Natella Toidze. All the World’s Colours

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents a large-scale retrospective of Natella Toidze, a vibrant and multifaceted painter, who contributed to the visual principles of the Moscow school, member of the Russian Academy of Arts. The exhibition, housed in eleven rooms, reveals different facets of the artist’s work from the mid-1960s to the present day.

Natella Toidze has developed her own painting method based on absolute fidelity to her impressions of nature. Her large-scale canvases, often up to two meters high, are created exclusively en plein air. This fidelity to the moment, her unique sense of light and composition transform intimate scenes — cherry tree branches, lilacs blooming in the garden, corners of dacha — into a commentary on the world seen with a free and keen eye. Her path is marked by a focus on pictorial challenges and a direct perception of nature, away from groups or studios, established movements or artistic trends.

Over a hundred paintings, graphic sheets, monotypes, and sketches reveal the artist's style — from intimate nature studies to large-scale landscapes. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a series of works that form a picturesque exit beyond the hall, to the place where a particular canvas was created — a spring forest, a snow-covered area, a summer garden. Allegorical figurative compositions that reveal the author's interest in myth and symbolism are also included. A separate hall is dedicated to the famous Toidze artistic dynasty.

The exhibition comprises works from the collections of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Ples Museum-Reserve, and the artist's studio. In addition, audio commentary by the artist and an excerpt from a documentary film about Natella Toidze is presented. The museum has also planned a public educational programme featuring the artist.

Curated by

Ekaterina Zaitseva, Elena Milanovskaya

Natella Toidze was born in Moscow into a family of artists, representatives of a famous creative dynasty, including Natella’s grandfather Moisei Toidze, a student of Ilya Repin, and Georgy and Irakli Toidze. She graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art School named after 1905. She has been a member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1984, a member of the Union of Artists of Russia since 1985, a corresponding member since 2004, and a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts since 2010. In 2004, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts, and in 2014, she received a diploma from the Russian Academy of Arts. In 2015, she was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation. In 2017, she was awarded the medal of Merit of the Russian Academy of Arts. She has participated in numerous Moscow, All-Russian and international exhibitions. Natella Toidze's works are kept in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Russian Academy of Arts, as well as in museums in Nizhny Novgorod, Vologda, Voronezh, Kaluga, Ples, Kaliningrad and Saransk. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Russia and abroad.She lives and works in Moscow.