ELENA & MICHEL GRAN ALBEMARLE

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Oswin Goodwin
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3 ELENA & MICHEL GRAN Russian born Elena and Michel Gran are the most eminent practitioners of trompe l oeil painting at work today, celebrated for their astounding technical skills, and the sleight of hand with which they marshal their deliberately deceptive compositions. The Grans present a unique feature in contemporary trompe-l oeil painting in that they work together on the same canvas in such a symbiotic way that it is impossible to tell where the work of one ends, and the other begins. Throughout their combined illustrious careers they have become recognised for their distinctive interpretation of trompe l oeil, rich in metaphor, vision and imagination combined with a profound understanding of historical reference. Their works belong to numerous important public and private collections worldwide perhaps most notably the Louvre Museum which purchased a work entitled Red and Black for the French National Museum of Cards. They have themselves become collectors but of nostalgia - furniture, old books, scientific and geometric instruments and objets d art, in particular of unusual shapes, which because of their intrinsic historical character become the basis of their paintings. Progressively, the representation of the inanimate and depiction of the object, is a dominant theme in their work, creating something more than their ability to convey the objects as substantially present through redefining the relationship between verbal and visual art through the titles appended to the works. These titles provide the clues to the way the works undermine habitual responses regarding words and objects and remind us of the way we are inclined to confuse signs for the things signified. In reality, nothing is as it really seems. What these paintings tell us is that trompe l oeil has now entered a wholly different sphere. It is no longer concerned with a simplistic desire to astonish, or to show off bravura technical skills, in the manner of a gifted violinist throwing off a difficult Paganini Caprice. The Grans use it for its metaphysical dimension. Seemingly precise, the images, on closer examination, are full of ambiguities. They are ambiguous, not about the appearance of things, but about the crisscrossing meanings that can be elicited from certain combinations of objects. In a certain sense, this characteristic strikes me as profoundly Russian, despite the Grans long residence outside that country. The Russian art and literature of the 19 th century, one of the most concentrated creative outbursts to have occurred in any country, took place in a context of stringent tsarist censorship, but also of an intense concern for social issues and the whole political situation of that time. Russian painters and writers learned to symbolize rather than say. The Grans are the inheritors of that tradition. The more you look, the more there is to discover. Edward Lucie-Smith - Author, Art Historian and Critic ALBEMARLE

4 1 Roue de la Fortune oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm (57 x 45 in)

6 2 Oil Well oil on canvas 80 x 80 cm (31 x 31 in)

8 3 Ten of Diamonds oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm (22 x 18 in)

10 4 Light oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm (32 x 26 in)

12 5 Tree of Cards oil on canvas 116 x 89 cm (46 x 35 in)

14 6 Happy Number oil on canvas 65 x 100 cm (26 x 39 in)

15 7 Yes oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm (26 x 32 in)

16 8 Gravitation oil on canvas 92 x 65 cm (36 x 26 in)

18 9 Rain oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm (39 x 32 in)

20 10 Family Use oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm (20 x 16 in)

22 Elena was born in St. Petersburg in 1942 into a family of painters and architects and trained at the Academy of Theatre, Music and Cinematography St Petersburg within the Faculty of Arts. Michel was born in Moscow 1941, the son of a theatrical artist, and trained at the same Academy as Elena where they met and in 1964 subsequently married. Selected Solo Exhibitions 2007 Albemarle Gallery London 2005 Albemarle Gallery London 2004 Hollis Taggart Gallery, Chicago, USA Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, USA 2002 Albemarle Gallery, London, England Residensea Gallery, Cannes, France St. Petersburg, Russia 2000 Albemarle Gallery, London, England 1999 Albemarle Gallery, London, England 1998 Albemarle Gallery, London, England 1996/97 Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris, France 1996 Galerie of Tourettes-sur-Loup, Nice, France 1993/95 Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris, France 1991 Galerie of Tourettes-sur-Loup, Nice, France 1990 Guest of Honour at the Music and Painting Festival, Florence, Italy 1989 Germering Community Arts Centre, Germany Kunstgalerie of Herrsching, Germany 1988 Maison des Sciences de l Homme, Paris, France 1987 Galerie Diessen am Ammersee, Munich, Germany Galerie Cauvin, Billom, France Selected Group Exhibitions 2011 Summer Collective, Albemarle Gallery, London, England Spring Collective, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 2010 Charity Event, Albemarle Gallery, London, England Russian Art Fair, Park Lane Hotel, London 2009 Spring Collective, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 2008 Winter Show, Albemarle Gallery, London, England th Anniversary Show, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 2005 What is Realism?, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 2003 Summer Show 2003, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 2001 Still Life and Trompe l Oeil Show, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 1997 Still Life Show, Albemarle Gallery, London, England 1996 Trompe l Oeil, Exhibition at the Manege de Reims, France Salon of Angers, France 1995 Trompe-l Oeil and Reality Exhibition, Paris, France Prix International d Art Contemporain of Monte-Carlo at Monaco Museum 1994 Salon of Montmorency - Awarded the City of Montmorency 1st Grand Prix, France 1993 Contemporary Trompe l Oeil, Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris, France Trompe l Oeil Exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris, France Guest of Honour at the Saran Castle, Loiret, France 1992 Salon of Montmorency, France 11th Salon of Angers, France Beyond Reality..., Galerie Saint-Hubert, Lyon, France Trompe-l Oeil and Anamorphosis Exhibition at the Manege de Reims, France France-Japon Tour of Japan 1991 Arras Museum, France Trompe-l Oeil Exhibition Galerie Michelle Boulot, Paris, France

24 ALBEMARLE

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