Liudmila Kondakova

Grand Palais, 2015

2015

Liudmila Kondakova’s artworks are rich with clarity and light, reflecting in their extraordinary draftsmanship a sense of artistic and spiritual well-being. Her meticulous attention to detail allows us to become intimately involved in the life of her paintings, often depicting well-known streets and landmarks in Paris. In the artist’s words: “To me, these streets, with their worn cobblestones and aged buildings, evoke a sense of nostalgia and romance with a touch of melancholy. It is the ideal kind of space.” Since her childhood in Russia, Liudmila Kondakova has been fascinated by traditional art, and by a sense of spirituality that transcends common existence. Her painting technique follows the tradition of medieval egg-tempera painters. Her palette—influenced by the icon painters of Byzantium and later, Russia—is both vibrant and beautiful, with colors that blend in a subtle, poetic balance. Born in Russia in 1956, Liudmila Kondakova immigrated to the United States in 1991. A graduate of the Grabar Center in Moscow, she also attended Russia’s School of Sacred Arts, the Moscow Pedagogical Institute and the Moscow Art Institute. Kondakova connects her highly trained background to her artistic expression this way: “In my art, the essence and beauty has always rested in the details.”