January 24, 2019 at 16.00 on the third floor of the main building of the VOKM them. I.N. Kramskoy opens exhibition of works by Valentina Mikhailovna Diffine Christi “Light and Air.”

The exhibition will present 39 paintings by the artist from the private Moscow collection.

The road to art for Valentina Diffine Christi (1918 – 2010) was not easy. Her development as a mature master took place in the years of hard dictates of state policy in art, demanding creative artists of socialist realism. In the transfer of color and light should not be traced the influence of the paintings of the Impressionists – they were banned as representatives of the decaying capitalist west. The artist was accused of formalism, and even expelled from the institute, but was eventually restored. In 1957, Valentina Mikhailovna joined the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists. It is amazing how she managed to fulfill ideological orders, depict factory and collective farm life, but at the same time, she never changed her style. The best workers of the Diffine Christi production are written in a characteristic and well-recognized easy manner, without any political overtones.

Recent works by Valentina Mikhailovna were created in the early 1990s. This period in her work is characterized as “white on white”: the artist actually wrote only with white, only sometimes adding other colors to them a little. The artist has repeatedly stressed that she does not fantasize, but really sees the world like this. And this is logical: as far as the person himself is bright, so lightly does he perceive the world.

The last period of the artist’s life, the most closed to others, was the most intriguing. She was increasingly detached from earthly concerns and interests, which unwittingly reflected in her work. And this flight of the spirit was in her painting the last reality, in which there was absolutely no age-related weakness, but absolute honesty in front of herself and those around her.

Art critics call this style of creativity “spiritual impressionism”. Portraits, landscapes and still lifes, which are quite traditional in content, acquire the unique plastics under the artist’s brush.

Since 2011, the artist’s solo exhibitions have been exhibited in museums in many cities of Russia. The paintings are in various museums of the country, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, as well as in private collections.

Reference:

Valentina Mikhailovna Diffine-Christie was born in Moscow in the family of a professor at the Institute. Bauman M.C. Christie.
In 1937, she graduated from the Moscow Art School in memory of 1905. She studied with Konstantin Yuon, Nikolai Krymov.
In 1938, the artist married a student, painter Yevgeny Diffine, with whom she studied at the Moscow State Institute of Arts and Architecture. Surikov. Since 1941, together with her husband, Valentina Mikhailovna was evacuated in Samarkand, where students and teachers of the Surikov Institute were evacuated. In the evacuation of the artist lost her husband. Evgeny Diffine died at the age of 28 years.
After World War II in 1946, Valentina Diffine-Christie graduated from the Moscow Art Institute. V.I. Surikov (workshop of S.V. Gerasimov). In 1957, the artist joined the Moscow Union of Artists.
Wide recognition of the artist in Russia began in 2011.

Ticket price:
Full ticket – 100 rubles.
Preferential: students (upon presentation of student card), schoolchildren, retirees – 50 rubles.
Members of the Union of Artists (upon presentation of a certificate) – for free.
Photography is free.

The exhibition will run until February 17, 2019.