Olga Tobreluts “New Mythology”
The exhibition is open in A-Lobby of the Estonian National Museum from 3 February 2023 to 16 April 2023.Olga Tobreluts, an artist with Estonian roots, who has been living in Russia and in Europe, will open her exhibition of a ten-part painting, a video installation and other compelling works on large-scale canvases.
Olga Tobreluts is an artist with Estonian roots who was born in 1970 in Leningrad, Russia but currently lives in Hungary. She is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist who works with painting, photography, video and sculpture. Tobreluts is considered a pioneer of Russian digital art with her works defined as Neo-Academism. She uses various media and her works bring to attention the diversity of simple motifs from antiquity to the present day. She is a member of the legendary St Petersburg artists’ group New Academy.
About “New Mythology”, Olga Tobreluts says: “The creation of myths is one of the main aims of an artist. When I encounter everyday events, I analyse and compare already existing historic images, inventing new forms. Over the last decade, I was seized by an unbridled and inexplicable energy which gave birth to images of battles in my mind. Tense bodies, muscles straining under stress, overcoming the insurmountable. I imagined struggles, deaths, losses and collapses. Nothing was forecasting tragedy, but I could not stop painting tense bodies and dying youths. It was like a spell, like a horrible and agonising dream. And the only way out was painting works that shocked the viewer.
When the tragedy of 24 February happened, I understood that the paintings I had made were foreboding prophecies of future events. During the months that the tragic events took place in Ukraine, I created the main painting “Armageddon” which consists of ten parts. I wanted to hold a dialogue with Picasso’s “Guernica” because I felt that he was closest to what was happening in front of my eyes at this very moment. I also included the figures which Hendrick Goltzius made in 1588 in this dialogue. He had made his drawings as a reaction to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines during the naval campaign against England. “Armageddon” is like a figurative rebus, a ciphered text of the nightmare and horror which is currently taking place and the way it will end. It is the final painting in the cycle “Battles and Struggles” on which I have been working for many years. I couldn’t unfortunately bring many of the paintings to the exhibition because private collectors did not want to let go of them even temporarily and therefore they can only be seen in the catalogue.”
Curators Reet Mark and Erkki Juhandi.
The works of Olga Tobreluts have been exhibited in various renowned museums and galleries including Tate Modern in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York, State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, Museum of Contemporary Art and Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, Museum of Modern Art in Oostende and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Tobreluts has also participated in the Venice Biennale.
The artist’s works are included in important collections such as MoMA in New York, Mario Testino Foundation, State Russian Museum, Museum Ludwig, Baron von Stieglitz Museum and Wolfgang Joop Foundation.
Two comprehensive books have been written about her works and she has been featured in numerous publications including: Art Actuel, Flash Art, ArtReview, METROPOLISM, ART and FOCUS, W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue Paris, Vogue Russia and Vogue Germany.
