Evgenia Kulikova

Kulikova manages to combine two traditional genres — still life and portrait — in a modern way. The flowers stand symbolically for the blurred portrait: everything is transient!

Painted pictures can be compared to the human soul: to decode them, two steps must be fulfilled. The first step is the superficial contemplation of forms and colours. The second step intuitively brings together tiny particles composed of childhood memories, tastes, life experiences and attitudes. Anyone who, as a child, never scratched at a frozen windowpane and thawed it with warm breath in order to look out into the world should make up for that experience. For when one feels the picture “Frost” with one's experiences, associations and memories, many perspectives open up that make the picture even more valuable and interesting.

Setting out, drive, striving toward a goal despite heavy baggage or ballast on one's back, applied to life: pressing on consistently toward a goal despite adverse circumstances.

For me, Evgenia Kulikova's pictures are far more than first-class painting. Raised in the finest traditions of classical Russian literature, she turns all her pictures into full-fledged narratives. There is always a storyline, strong-charactered figures in their relationships, and there is, if you will, a moral. … Old age is the smile of God. A bench of eternity, the movement striving along it, then the abyss, the end and the quiet, flowing light. … Has the person deserved it? Or was something remitted to them? Forgiven? Was everything appearance or was it being? Was this older person the one who is allowed to cross over into the infinite radiant “right”, or did they only wish to appear as such? And is the desire to be still present within them, or does the indifference turned to emptiness about transience already prevail… A warm wind plays with the sun's rays and the next moment tears it from the bench into the great expanse… Each time this tense contemplation, the reflection and the revelation… again and again, when one sees the works of Evgenia Kulikova.

Ms Kulikova's young lady fascinates me because it shows contrasts and makes the viewer curious. Curious about what the attractive lady in the picture sees, what she focuses on in the seemingly grey everyday, and curious whether and with what goal, with what motivation she leaves the seemingly endless bench — for me a symbol of stability, constancy and permanence — colourfully and seemingly highly motivated. With her dynamism she stands for me for the near future at the end of this long bench. She seems to want to plan and shape her future; she is in a mood of departure and does not lose herself in it. A further and strong contrast, for as a viewer one can lose oneself in this picture.

The colour at the centre, the surroundings only hinted at — how will the young woman decide? What future does she wish for? The picture stirs the imagination and invites dreaming.

The hope for a better future drives the individual. Overcoming resistance is a success on this path.

The picture “Lost” presents an interesting dialogue between black-and-white photography and colour painting.

It symbolises the loss of wishes and longings that either slip from one's hand or are taken from one by an external force, so that one can no longer hold them. The picture captures the moment. This stands for an end to many dreams and thus for hopelessness.

Jour fixe in Russian: what on earth was the artist thinking with this gathering of individual pairs of boots around the polished lace-up shoes of a man about town? A brief look at the title helps: Jour fixe. A regularly recurring appointment, then, at which many boot-wearers gather around the virtual boss.

If one now considers the pairs of boots in their bearing, they allow conclusions about their wearers: as everywhere in life there are the attentive, the smart, the bored, the obedient, the inwardly resigned, and also the assiduous, well-behaved and dutiful. The contrast between boots and gentleman's shoes could not be greater. Perhaps it reflects the artist's experiences in her Russian homeland, or merely her imagination. Stories are told that everyone can picture and embellish for themselves. After all, the boots are only a metaphor for their human wearers and reflect their state of mind. So it is left to the viewer to put on the shoes that fit them …

The works of Evgenia Kulikova are not simply true and unique gems but emotional works of art that tell stories and trigger an interaction with the viewer. The picture “Frauenkreuz” (Woman's Cross) especially captivated me:

“A woman who bears her cross — her suffering — with dignity and aesthetics.” In this work not only the incredible talent and creativity of the painter becomes visible, but also her great courage to express socio-political themes clearly.

The woman in the picture bears her fate with dignity: powerful and strong — and remains entirely a woman. Although she lies on the ground, has a delicate doe's face, a femininely poised posture and figure and even wears high shoes — Ms Kulikova has managed to give her, despite tender feminine attributes, an immensely strong, feminist and self-assured aura. Through the successful symbiosis with the background colouring and composition, the painter has for me created the Goddess 2.0 — deliberately feminine, taking responsibility for herself, strong in suffering, and drawing her particular strength from accepting supposed weaknesses. A divine picture. Chapeau!

Even at a fleeting glance, the portrait of the old lady impresses. Striking colours and contours draw a self-assurance that is aware of the wrinkles, furrows and shadows in the face and seems to say: that is simply how it is when one has mastered one's life. The awareness of one's own transience as an expression of real life contrasts with the smooth timelessness of the antique bust in the background. The colouring underlines this clearly — on the one hand with the bust as an ivory-coloured, lifeless image of a classical ideal of beauty, on the other with the strong colour accents of the portrait that make a strong human character clear. Interesting are the bust and the portrait with shared light colours before the flaming red of the background, which in the end could devour everything, present and past. Overall a very personal impression remains of a woman who, critically weighing, almost mockingly, radiates a great inner strength — an expressive picture one remembers.

A dark, expressive work that generates intense feelings. Besides the ostensibly critical perspective on war, the viewer gains an insight into the emotional level of the war's protagonist.

A symbiosis between past and future!

Life is the greatest good in the world and always finds a way.

A woman in focus. She lies like an embryo: legs and arms drawn to the body. She hides her face, curls up, she is defenceless, alone. Does she not want to be seen, is she ashamed?

But in focus there is also brightness and a great deal of the colour yellow. Yellow stands for gold and for eternity. And that is what I would like to say to this woman.