander Svedomsky. She gathered extensive material about P.A. Bashenin and his descendants, and became the author of the jubilee book "Pavel Andreevich Bashenin. Family. Affairs. The City". For many years Konyukhova carefully and professionally worked on compiling museum materials related to the biographies and works of Sarapul artists. She stood at the origins of the creation of the association of city artists and was the author of a large series of personal and city exhibitions of the creative intelligentsia.

And the museum years also taught Valentina Semyonovna to converse with objects, to see their true value, to listen to their inner monologues about time and themselves. That is why she is able to convey the dignified old age of rare samovars, the narcissism of bone china cups and the noble gray of a lace tablecloth ("The Grand Tea Party", "Still Life with Bashenin's Pie"). A fogged bottle, a dull glass holder, a shining cabbage cutter, proud peonies and scattered fresh radishes – they all speak in different voices and weave into the polyphonic fabric of the paintings ("To Health!", "Celebrate, Maslenitsa", "Peonies", "Autumn Preserves").

Five years ago the Sarapul Children's Art School No.1 named after G.A. Bobrovsky grew attached to and was enriched by Valentina Semyonovna. Honored Worker of Culture of the Udmurt Republic V.S. Konyukhova teaches children painting, paints her students and still produces a great deal of her own work. Valentina Semyonovna says: "I don't want to be a hostage of the subject; I want to build a dialogue with it." And she succeeds – a thoughtful, unhurried, attentive and tender dialogue with the surrounding nature!