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Indepth Arts News:
"Stunning Chronicle of Suffering and Renewal by Russian Artist
Eva Levina-Rozengolts"
1999-06-17 until 1999-09-26
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, DC,
USA United States of America
When Eva Levina-Rozengolts returned to Moscow from exile in
Siberia at age 58, she began her most significant body of work: ten series of drawings of
landscapes and figures that reflect and transcend the anguish of exile. The National
Museum of Women in the Arts will present 56 of these works, never seen outside of
Russia, from the collection of the artists daughter and the State Pushkin Museum of
Fine Arts in Moscow. Eva Levina- Rozengolts: Her Life and Work will be on view
from June 17 through September 26, 1999.
In her ink-drawing series Trees (1956-60), Marshes (1960-61), Sky (1960-63), and People: Plastic Compositions (1965-68),
Rozengolts relates the stark landscapes, bleak skies, and barren forests of Siberia to the people condemned to live and work there. Although
the series begin grimly, they move from pain and darkness to resolution and light. Rozengolts began using pastels in 1968 for her series
Landscapes (1968-1970), People: Plastic Compositions (1970-1974), and Sky (1970-1974), revisiting some of her earlier subjects. The
bright, meditative quality of her final pastel work, completed shortly before her death, suggests that she had come to terms with her harrowing
experience.
Rozengolts was known only to an intimate group of artists and critics in Russia until 1996, when the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow presented
a retrospective of her work. The exhibition impressed viewers not only for its deviation from the prevailing style of socialist realism, but also
for its profound statement on the cruelties of Stalins regime. Artistic and critical focus is now on the drawings Rozengolts produced in the
final two decades of her life.
Eva Levina-Rozengolts: Her Life and Work was organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and guest curator Joan Afferica.
It is accompanied by a 50-page, illustrated catalogue with an introduction by Russian artist Eric Bulatov and an essay by Afferica. The
exhibition is made possible through the generous support of Janet McKinley; George Miller; Hewlett-Mellon Fund, Presidents Office, Smith
College; Karen Miller; Trust for Mutual Understanding; Ann W. Ramsey; Edgar M. Bronfman and The Samuel Bronfman Foundation;
Capital Group Matching Gift; Austin C. Smith; Felice Batlan; Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering; Ellen Brennan; and other supporters.>Rozengolts (1898-1975) studied art at the Higher Art and Technical Studios in Moscow
and worked part-time as an artist prior to her exile, but it was not until she returned from
Siberia that her artistic vision developed fully. In 1949 she was abducted from her home
and exiled, for kinship with her stepbrother and prominent Bolshevik Arkady
Rozengolts, and for her Jewish heritage. She spent seven years living in settlements on
the Enisei Tract, laboring in a lumberyard and completing rare commercial art
assignments to survive. In 1956 she arrived in Moscow with two sketchbooks of scenes
of life in exile, and for the next 20 years committed herself to transferring these and other remembered images onto paper. In all, she
produced 227 drawings.
In her ink-drawing series Trees (1956-60), Marshes (1960-61), Sky (1960-63), and People: Plastic Compositions (1965-68),
Rozengolts relates the stark landscapes, bleak skies, and barren forests of Siberia to the people condemned to live and work there. Although
the series begin grimly, they move from pain and darkness to resolution and light. Rozengolts began using pastels in 1968 for her series
Landscapes (1968-1970), People: Plastic Compositions (1970-1974), and Sky (1970-1974), revisiting some of her earlier subjects. The
bright, meditative quality of her final pastel work, completed shortly before her death, suggests that she had come to terms with her harrowing
experience.
Rozengolts was known only to an intimate group of artists and critics in Russia until 1996, when the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow presented
a retrospective of her work. The exhibition impressed viewers not only for its deviation from the prevailing style of socialist realism, but also
for its profound statement on the cruelties of Stalins regime. Artistic and critical focus is now on the drawings Rozengolts produced in the
final two decades of her life.
Eva Levina-Rozengolts: Her Life and Work was organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and guest curator Joan Afferica.
It is accompanied by a 50-page, illustrated catalogue with an introduction by Russian artist Eric Bulatov and an essay by Afferica. The
exhibition is made possible through the generous support of Janet McKinley; George Miller; Hewlett-Mellon Fund, Presidents Office, Smith
College; Karen Miller; Trust for Mutual Understanding; Ann W. Ramsey; Edgar M. Bronfman and The Samuel Bronfman Foundation;
Capital Group Matching Gift; Austin C. Smith; Felice Batlan; Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering; Ellen Brennan; and other supporters.
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