FLORENTINE MEMORIES

From the text by Larionova V. A., russian artist-painter, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, currently — Moscow Union of Artists

"..."Memories" by Pankratova is the visual equivalent of the emotional and sensual feelings experienced by the artist in the state of the time period. The viewer who has stepped into the artist's world has the ability to catch in the vibrations of the colors and light she painted on paper, the silence of a warm and humid nature, to feel a slight nostalgia for something lost or not found. The purity and the transparency of these works, the asceticism of their coloristic solutions are far from the usual canons of pictorialism. Their temporal affiliation is undefined and they are free from the annoying poster propaganda characteristic of the mass form of contemporary art.

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Working in the encaustic technique, the artist uses a reduced gamut of color, but enriched with light-and-shade microrelief, the colorful texture acquires silvery nuances of mother-of-pearl. These works are more concretised in form and with their soundlessness resemble chronomirages. Their space is fragmented, but precisely built, which allows it to continue beyond the proposed format. There is a distance of the horizon, and the characteristic sunshine of the landscape, and the falling shadows from the buildings that set the perspective. We do not see the faces of the inhabitants of this ghostly world, but we recognize their iconic silhouettes and understand not the randomness of their presence. The artist insists on the documentary nature of these paintings, including in the pictorial series of signatures denoting belonging to a certain place..."