In a commission for The Wallace Collection, home to an important holding of 18th-century French paintings and decorative arts, British artist Flora Yukhnovich has delved deep into the pastoral visions of François Boucher (1703-1770).
Boucher's works from 1749, "Pastoral with a Bagpipe Player" and "Pastoral with a Couple near a Fountain", are currently being exhibited in the Housekeeper's Room until November.
Temporarily replacing them at the top of The Wallace Collection's staircase, in gilt frames, are Flora Yukhnovich's large-scale oil paintings on linen, "Folies Bergère" and "A World of Pure Imagination" (2024).
Flora Yukhnovich, A World of Pure Imagination, 2024. Photo by Barbara Cortina
Flora Yukhnovich, Folies Bergère, 2024. Photo by Barbara Cortina
Drawing influence from Boucher's pastoral utopia, she has carefully constructed her palette with cool and glossy shades of pink, purple, green and blue to match the original turquoise silk wallpaper in the exhibition hall. Then she used sponges to selectively pull the paint through, conveying a rhythmic effect.
It is worth pausing to take a closer look at the paintings to discover small, amusing details merging abstraction and figuration, recalling Boucher's compositions.
Detail from Flora Yukhnovich's A World of Pure Imagination, 2024. Photo by Barbara Cortina
Detail from Flora Yukhnovich's A World of Pure Imagination, 2024. Photo by Barbara Cortina
Detail from Flora Yukhnovich's Folies Bergère, 2024. Photo by Barbara Cortina
François Boucher, Pastoral with a Couple near a Fountain, 1749. Photo by Barbara Cortina
François Boucher, Pastoral with a Bagpipe Player, 1749. Photo by Barbara Cortina
"I realised that it doesn't make sense to do anything except reference history - she said to Jan Dalley of Financial Times - It's always about finding connections."
In preparation for her next, first solo exhibition with Hauser and Wirth in Los Angeles, Flora Yukhnovich is arranging her move to New York to study the language of the great American Abstract Expressionism and "work out abstraction as a language on its own terms."
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