Klara VLASOVA (Moscow, 1926 – 2022)
Klara Filippovna Vlasova was born in Moscow. She was 10 when she went to study in the art studio at the Central House of Children’s Artistic Development. When she was 11 she was awarded the First Prize at the First All-Union Children’s Drawing Competition. In 1939 Klara continued with her art studies in the newly organised Art School in Moscow. In 1941, together with the school, Klara was evacuated to the village Voskresenskoe in Bashkiria. Vlasova returned to Moscow in 1943 and shortly completed her studies. In 1944 she got accepted into the Surikov Moscow State Institute without exams. She studied there in the art class of the renowned master S.V. Gerasimov. Vlasova participated in the summer exhibition of student works in 1945. Her painting “Symphonic Orchestra” was highly received by the critics who noted it as a work of an already accomplished artist.
Vlasova graduated from the Surikov Institute in 1950 and was invited to work on the mural for the pavilion “Tajikistan” on the All-Union Exhibition VDNKh. The young artist went to travel around Tajikistan to make sketches of her impressions of the country. Middle Asia became her favourite theme and a source of inspiration since that trip. Dagestan was one of the other special places for the artist. Vlasova came across a house in a village Choh in Dagestan that was built in the beginning of the 20th century and decorated by a local artist. She would come here every summer to stay in the house and work. A very successful personal exhibition of Vlasova’s works was held in Dagestan in 2012. Klara Vlasova has been awarded the title of the “National Artist of Dagestan.”
Vlasova had a “travelling” personal exhibition of her works “Roads and Directions”. It was held in several cities of the Volga Region – Samara, Saratov and Nizhny Novgorod.
Apart from genre painting, Vlasova’s works include a lot of still lives, landscapes and cityscapes. She always thought of herself as belonging to the Moscow Art School. Her unexpected compositional approach, colour combination and a genuine interest in the world form a very rich language. Vlasova’s artistic vision gradually reveals itself through each painting. She very finely recreates the moods of the nature as well as the dynamics of the city. All her works are contemporaries of their time and are like an echo from the past.
MUSEUMS
St. Petersburg, State Russian Museum
Moscow, Pushkin Museum
Moscow, Museum of History and Reconstruction
Moscow, Lev Tolstoy Museum
Sochi, Museum of Art
Makhachkala, Dagestan Museum of Fine Art