Natalya Nesterova — Hal Bromm Gallery

Hal Bromm
90 West Broadway, 2nd floor
New York, NY, 10007
+1 212-732-6196

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Natalya Nesterova b. 1944

Figurative artist Natalya Nesterova (1944-2022) became a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR in 1969, a short year after graduating from Moscow’s Surikov Art Institute. She was soon considered a leading member of the left wing of the Union and took part in the exhibits of the Young Moscow Artists at the young age of twenty-two. Creating works in a figurative primitivist manner and often depicting grotesque imagery, Nesterova was sometimes accused of undermining the foundations of Russian professional artistic training.

In the edition of Contempory Soviet Artists which featured her work, the authors acknowledge that “The questions of artistic form loomed larger for her generation then the problem of craftsmanship. It was a sign of modern times, of spiritual attitude... New cultural values were introduced... that evoked stormy debates, provoked adverse criticism”. It was no surprise the appeal and popularity of her work seemed to only be enhanced by such critiques.

Nesterova often returned to the themes of fate and enlightenment, with religious connotations and elements of theater. However, it is undeniable that depicting moments of isolation, the removal, or hiding of the self through well placed objects or the absence of color are running motifs as well. These choices result in a shade of loneliness, even in her more colorful works. At the opening of her major 1992 retrospective at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Nesterova was asked to explain the meaning behind her works. In halting English, she explained that she wants the viewer to find their own meaning in her work.