Flora Yukhnovich

About

Drawing inspiration from the French Rococo – whose leading exponents included Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684- 1721), François Boucher (1703-1770) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) – Yukhnovich creates extraordinary, large-scale paintings, which move between representation and abstraction.

Home to the most important collection of François Boucher's paintings worldwide, the Wallace Collection has invited Yukhnovich to create two new works inspired by his oeuvre. During his lifetime, Boucher became the most fashionable artist in France under the patronage of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), Louis XV's powerful mistress, whose refined tastes would influence French art for two decades. His celebrated and influential paintings have had an enduring influence on Yukhnovich’s work.

Yukhnovich’s work also addresses the traditional male gaze, inherent in several of her sources of inspiration and perhaps exemplified by one of the Wallace’s most famous paintings, Fragonard’s The Swing (1767). She challenges this trope by playing with the received notions of femininity and gender through colour and form and, by using dynamic and rhythmic brushwork, she adopts the ‘language’ of the Rococo through a filter of contemporary cultural references.

Flora’s paintings will temporarily replace two works by François Boucher at the top of the grand staircase on the landing of Hertford House, a unique space at the Collection which displays only works by this undisputed master of the Rococo.

Boucher’s two large scenes, Pastoral with a Bagpipe Player (1749) and Pastoral with a Couple near a Fountain (1749), will be moved to a white-walled contemporary display space on the ground floor. The paintings will be replaced by the new Yukhnovich works for the duration of the display; the works will hang as part of the Collection’s display, immersed in the 18th century and conversing with the works by Boucher surrounding them.

This juxtaposition of new with old will invite visitors to overturn any preconceptions they may have. The display will ask how we can still connect with the Rococo style today? Flora Yukhnovich at the Wallace Collection enquires what are the similarities between today and the 18th-century in France? How does the setting or showing of art change our view of it? And how can we re-evaluate history by combining the contemporary with the traditional?

Announcing the collaboration with Flora Yukhnovich, Dr Xavier Bray, Director of The Wallace Collection, says: “Flora Yukhnovich creates mesmerising, painterly works which remind us of the influence that the 18th century still exerts on our visual taste. I hope that her work will open up the Collection to a new generation of art lovers, who have yet to discover the joys of François Boucher, and will also give those who know the Collection well an opportunity to see it with fresh eyes.”

From her studio in Bermondsey, Flora Yukhnovich comments: “I couldn’t be more excited to work on this project with Xavier and the Wallace Collection! I have been visiting since I was a student to immerse myself in the 18th century and to study the Boucher paintings. They have been incredibly important to me, finding their way into many of my paintings over the years. It will be such a privilege to see my work in dialogue with the paintings that have inspired them for so long.”