Born on June 24 in Moscow. Father - Nazarenko Grigory Nikolaevich (1910-1990). Mother - Abramova Nina Nikolaevna (born 1920). Spouse - Zhigulin Alexander Anatolyevich (born 1951). Children: Nazarenko Nikolay Vasilyevich (born in 1971), Zhigulin Alexander Alexandrovich (born in 1987).

Tatyana Nazarenko’s father, a front-line soldier, a career military man, after the war was assigned to the Far East, and the parents left. Tanya stayed in Moscow with her grandmother, Anna Semyonovna Abramova. She showed her first her school marks, and then her drawings and paintings.

A.S. Abramova has been a widow since 1937. Her husband, Nikolai Nikolaevich Abramov, was illegally repressed and died in custody. Left alone, she worked as a kindergarten teacher, a nurse, raised and helped her two daughters get higher education, raised her granddaughter Tatyana, and then helped raise her eldest son Nikolai. Grandmother had an endless source of love within herself, but it seems that her main love was still Tanya, who also loved her. Anna Semyonovna Abramova lived on in the paintings of the artist Tatyana Nazarenko: “Morning. Grandmother and Nikolka” (1972), “Portrait of A.S. Abramova” (1976), “Memories” (1982), “Life” (1983), “White wells. In memory of my grandmother" (1987).

At the age of 11, Tatyana entered the Moscow Art School. A circle of friends quickly formed there: Natalya Nesterova, Irina Starzhenetskaya, Lyubov Reshetnikova, Ksenia Nechitailo - future bright masters of the 1970s. It was a stormy, generous time, rich in various events of cultural life, a time of the rise of domestic art, acquaintance with outstanding works of domestic and foreign classics of the twentieth century, which until then had been banned and unknown to young people.

In 1962, Tatyana Nazarenko entered the painting department of the V.I. Art Institute. Surikov, where her teachers were D.D. Zhilinsky, A.M. Gritsai, S.N. Shilnikov. After graduating from the institute, from 1968 to 1972, she worked in the creative workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts under G.M. Korzheva.

Tatiana Nazarenko's art was formed under the influence of the turbulent events of the 1960s and memories of the tragic events of the 1930s. It combines a full-blooded attitude, love of life, the ability to experience everyday events as a holiday - and constant anxiety, which allows you to turn these holidays into strange and complex events, where everything is true and not true, where there is as much fun as sadness, where there are many layers of perception, many spaces superimposed on one another, where time is unsteady, the accuracy of field observations and the most unbridled imagination are intertwined.

Tatyana Nazarenko’s work has a strong analytical element. Whatever genre of painting she works in, the main content of her paintings is expressed not only and not so much through the plot, but through the general spiritual atmosphere, which determines the psychological state of the characters, the emotional coloring of landscapes, objects, and the very plastic language of her art. This spirituality of painting, combined with an analytically close approach to the depicted phenomena, constitutes the meaningful originality of the artist’s works.

Adequacy of time, deep modernity is one of the defining features of the artist’s work. Nazarenko brings something elusive into his works, but which undoubtedly makes them a product of our days, the way of thinking of our contemporary. The viewer feels time pulsating in her art.

These features began to appear already in the artist’s first independent works, in the multidirectional searches of her first postgraduate years.

At the end of her studies at the institute, in 1965-67, Nazarenko traveled to Central Asia. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan determined the range of subjects for her works for several years. Nazarenko’s Central Asian paintings (“Mother with Child”, “Motherhood”, “Samarkand. Courtyard”, “Uzbek Wedding”, “Prayer”, “Boys in Bukhara”) reflected her living observations. But not only. These works seemed to contain all the baggage of her student acquisitions. But they already show another integral quality of the young artist – originality. Beneath the usual forms of “art of the sixties,” a different content emerges from them. Everything in them is much more unstable and ambiguous, they are unusually musical, primitive features appear in them: the desire to remove the representation, to introduce a smile, simplicity and play.

And it is no coincidence that immediately after the Central Asian series, Nazarenko turns to topics that are much closer to himself. She paints pictures where the main characters are herself and her friends. The life of a generation becomes the subject of her art.

The beginning of the 1970s for Nazarenko, as for most artists of her generation, was a time of searching for a genre, manner, and theme. The artist tries her hand both in the “primitivist” manner and in the system of strict neoclassicism, painting romantic, decorative and playful canvases. During these years, she wrote such diverse works as “The Execution of Narodnaya Volya” (1969-1972), “Tree in New Athos” (1969), “Sunday in the Forest” (1970), “Portrait of a Circus Actress” (1970), “Farewell to Winter” (1973), “New Year’s festivities” (1973), “Morning. Grandmother and Nikolka" (1972), "Young Artists" (1968), "My Contemporaries" (1973), "Lunch" (1970), "Portrait of Igor Kupryashin" (1974).

Among her heroes you can almost always find your own image - and a measure of the keen ruthlessness of the eye, the ability to emphasize the sharp-characterized at the expense of the idyllic-prosperous, as strongly in relation to oneself as to any other model.

Characteristic in this sense are group portraits, designed as genre paintings (“Students”, 1969; “Young Artists”, 1968; “My Contemporaries”, 1973; “Foggy Day on Shikotan”, 1976; “After the Exam”, 1976). Their characters are recognizable and portrait-like, the collisions are believable: youth holidays, conversations in the workshop... And at the same time, there is something mysterious in them, turning everyday scenes into romantic fantasies.

Tatyana Nazarenko’s historical compositions reflect our contemporary’s view of the past. Her paintings simultaneously present the past and the present, a historical event – ​​and our current understanding of it. The very approach to solving the topic is characteristic: in historical paintings - “The Execution of People’s Volunteers”, “The Partisans Have Came” (1975), “Decembrists. Uprising of the Chernigov Regiment" (1978), "Pugachev" (1980) - the artist chooses tragic, climactic moments that require the highest tension of the spiritual forces of the participants in the action. Silence and silence are significant here.

Tatyana Nazarenko’s painting “The Execution of Narodnaya Volya” appeared at the Moscow Youth Exhibition in 1972. The picture was noticed by everyone - although not everyone accepted it. It intricately combined adherence to the models of the Renaissance, a penchant for generalized reflections and a tragic sense of vulnerability of freedom fighters, for spiritual ideals, before the crushing faceless force of the machine of suppression. For the painting “The Execution of Narodnaya Volya” Nazarenko was awarded the Moscow Komsomol Prize. In 1976, she was awarded 1st prize at the international competition of young painters in Sofia (Bulgaria).

Compassion, a sense of social responsibility - these qualities later developed and strengthened in the art of Tatyana Nazarenko, acquiring different, sometimes bizarre forms of embodiment, intertwined with motifs of carnivals, holidays, festivities, with romantic self-portraits, with artistic play. And everywhere there is invisibly and clearly present anxiety, a feeling that behind the precarious well-being of our everyday life there are the harsh destinies of other generations, their pain and suffering.

Nazarenko loves to write carnivals. One of the artist’s first “carnival” works is “New Year’s festivities” (1973), in which she strives to show the inner meaning of the carnival, the range of diverse and rather complex feelings experienced by people gathered by chance.

Over the years, the playful element intensifies in the artist’s work. Narrativeness disappears from the works, and allegory appears. In an allegorical capacity, he also uses reminiscences of the art of the past - be it almost direct quotes from classical works, historical costumes on our contemporaries, or the presence of objects from the past in compositions dedicated to the present day.

In the second half of the 1970s and early 1980s, Nazarenko painted several group portraits of friends gathered for a festive occasion. These are the paintings “New Year's Eve” (1976), “Moscow Evening” (1978), “Carnival” (1979), “Tatiana’s Day” (1982), “September in Odessa” (1985) and many others, as well as those written earlier canvases “Young Artists” (1968) and “My Contemporaries” (1974).

If in Nazarenko’s early group portraits one could clearly feel silence, concentration, the desire of the characters to hear each other, to listen to the truth, then in subsequent works (“Carnival”, “Tatiana’s Day”, etc.) the unbridled element of carnival reigns. The costumes and poses are extravagant, the spirit of the festival possesses not only people, but also objects. However, this is a holiday without fun, communication without mutual understanding and spiritual closeness. The theme of loneliness, so important for the artist, is intricately combined in her work with the theme of carnival (“Portrait in a Fancy Dress”, 1982).

There are also elements of carnivalization in the paintings “Carousel” (1982) and the diptych “Dance” (1980).

In Nazarenko’s works there is a desire for contact with the viewer, a willingness to open oneself to an attentive, sympathetic gaze. The artist wrote several works where she almost directly talks about the confessional nature of her art, about how painful and difficult it is to show oneself unprotected, exposed before the court of universal indifference (“Flowers. Self-Portrait”, 1979; “Circus Girl”, 1984; “Spectators”, 1988; “Meal”, 1992).

One of the most unusual paintings by Tatyana Nazarenko is the triptych “Workshop” (1983). The artist presents to the viewer a real workshop in which real paintings were created (“Tatiana’s Day” and “Carnival”), and at the same time the process of realizing his plan.

There is another form of “confession” in Nazarenko’s works. In such works she does not need irony, she does not require the colorful clothes of a carnival: here the closest, warmest is embodied... And almost always in these paintings there is an image of a grandmother: “Morning. Grandmother and Nikolka”, triptych “Life” (1983) and others. In 1982, the painting “Memories” was painted, in which the artist seemed to materialize life associations that arose when looking at old photographs.

Among the main works of Tatyana Nazarenko are also: “Home Concert” (1986), diptych “Happy Old Age” (1988), “Little Orchestra” (1989), “Wreckage” (1990), “Monument to History” (triptych, 1992), “ Time" (triptych, 1992), "Mad World" (1992), "Spell" (1995), "Homeless" (2001).

Tatyana Nazarenko is a social artist. “I've always been interested in people,” she says. “I can’t turn away and brush aside someone else’s misfortune.” To make people think, to encourage them to sympathize – this is the main goal of my work.” A clear proof of this was her exhibition “Transition” (1995-96) - an installation of 80 painted plywood “tricks” made in human size. At the exhibition, visitors had to stop and look at the faces of unfortunate old women, disabled people, wandering musicians - all those whom they see every day in underground passages, but most often pass by without stopping to look. The exhibition was a great success (later it was seen by residents of Germany, the USA, and Finland), and “Transition” became for the artist literally a transition to a new stage in life, to a new art.

In 1997, her exhibition “My Paris” took place, where there were also figures made of plywood - Parisian cafe garçons in long white aprons, fish sellers... Another exhibition of Tatyana Nazarenko “Moscow Table” took place the same year in the Marat Gelman gallery, and then shown at the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg in the program of the exhibition “Art versus Geography”. In May-September 2002, the Kuskovo Museum hosted an exhibition of the artist “I am glad to be deceived myself...” (The Art of Deception).

Since 1966, when Nazarenko first showed her works at the VII Moscow Youth Exhibition, she has constantly participated in city and all-Russian exhibitions, fine art exhibitions in Russia and abroad. The first personal exhibitions took place in Leverkusen (1986), Bremen, Oldenburg, Odessa, Kyiv, Lvov (all in 1987). Since then, the artist's personal exhibitions have been held in Moscow (the first in 1989), Cologne, Washington, New York, Boston, Madrid, Tallinn, Helsinki and other cities. Works by Tatyana Nazarenko are kept in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington), the National Jewish Museum (Washington), the Museum of Modern Art (Sofia), the Museum of Modern Art (Budapest) and other art museums around the world, in private collections.

Tatiana Nazarenko's creative works have been awarded high awards: the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1993), the Moscow Government Prize (1999), the silver medal of the USSR Academy of Arts (1985).

T.G. Nazarenko - Honored Artist of Russia (2002), since 1997 - corresponding member, since 2001 - full member, member of the presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts; Professor of the Department of Painting, Head of the Easel Painting Workshop of the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikova (1998). Member of the Union of Artists since 1969.

Lives and works in Moscow.

Is Tatyana Nazarenko a representative of “official” art?

Tatyana Nazarenko (*1944) - “queen of the Union of Artists” in her interview talks about the difficult fate of the “left” artist in yesterday’s official Union. More than once her works were censored by loyal art officials and removed from official exhibitions. It was believed that Nazarenko was “disfiguring the Soviet people.” Today, according to the artist, there is a danger of new lack of freedom. The art market begins to dictate to the artist “what and how to do.”

Credo:
“I do the same thing all the time, varying the same theme - the theme of loneliness. Loneliness seems to me to be one of the most significant human dramas. In different works: in large historical canvases, in portraits or genre paintings, this theme determines a lot in my canvases. Make people to think, to call them to sympathy - this is the main goal of my work."

Born, lives and works in Moscow.

1968 - graduated from the Moscow Surikov Art Institute.

1969 - 1972 - worked in the workshops of the Academy of Arts.

1969 - joined the Union of Artists of the USSR.

Since 1966, he has participated in numerous exhibitions, including foreign ones.

1976 - First prize at the international competition of young painters in Sofia.

1987 - Silver medal of the USSR Academy of Arts.

1993 - Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and fine arts.

My first acquaintance with the work of Tatyana Nazarenko occurred somewhere in the mid-1970s. I was then a member of the youth section of the Union of Artists. The young art historian shared with us her thoughts on new trends in Soviet painting. When the image of Nazarenko’s painting “The Partisans Came” (1975, Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR) appeared on the screen, exclamations of surprise were heard in the hall. Someone immediately began to attack and sharply criticize the work. Her decision was strikingly unusual. The scene of the removal of the tortured from the gallows was represented as the removal from the cross on the canvases of the old masters. And this is in a country of atheism. It was obvious: a bright individuality, a serious, searching artist had come to art. Very soon Nazarenko will become one of the leading artists of the generation. She will receive awards, praise, but also often criticism and rejection. First impression. How small she is. And at the same time literally radiating energy. And also the unusually bright blue of her eyes.

Am I so small? “I always considered myself so powerful,” the artist laughs.

My dad is a military man, my mom is a doctor. My grandmother raised me because my parents constantly had to live in different cities. And I lived with her in Moscow.

Grandmother will forever remain the main person in her life. When Tatyana has a son, she will help “raise” him. Nazarenko will constantly write it. In the painting “Morning. Grandmother and Nikolka” (1972, Directorate of Exhibitions of the Union of Artists) she depicts her carefully protecting her grandson’s sleep. The artist compares two worlds - the wise and kind world of old age and the carefree one, when every day is a holiday and discovery - of childhood. She carefully and lovingly writes out each of the countless wrinkles on her grandmother’s face and her sad and affectionate eyes.

Nazarenko's childhood was a normal childhood of a child from a “good” family. School of Music. At the age of 11 she entered art school.

- Did your parents react calmly to your choice of being an artist?

They didn’t react at all. I entered art school, well, I study and study. True, when one of my friends said that an artist should have a rich husband or rich parents, this alarmed them. They were very worried that I would never earn money and would have to feed me all my life.

Now, after I became a State Prize Laureate, they took me seriously. But in general, my mother still sometimes says, it would be better if you graduated from a radio institute and were a normal person. It so happened that Tatyana’s class at the art school turned out to be unusually rich in talent. Natalya Nesterova, Irina Starzhenetskaya, Ksenia Nechitailo became her classmates and friends. Each of them will subsequently find its own unique style, a world of images. Today they are all recognized “masters” of art of the 1970s - 1980s.

For Nazarenko and the artists of her generation, the period of formation and maturation coincided with a wonderful, unforgettable time - the period of the “thaw.” It was a time of hope. A time of genuine revival and exploration in culture and art. I will forever remember my first encounters with modern Western art. In the late 1950s - early 1960s, exhibitions of Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, and contemporary American, English, French, and Belgian artists took place in Moscow and Leningrad. Crowds of thousands besieged museums. People have been queuing since night.

One of the most powerful impressions of those years, Nazarenko recalls, was the exhibition “30 years of Moscow Union of Artists”. On it, next to the well-known one, we saw such Soviet art, the existence of which we had not even suspected.

The works of young left-wing members of the Union were also shown there: Andronov, the Nikonov brothers, etc. Subsequently, they would be called masters of the “severe style.” Then she, an aspiring artist, and her friends could not even imagine that they would have to continue the struggle begun by the “sixties” for the further renewal and humanization of Soviet art.

Then he will study at the Art Institute. Surikov. Already during my studies, I realized that defending myself and my understanding of art would not be easy.

- “At school, and then at the institute, there was a certain ambivalence in relation to our work. We were required to live like the Wanderers. [...] Here is the story of how I wrote my diploma. I took the topic of motherhood. I knew for sure that wanted: in a yurt, two women - young and old - at the cradle with a child. Illuminated figures, black background. The idea of ​​​​"Adoration of the Magi." A. M. Gritsai [the head of the workshop - N. Sh.] said: "Tanya, you don’t know life, you don’t know the happiness of motherhood. A black background is not possible when solving such a theme. Darkness is denial. You have a lot of natural materials - follow nature." I obeyed - the result was work that I would not have done differently if I had not been convinced."

In her quest to create “real” art, Nazarenko, like many seeking artists of her generation, turns to the traditions of classical art. Its main “teachers” are the masters of the Northern Dutch Renaissance. No matter how far the young members of the Union went in their searches, there was always a certain limit, a limit of permissibility: they had to remain within the framework of realistic figurative painting.

- You received an academic education. Is realistic art truly yours?

Maybe it wasn't mine. At the time I was studying, we didn’t know that we could work differently.

- Some artists found the courage to break with the Academy and its system. (I cite the example of Leningrader Elena Gritsenko, who successfully graduated from the Academy and then abandoned her career as an “official” artist and linked her fate with the underground).

This requires character. I had a main person - my grandmother, whom I did not want to upset. And some things - leaving the institute and something else - could not even occur to me, because this would be the collapse of my grandmother’s foundations. I was friends with many underground artists, I was in close contact with Kabakov, Bulatov, Vasiliev, but I couldn’t afford it. Also, for realism, I had many options.

- Already your first works that appeared at exhibitions differed from the usual, traditional ones. Was there a conscious desire not to follow the beaten path?

I recently visited the Surikov Institute. I just couldn't believe my eyes. The building itself was updated and rebuilt. We are now in the mid-1990s. There are paintings and drawings from the very right wing of the Union hanging there as samples. It seemed to me that they had not existed for a long time. We learned from others. The same Zhilinsky. With his help, we discovered the Renaissance and were in awe of it. This gave rise to my passion for Bosch, Bruegel, Masaccio, Uccello. Their works are still the pinnacle of art for me. Until now, when you’re sad or something doesn’t work out, you look at how “canon” Van Eyck’s ear is painted and you immediately want to do something similar.

The masters of the “severe style” portrayed “an ordinary person in an ordinary environment.” Their characters manifested and realized themselves in everyday work and in social contacts. The hero of the seventies is less clear-cut, more prone to reflection. The pictorial structure itself is becoming more complex. The “openness” of the statement is replaced by allegory, metaphor, and allegory.

We meet the new hero and this two-dimensionality of the narrative in the group portraits created by Nazarenko in the 1970s (“My Contemporaries,” 1973, Saratov Art Museum named after Radishchev; “Moscow Evening,” 1978, Tretyakov Gallery). Their heroes are the artist herself and her circle of close friends. Her work is autobiographical and self-portrait. Her own fate, the fate of her loved ones, and the life of her generation become the artist’s leading themes.

In "Moscow Evening" Nazarenko recreates the confidential creative atmosphere of friendly gatherings of young seventies. At dusk, several artists are sitting in the studio. “The seven-string ringing of a guitar” evokes thought. Outside the window is Moscow. In the distance you can see the towers and domes of the Kremlin churches. Out of the darkness emerges the figure of a beautiful stranger in a powdered wig - a character from one of the famous Russian portraits of the 18th century.

In these works the main features of Nazarenko’s always recognizable style have already clearly emerged. A careful, loving recreation of the signs of the surrounding world, bringing her work closer to the works of the old Dutch masters. Grotesque exaggeration of characters. The lessons of Bruegel, Bosch, and Russian folk “primitive” were reflected here. Critics will accuse the artist of “disfiguring Soviet people.”

- “They tell me: the people in your paintings are some kind of grotesque. I don’t agree. We always exaggerate our strengths and downplay our shortcomings. I just see people as they are. And this is not always beautiful.” Over time, the theme of loneliness and disunity grows in Nazarenko’s work, often combined with images of general fun, the artist’s friends gathered for a feast, carnival (“Tatiana’s Day,” 1982, private collection, Germany; “Carnival,” 1979, Directorate of Exhibitions of the Union of Artists). Carnivals, masquerades, folk festivals are one of the favorite subjects of the “seventies”. This is a kind of metaphor for acting and at the same time disunity, loneliness in the crowd and the search for contact with others.

At one time, the entry of masters of the “severe style” into art was not easy and caused heated debate. Then they got used to them, their searches received “official” recognition, many of them became masters. The same thing happened again with the most courageous, talented, searching "seventies". Now attacks from criticism have become their lot. Favorite accusations were accusations of “closedness” and “obscurity” of their work.

- “Maybe if I had been born a decade earlier, I would have been with Popkov, with Nikonov. And the sixties would have been the most wonderful years for me. They were frank... Why is it unclear with the seventies?... The pathos of the harsh everyday life had to go. This is a natural change. Spirituality, closedness, writing came... This came in contrast to the hero of the sixties with an open chest: “look what I am!”... The 70s forced us to resort to allegory: an ambiguous time , when it seems like a lot is allowed, and at the same time again, no, everything is closed again."

Tatyana Nazarenko works in a variety of genres. And almost from the very first steps he tried himself in a historical film. Historical or thematic painting was given a leading place in the art of socialist realism, as before in academicism. It is significant that in Soviet art it remained the privilege of the male artist. Starting with “The Execution of the Narodnaya Volya” (1969-1972, Tretyakov Gallery), each subsequent painting by Nazarenko on a historical subject becomes an event. In contrast to the traditional historical paintings of socialist realism, which were an edifying example of the “heroic” past, the historical picture for Nazarenko became a dialogue-reflection addressed to the viewer-interlocutor about the past and its indissoluble connection with the present day, about history as an ever-repeating tragedy of loneliness. The artist’s heroes are individuals who acutely sensed the injustice of the surrounding reality, entered into the struggle to change it and came across a wall of misunderstanding. Her famous diptych “Pugachev” (1980) is about this.

The rebel, the leader of the peasant uprising, Emelyan Pugachev, is being taken in a cage to Moscow for execution. The artist does not seek to reconstruct the event. The central scene is reminiscent of popular prints and ancient oleographs. A simplified, toy landscape, doll figures of soldiers in bright uniforms. By resorting to this convention, she deliberately distances herself and the viewer from what is happening. This happened once upon a time, a long time ago, says the artist. The second part was written in a completely different, careful manner, reminiscent of the “tricks” of the 17th century. It presents ancient portraits, documents, and volumes dating back to the era of the reign of Catherine II and the Pugachev rebellion. These are “eyewitnesses” of the event. With their help, everyone can revive the past for themselves and get closer to it.

- “My historical paintings, of course, are connected with today. “Pugachev” is a story of betrayal. It is at every turn. Pugachev’s associates abandon him, dooming him to execution. This always happens.” The life of even the most “left-wing” artist, a member of the Union, was burdened with inevitable duality. To be “visible” and to participate in exhibitions, one had to make compromises one way or another.

- How did you manage to remain yourself and still show your work?

I have always clearly distinguished between what I write for myself and what for exhibitions. What I did for myself was without any hope that I would ever be able to show it. The first exhibition at which I was able to show at least some of this was in 1975. A commission came and removed 3 works. I decided that if they filmed 5 main works, then I would refuse to participate altogether. Then maybe my life would have gone differently. But they left these 2 jobs, software for me. They started talking about this exhibition... In general, I showed all my works only in 1989, at my first personal exhibition.

Despite all the “closedness” of the seventies, in their works one can often feel a desire for contact, a readiness to open up to an attentive, interested viewer. One of these “confessional” paintings was Nazarenko’s triptych “Workshop” (1983, Tretyakov Gallery). The artist introduces us to the “laboratory” of her creativity. On the left side, she depicted herself sitting with her back to the viewer, immersed in her work. The central part presents the very process of the birth of the painting. As if from oblivion, translucent figures of future characters appear on the canvas. They materialize before our eyes and acquire specific features. Numerous objects in the studio tell about the artist, her world, her passions. On the wall hang a cast of Pushkin’s death mask, a female portrait of Cranach, and, of course, a reproduction of a portrait of “canon” Van Eyck, Nazarenko’s “main” teacher. On the desk there are old books, a candle, an icon. The right side shows an open workshop window. On the windowsill there is a guitar, tubes of paint, a bottle of solvent. Outside the window, the evening Moscow is clearly visible.

- Do you have family, children. It must have been difficult to combine both of these roles?

- Of course, it's difficult. I broke up with my first husband because he gave me a choice. It was just then that I gave birth to my first child... (here she sighs, then laughs) This is very difficult to remember. At that time I was studying in the workshops of the Academy of Arts. I had to either sit with the child or move in with my grandmother, who was looking after him. It's always more difficult for a woman. All my life I have been torn between creativity and children. More than once, the children of famous writers, actresses, and artists subsequently, in their memoirs about them, settle scores with their mothers for their deprived childhood, reproaching them for their selfish concentration on their creativity. In “Self-Portrait with Son” (1977, Ministry of Culture), next to the artist sketching something in a notebook, completely absorbed in her work, stands her eldest son Nikolka. The boy watches carefully, with curiosity, as a blank sheet of paper comes to life under her hand, turning into a landscape. But jealousy also creeps into the son’s gaze. Perhaps the artist’s eye involuntarily recorded the first shoots of a brewing conflict.

- Did your children feel disadvantaged?

Terrible. About two weeks ago there was a program on television in which my children were interviewed. It always seemed to me that I was torn between work and children, that I was devoting a lot of time to them. The eldest is already 24 years old, the youngest is 8. Both of them, independently of each other, said that I pay little attention to them. The younger one said that he was being raised by his grandmother: “And my mother is a wonderful artist, and I mostly go to her opening days.” What a nightmare. The eldest said that he did not want to be an artist because his mother spent all her time in the studio.

- It turns out that if a woman devotes herself entirely to creativity, no matter how well she treats her children, they still feel deprived

No, this is not forgiven. They suffer madly. I didn't plan my family. Children are always created by chance. She gave birth to her second one deliberately. And now I take a lot of time away from work, because I understand that many people make art, art can do without me, but he cannot do without me. But, as it turned out, this is not enough for him.

Starting from the late 1970s, the theme of the artist’s vulnerability, “nakedness,” and defenselessness before the judgment of a lazy and indifferent public and those in power increasingly arises in Nazarenko’s work. She already clearly sounds in one of her best self-portraits - the painting "Flowers. Self-Portrait" (1979, Tretyakov Gallery). Almost the entire space of the canvas is occupied by a bouquet of fresh, golden lilies, and on the wall is a reproduction of a painting by Van Eyck, whom she idolizes. The artist stands pressed to the edge of the canvas, with her eyes downcast and her arms outstretched limply, turning away from what usually pleases her so much and serves as a constant source of inspiration.

This theme becomes the leitmotif in "The Circus Man" (1984). At a dizzying height, above the roofs of houses, an artist dressed only in a bikini balances “without a safety net.” Below, the audience applauds her risky performance. These are officials from the Union, dressed formally: dark suits and ties. Nazarenko endows their images with recognizable portrait features. Without knowing the specific circumstances that contributed to the appearance of this work, it could well be considered among works related to feminist discourse that thematize the role of women in society.

I still don't understand this feminist movement. To me this is nonsense.

- Your “Circus Girl” could well be called a “feminist” work.

I have a happy creative destiny. So, I started traveling abroad quite early. And then, when they suddenly tell you: “You won’t go anywhere else, you won’t see anything, you won’t exhibit.” So, then I wrote “Circus Girl.” What kind of feminism is that? I was a member of some women’s clubs for some time. It's not interesting to sit with women and discuss some matters. I have so little time. I have a child at home. Life is different in the West. Of course, they have their own problems, but they live much more prosperously. After we bought a house in the village, I understood what the Russian people are. Before that, I didn’t know this. If we take Germany and America for comparison, this is a completely different standard of living. Starting from toilets, roads, televisions, rags. And everyday life, it determines consciousness. Having all this, Western women can sit, chat, think about whether to stand up for their rights or their children, or for greening, or for the freedom of sexual minorities.

- For me, for example, the “discovery” of forgotten writers and artists, to whom we owe feminists, was very important. The feeling that women have a tradition in art gives confidence.

I believe that women's creativity is an exception. This is an abnormality.

- But any creativity, to some extent, is an abnormality.

Yes, in principle, creativity is always an abnormality. And female - to an even greater extent. Children suffer from this. It is not normal for a woman not to have children.

- If we talk about artists and writers, even today it is much more difficult for them to break through.

I have never encountered discrimination. Maybe only at the dawn of my youth, when I wanted to get into a monumental workshop. I was told that its leader, Alexander Deineka, does not want to have girls in his workshop. Then Elena Romanova studied with him. Maybe it was just a rumor, and if I had been more persistent, maybe I would have gotten there.

- Western artists are much less likely than their colleagues to be included in prestigious exhibitions; large galleries are still reluctant to exhibit works by women.

Well, what is important?

- No, rather, unconsciously.

Of course, unconsciously. Because, as a rule, female artists are worse. Because they simply do not have the opportunity to fully realize themselves. I prove that modern artists are in no way inferior to their colleagues. She agrees and comes straight to a feminist conclusion: - If you create the same conditions, women are no different from men. But this never happened. Returning to the topic of children...

- Why do you think that raising children is only your task? Why can't a man take the same part in this?

He absolutely can't. When I gave birth to my second child, it was not what I wanted. But my husband didn't have children. He wanted this child. I gave birth at 42 years old. I decided, I will give birth to a child and let my husband take care of him, teach him, put him on skis. This poor child only loves me. And so I, an unhappy 50-year-old woman, have to get up early, do exercises with him, check lessons, learn English, go skiing, which I am afraid to ski... I sit in the workshop with great pleasure, but what can I do? he has already appeared.

Still, men have advantages. They are physically much stronger and more resilient.

- But men also have a physical limit. One sets a world record in swimming, and the other plays chess.

We were brought up that we should not be worse than men, weaker. Therefore, I got used to being on an equal footing. Carrying paintings myself, filling the canvas myself... I cannot yield to a man in anything. For example, I want to sit with huge "things." But I can’t physically lift it.

- Why does it have to be huge work?

But I wanted to not feel like I was a woman. I proved that I could, like any man, do a big thing when, for example, I wrote three by three.

- So, you had one way or another a feeling of being secondary?

Yes, sure. I was very interested in weapons. I wrote pictures with weapons. I really didn’t want to give in on anything.

I remember that when I was a member of the exhibition committee, as a rule, it was possible to guess that it was women’s work. Maybe when the artist did not set out to hide it. It wasn't worse or better. This was different. As a rule, small works, portraits of children, or something related to toys, or still lifes. Something a little more tender.

- Probably because the lives of female artists are somewhat different compared to their male colleagues. A man can afford to completely abandon everyday worries, the responsibility of raising his children and devote himself entirely to creativity. Thus, all this falls on women's shoulders. And the artist’s social situation to some extent determines the range of her themes. As you have already said, “everyday life determines consciousness.”

Yes, sure.

- Today the artist has freedom, although absolute freedom, of course, does not exist. You can do whatever you want.

To some extent, I always felt free. I had a lot of works that I knew for sure that they would never leave the walls of the studio. Now everything is dictated by the amount of money. From one lack of freedom you find yourself in another. If you have money, you can rent any room and exhibit whatever you want. If they are not there, you won’t post anything. I can do whatever I want in the workshop, but no one needs it. I completely lost interest in art. Maybe it wasn’t there before, but there was some kind of appearance. If now my child wanted to become an artist, I would beat him with a stick, saying: don’t become an artist... But with my first child, I really wanted him to become an artist. Now we have turned into servants. I personally feel like serving the rich at presentations and parties. For some time in our society we were placed in such an abnormal situation that we are the elite, that we are able to influence something. Poets read their poems to audiences of thousands. In the cab of the truck you could see some pictures pinned up.

- Previously, a good book, film, painting was a breath of freedom. And now people have other values ​​and opportunities. They can travel, shop. It turned out that everyone doesn’t need art; on the contrary, few people need it. But maybe these are only temporary processes.

I'm a bad philosopher, I don't know how long it will take for people to be interested in art and how interesting it will be. Now the gallery owner dictates. They advise what and how to do. In any contract, even the sizes of the paintings are specified. Because the burghers have walls of this size. It should be something pleasing to the eye. My husband tells me that I need something bright and marketable.

- You and I were contemporaries of the “thaw”. We grew up at this time. Today we have the privilege of witnessing perestroika. Is it possible to somehow compare the atmosphere and sensations of that time with what is happening before our eyes today?

Many people did not pass this test: everything was allowed, travel and something else. We used to communicate more, were more frank. After the temptations that perestroika brought, people changed. And, in general, to some extent I think that they were better before. The artist's personal exhibition (1989) was shown not only in Russia, but also in the West: in Germany, America. It was greeted with great interest by foreign audiences and critics. The artist gained the reputation of “Queen of the Union of Artists”. For some “new” Russian critics, who, in the struggle for “contemporary” art, are ready to clear everything again and destroy “to the ground,” Nazarenko’s exhibition was one of the reasons to settle scores with the seventies. One of them argued: “In general, the exhibition demonstrated the historical exhaustion of the painting of the “seventies”, and became a kind of departure from their bright, but transient creativity.”

- “I don’t feel like a lost generation. We managed to taste freedom during the “thaw”. And in Brezhnev’s timelessness we tried to show at exhibitions what we thought: either directly or through allegories. My paintings were removed from exhibitions more than once. “Pugacheva” three times..."

Excessive concentration on her grievances and misunderstandings was one of the reasons for the crisis in the artist’s creativity, which lasted for several years. One after another, paintings began to appear, more and more reminiscent of Bosch's phantasmogoria. In them, officials from the Union and the “indifferent public” turned into ugly creatures, half-human, half-animal, tormenting the artist. However, Nazarenko has never been an indifferent person, focused on herself. Before her eyes, the hopes associated with perestroika turned into inflation and impoverishment. Old women appeared on the streets, selling their last belongings, beggars, and homeless people. She responded to what was happening around her with her “Transition”.

The underground passage in the metro is today's shelter for homeless people and refugees. Newspaper and flower sellers, musicians, beggars, and disabled people live here. The artist “transported” him to the halls of the Central House of Artists and confronted the viewer with the less fortunate, the disadvantaged, and forced him to peer into the faces of those whom he had more than once hurried to slip past in “the impatience of his heart.” And of course, as in many of her works, among the other characters there is the artist herself.

The transition is both the state of today's post-Soviet society, going to no one knows where, and it is also a new interesting stage in Nazarenko's creative development.

Before us is sculptural painting - the second reality, the reality of art. The artist maintains the necessary measure of convention and distance. Upon closer inspection, the figures turn out to be rough, painted plywood. Their reverse side is left untreated. The characters themselves are depicted with grotesque sharpness. “Transitional figures,” according to the apt definition of one of the critics.

“The Transition” aroused keen interest among the public and among the “initiates” and undoubtedly became one of the most important cultural events of recent years. The artist once again confirmed her place in art and clearly “proved” that it was too early to bury the seventies.

In her "Transition" the eternal Russian question again clearly sounded: "Rus', where are you rushing...", the artist's pain and her hope were expressed...

1 Cnt. by: Lebedeva, V. Tatyana Nazarenko, M., 1991.
2 Quote. by: Efimovich, N. “They say I’m disfiguring the Soviet people...” V; "Komsomolskaya Pravda," December 21, 1991.
3 Quoted by: Lebedeva, V. Decree. Op.
4 Quoted by: Efimovich, N. ibid.
5 "Art," 1989, L" 8, 76.
6 Quoted. by: Efimovich, N. ibid.

"I think, a person must constantly strive for something beautiful, no matter how trite it may sound"
Tatyana Nazarenko

“In my opinion, a person should constantly strive for something beautiful, no matter how banal it may sound”
Tatiana Nazarenko

Nazarenko's works are characterized by a philosophical sense of time, which is interpreted as a continuous stream. Her painting is distinguished by the breadth of plastics, the variety of artistic means, clear rhythm, decorative color, the conventionality of space, grotesque and the variety of unexpected compositional solutions. The artist is constantly in search of new artistic means, expressiveness and originality of plastics. Many of her works are autobiographical.

The beginning of Tatyana Nazarenko’s creative career dates back to the late sixties and early seventies of the last century. She made her debut at exhibitions at a time when the “severe style” of the sixties began to become a thing of the past. Young artists of the seventies widely used metaphors, allegories, parables, and boldly resorted to both the plastic language of the classics and artistic techniques and images from various eras and movements in art.

Already Tatyana Nazarenko’s early works “Execution of the Narodnaya Volya”, “Partisans Came”, “Decembrists”, “Pugachev” attracted attention with their new artistic concept. A specific historical event, depicted with emphasized authenticity, was turned to the present, revealing the deep connection of times. Nazarenko’s creativity was directed against “unconsciousness” and forced him to conduct a dialogue with the past. Comparing the past and present, turning to historical events of different eras, she sought to reveal the spiritual essence of her heroes, expressed in the deep patriotism and high citizenship of their thoughts, feelings and actions.

Her paintings are characterized by a philosophical sense of time, which is interpreted as a continuous continuous flow. Nazarenko's pictorial works are distinguished by the breadth of plasticity, variety of artistic means, clear color rhythm, decorativeness of color, conventionality of space, grotesqueness, graphic nature, multi-scale and unexpected compositional solutions.

Her work speaks of a constant search for new artistic means, maximum expressiveness and originality of plasticity. Many of Nazarenko's works are autobiographical. For example, her “Circus Girl” balancing on a tight wire over a crowd of envious people and ill-wishers.

Nazarenko deliberately deforms people’s figures and faces, while assuring that she is not exaggerating anything, all the characters are copied from life and are extremely realistic.
American critic Donald Kuspit called Nazarenko's realism absurdist - according to the reality (the period of developed socialism) that gave birth to it. Nazarenko does not shy away from labels, which critics cannot do without. On the contrary, she calls herself a realist with some challenge, as if defending her right to this outdated and unfashionable genre...
Her realism is primitivist and has a somewhat popular character. But it certainly has nothing in common with the socialist, which depicted life not as it really is, but as it should be. Perhaps, against the backdrop of these false, varnished plots and tired stereotypes, her art is shocking. Sometimes it seems that she decided to explode these stereotypes with a parody...

Over time, her picturesque “theaters” became more and more dramatic and grotesque, including elements of surreal “black humor” - cross-cutting symbols of masks, puppet theater, and cannibalism.
Since 1996, she has often given her images three-dimensionality, complementing or replacing her canvases with combinations of silhouette figures in the size of life, as if emerging from the painting into the real world - installations: Transition, 1996; My Paris, 1997. (Bella Yezerskaya)

Tatiana Nazarenko:

Life changes, art takes on new forms. I was a painter all the time, and then I became interested in plywood figures, I had two exhibitions of photographic works... I wanted to continue my search further, but, thanks to teaching at Surikovsky, I returned to painting again. Because explaining how to paint without touching the canvas is extremely difficult. (quoted from the article by Anna Chepurnova “Tatyana Nazarenko. In search of new forms”).

Biography
Tatyana Grigorievna Nazarenko was born in Moscow on June 24, 1944
In 1968 she graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V.I.Surikova, (teachers: A.M.Gritsay, D.D.Zhilinsky, V.I.Shilnikov, etc.)
Since 1969, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR
In 1969–1972 she worked in the workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts under the direction of G.M. Korzhev
1975 - first group exhibition in Moscow (T. Nazarenko, O. Loshakov, O. Vukolov, I. Orlov, V. Rozhnev)
1987 - first personal exhibitions (Kyiv, Odessa, Lvov and abroad - Leverkusen (Germany)
1989 - personal exhibition at the Central House of Artists (Moscow)
In 1998 he became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts
1999 - Professor, head of the workshop at Moscow State Academy of Arts named after. V.I. Surikova
In 2001 he became a full member, a member of the presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts
In 2003, T. G. Nazarenko was awarded the title “Honored Artist of Russia”

Her paintings are in the collections of many museums in Russia and abroad, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, etc., as well as in galleries and private collections (USA, France, Italy, England, Turkey, Germany, Finland, Czech Republic , Poland, etc.)

Born on June 24, 1944 in Moscow.
Graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I. Surikov in 1968.
From 1969 to 1972 she worked in a workshop at the USSR Academy of Arts.
Since 1969, member of the Union of Artists.
Laureate of the State Prize of Russia in 1993.

In which collections of work?

The works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow,
State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg,
art museums of Saratov, Vologda, Kiev, Arkhangelsk, Perm, Nikolaev, Bryansk, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Elista, Rostov-on-Don, Bratislava, Rostock, Berlin, Sofia,
P. Ludwig Museum, Aachen, Germany,
private collections in Germany, France, Finland, Turkey, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, USA,
Cremona Foundation, Weisman Foundation in the USA.

Participation in exhibitions and auctions

1975 5 Moscow artists. Moscow;
1978 3 Moscow artists of 3 generations. Berlin, Rostock, Schwerin, Halle. Germany;
1981 23 Moscow artists. Central House of Artists. Moscow;
1982 Russische Malereiheut. Thoma Levy Galerie. Hamburg. Germany;
1982-83 Exhibitions of Soviet artists from the collection of P. Ludwig. Cologne, Lubeck, Rebensburg, Mains. Germany; Vein. Austria; Tiburg. Netherlands; Onstad, Howicodon. Sweden;
1984 Russian kunst des zwanzigsten jahnunderts. Sammu long Seemjonow Galeria der stadt essfibgen an Neckar. Germany;
1986 Art of Moscow. West Berlin;
1986 Kunstlerinnenaus der sowjetunion. Kunsthalle Recklinghausen. Germany;
1987 Contemporary Soviet Art. Selection from c. Norton T. Dodge. Kennesaw College Art Gallery. USA;
1987 Personal exhibition. Odessa, Kyiv, Lvov. Ukraine;
1987 - 88 Personal exhibition. Leverkusen, Bremen, Oldenburg. Germany;
1988 Russian avant-garde and contemporary art. Sotheby's auction. Moscow;
1988 Sowjetkunst heute. P. Ludwig Museum. Cologne. Germany;
1988 International images. Sevicley. Pennsylvania. USA;
1989 Von der revolution zur perestroika. Works by Soviet artists from the collection of P. Ludwig. Barcelona. Spain;
1989 Personal exhibition. Central House of Artists. Moscow;
1990 Personal exhibition. Soho Gallery. Boston. USA;
1990 Moscow theasures and traditions. Seattle. USA;
1990 Moscow - Washington. State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow;
1990 The quest for self expression. Painting in Moscow and Leningrad 1965-1990. Columbus museum of art. Columbus, Ohio, USA;
1990 26 artists from Moscow and Leningrad. Central Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR. St. Petersburg;
1990 Frammenti d`arte contemporanea 32 protagonisti daol USSR. Rome;
1991 Figuration-Critique. Grand Palais. France;
1991 Washington - Moscow Art exchange exhibition. Garneqie Library. Washington;
1991 Artistas rusos contemporaneos. Satiago de Compostela. Spain;
1991 Pintusa russae sovietica em Portugal de Nicolay IIa Gorbachev. Castel de Leirea. Leirea. portogal; 1992 Expo-92. Barcelona. Spain;
1992 Personal exhibition. Gallery Fernando Duran. Madrid;
1993 A dream reveals the nature of things. State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow;
1993 Tatyana's day. State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow;
1993 Personal exhibition. Gregory Gallery. USA;
1993 Personal exhibition. Gallery "Today". Moscow;
1994 Personal exhibition. Russian gallery. Tallinn. Estonia.
1995 Gregory Gallery, New York, USA
1995 Gallery Studio, Moscow
1996 Central House of Artists, Moscow
1996 State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Palette gallery
1997 Central Exhibition Hall "Manege", Moscow
1997 M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow
1997 State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow
1997 Gallery "EXIT-ART", Cologne, Germany

I work to express something important to me. I would really like to be understood - although not necessarily in exactly the way I intended my work. It is important for me to convey the general structure of my plan.
I do the same thing all the time, varying the same theme - the theme of loneliness. Loneliness seems to me to be one of the most significant human dramas. In different works - in large historical canvases, in portraits or genre paintings - this theme determines a lot in my canvases. I think about how terrible loneliness is, how difficult it is and how inevitably it awaits a person in different situations of life.
To make people think, to encourage them to sympathize - this is the main goal of my work...
I usually start painting when the painting is completely thought out and formed in my head. Sometimes it can take a year or two from idea to execution - it doesn’t matter.
If the impression of what I saw is very strong and it seems to me that many people will be depicted in the picture, I first draw - on a piece of paper, on a restaurant napkin, in a word, on everything that may be at hand. Usually I don’t deviate from the original plan and only enrich the canvas with some details...
What worries me, I should leave on the canvas, or at least on a piece of paper. This is my life. Until the idea is on canvas, I cannot free myself from it, like a mother who is expecting a child. After all, you treat paintings like children - they leave the studio, leave me, have their own destiny - happy, unhappy...
It seems to me that real art begins where there is a secret, some unspokenness, thanks to which for each person a favorite thing is fraught with a charm that is revealed only to him...
By creating a picture, it’s as if you are summing up some stage of your life. In any case, this is exactly what happened to me with many canvases. An unfulfilled thing interferes with your life, worries you and reminds you of yourself, so you feel your responsibility to life, which gave you the opportunity to create.

Criticism

The creative star of Tatyana Nazarenko flashed brightly and unexpectedly in the firmament of Russian art at the very beginning of the seventies. Its spiritual glow does not diminish or dissolve in time. The world of images and the artist’s painting language are largely determined by certain historical views that create the atmosphere in which our understanding of human nature awakens. If you mentally imagine a gallery of Nazarenko’s paintings from historical genres and “masquerade” buffoonery to portraits and still lifes, then everything in them will be located, as it were, on one timeless plane of significance, regardless of the specificity and thoroughness of the reproduction of individual attributes and realities of the past and present.
The works of Tatyana Nazarenko have a special magnetism; they are associated not only with memories of what has happened, but also are addressed to the future. Her works excite the viewer's imagination with their multi-association, metaphorical nature...
In her paintings, the heroes of ancient events appear, as if resurrected, but they are perceived outside of specific time parameters, perhaps due to the fact that she endows them with features inherent in herself, trying to connect specific historical characters and destinies with the virtues and vices of our generation. Thus, Nazarenko reaches a special level of artistic generalization, which allows him to operate with universal concepts and values ​​even in relation to situations of purely private life.
When discussing Nazarenko’s work from a historical and philosophical perspective, one cannot ignore the purely pictorial, plastic merits of her works. She nurtures the ideas for her paintings for a long time, mentally improving the plot plot, placing the necessary semantic accents. At the same time, she already imagines the future composition, its coloristic dramaturgy, light accompaniment to a strictly restrained, solemn chorus of colors. Nazarenko’s pictorial style incorporated the artistic techniques of the old masters, with their ideas about the luminosity of color, texture, and plastic discoveries brought into art in the twentieth century. As already noted, Nazarenko sees the future picture even before her brush touches the canvas, therefore her work is distinguished by the precision of figurative solutions, color and compositional structures, and within this static harmony passions and emotions bubble.

Born on June 24, 1944 in Moscow.
Graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I. Surikov in 1968.
From 1969 to 1972 she worked in a workshop at the USSR Academy of Arts.
Since 1969, member of the Union of Artists.
Laureate of the State Prize of Russia in 1993.

In which collections of work?

The works are in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow,
State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg,
art museums of Saratov, Vologda, Kiev, Arkhangelsk, Perm, Nikolaev, Bryansk, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Elista, Rostov-on-Don, Bratislava, Rostock, Berlin, Sofia,
P. Ludwig Museum, Aachen, Germany,
private collections in Germany, France, Finland, Turkey, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, USA,
Cremona Foundation, Weisman Foundation in the USA.

Participation in exhibitions and auctions

1975 5 Moscow artists. Moscow;
1978 3 Moscow artists of 3 generations. Berlin, Rostock, Schwerin, Halle. Germany;
1981 23 Moscow artists. Central House of Artists. Moscow;
1982 Russische Malereiheut. Thoma Levy Galerie. Hamburg. Germany;
1982-83 Exhibitions of Soviet artists from the collection of P. Ludwig. Cologne, Lubeck, Rebensburg, Mains. Germany; Vein. Austria; Tiburg. Netherlands; Onstad, Howicodon. Sweden;
1984 Russian kunst des zwanzigsten jahnunderts. Sammu long Seemjonow Galeria der stadt essfibgen an Neckar. Germany;
1986 Art of Moscow. West Berlin;
1986 Kunstlerinnenaus der sowjetunion. Kunsthalle Recklinghausen. Germany;
1987 Contemporary Soviet Art. Selection from c. Norton T. Dodge. Kennesaw College Art Gallery. USA;
1987 Personal exhibition. Odessa, Kyiv, Lvov. Ukraine;
1987 - 88 Personal exhibition. Leverkusen, Bremen, Oldenburg. Germany;
1988 Russian avant-garde and contemporary art. Sotheby's auction. Moscow;
1988 Sowjetkunst heute. P. Ludwig Museum. Cologne. Germany;
1988 International images. Sevicley. Pennsylvania. USA;
1989 Von der revolution zur perestroika. Works by Soviet artists from the collection of P. Ludwig. Barcelona. Spain;
1989 Personal exhibition. Central House of Artists. Moscow;
1990 Personal exhibition. Soho Gallery. Boston. USA;
1990 Moscow theasures and traditions. Seattle. USA;
1990 Moscow - Washington. State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow;
1990 The quest for self expression. Painting in Moscow and Leningrad 1965-1990. Columbus museum of art. Columbus, Ohio, USA;
1990 26 artists from Moscow and Leningrad. Central Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR. St. Petersburg;
1990 Frammenti d`arte contemporanea 32 protagonisti daol USSR. Rome;
1991 Figuration-Critique. Grand Palais. France;
1991 Washington - Moscow Art exchange exhibition. Garneqie Library. Washington;
1991 Artistas rusos contemporaneos. Satiago de Compostela. Spain;
1991 Pintusa russae sovietica em Portugal de Nicolay IIa Gorbachev. Castel de Leirea. Leirea. portogal; 1992 Expo-92. Barcelona. Spain;
1992 Personal exhibition. Gallery Fernando Duran. Madrid;
1993 A dream reveals the nature of things. State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow;
1993 Tatyana's day. State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow;
1993 Personal exhibition. Gregory Gallery. USA;
1993 Personal exhibition. Gallery "Today". Moscow;
1994 Personal exhibition. Russian gallery. Tallinn. Estonia.
1995 Gregory Gallery, New York, USA
1995 Gallery Studio, Moscow
1996 Central House of Artists, Moscow
1996 State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Palette gallery
1997 Central Exhibition Hall "Manege", Moscow
1997 M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow
1997 State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow
1997 Gallery "EXIT-ART", Cologne, Germany

I work to express something important to me. I would really like to be understood - although not necessarily in exactly the way I intended my work. It is important for me to convey the general structure of my plan.
I do the same thing all the time, varying the same theme - the theme of loneliness. Loneliness seems to me to be one of the most significant human dramas. In different works - in large historical canvases, in portraits or genre paintings - this theme determines a lot in my canvases. I think about how terrible loneliness is, how difficult it is and how inevitably it awaits a person in different situations of life.
To make people think, to encourage them to sympathize - this is the main goal of my work...
I usually start painting when the painting is completely thought out and formed in my head. Sometimes it can take a year or two from idea to execution - it doesn’t matter.
If the impression of what I saw is very strong and it seems to me that many people will be depicted in the picture, I first draw - on a piece of paper, on a restaurant napkin, in a word, on everything that may be at hand. Usually I don’t deviate from the original plan and only enrich the canvas with some details...
What worries me, I should leave on the canvas, or at least on a piece of paper. This is my life. Until the idea is on canvas, I cannot free myself from it, like a mother who is expecting a child. After all, you treat paintings like children - they leave the studio, leave me, have their own destiny - happy, unhappy...
It seems to me that real art begins where there is a secret, some unspokenness, thanks to which for each person a favorite thing is fraught with a charm that is revealed only to him...
By creating a picture, it’s as if you are summing up some stage of your life. In any case, this is exactly what happened to me with many canvases. An unfulfilled thing interferes with your life, worries you and reminds you of yourself, so you feel your responsibility to life, which gave you the opportunity to create.

Creative star Tatiana Nazarenko broke out in the firmament of Russian art brightly and unexpectedly at the very beginning of the seventies. Its spiritual glow does not diminish or dissolve in time. The world of images and the artist’s painting language are largely determined by certain historical views that create the atmosphere in which our understanding of human nature awakens. If you mentally imagine a gallery of paintings Nazarenko from historical genres and “masquerade” buffoonery to portraits and still lifes, then everything in them will be located, as it were, on one timeless plane of significance, regardless of the specificity and thoroughness of the reproduction of individual attributes and realities of the past and present.
Tatyana's works Nazarenko They have a special magnetism; they are associated not only with memories of what has happened, but are also addressed to the future. Her works excite the viewer's imagination with their multi-association, metaphorical nature...
In her paintings, the heroes of ancient events appear, as if resurrected, but they are perceived outside of specific time parameters, perhaps due to the fact that she endows them with features inherent in herself, trying to connect specific historical characters and destinies with the virtues and vices of our generation. Thus, Nazarenko reaches a special level of artistic generalization, which allows one to operate with universal human concepts and values ​​even in relation to situations of purely private life.
Talking about creativity Nazarenko in the historical and philosophical aspect, one cannot ignore the purely pictorial, plastic merits of her works. She nurtures the ideas for her paintings for a long time, mentally improving the plot plot, placing the necessary semantic accents. At the same time, she already imagines the future composition, its coloristic dramaturgy, light accompaniment to a strictly restrained, solemn chorus of colors. Picturesque manner Nazarenko It also absorbed the artistic techniques of the old masters, with their ideas about the luminosity of color, texture, and plastic discoveries introduced into art in the twentieth century. As already noted, Nazarenko sees the future picture even before her brush touches the canvas, therefore her work is distinguished by the precision of figurative solutions, color and compositional structures, and within this static harmony passions and experiences bubble.

A. Rozhin
Bibliography

A. Dekhtyar "Young artists of the 70s" ed. "Soviet Artist", 1979;
A. Kamensky " Tatiana Nazarenko", magazine "Bildende kunst", N1, 1976;
A. Morozov " Tatiana Nazarenko. New names.", publishing house "Soviet Artist", 1978;
Gambrell Samey "Soviet Art Today", Art in America magazine, November 1985;
L. Krichevskaya "Paintings of Tatyana Nazarenko", magazine "Artist", N6, 1982;
A. Yakimovich "Historical compositions and genres of T. Nazarenko", magazine "Soviet Painting", N5, 1982;
V. Lebedeva "Painting of Tatyana Nazarenko", magazine "Soviet Union Today" (in German), N10, 1987;
Catalog of personal exhibition, 1988;
A. Morozov " Tatiana Nazarenko", Leningrad, publishing house "Aurora", 1988;
Sotheby's auction catalogue, "Russian Avant-Garde and Soviet Contemporary Art", 1988;
Weiss Evelin "Sowjet kunst teute Cologne", Museum Ludwig, 1988;
Matthew Gullern Bown "Contemporary Russian Art", Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford, Great Britain, 1988;
V. Lebedeva " Tatiana Nazarenko", publishing house "Soviet Artist", 1991.